Heat issues, need help!

[CorbetJackson50]

My tank has been hovering around 84 degrees all summer and I have not really had any issues but I don't have much in the means of coral either at the moment. I have found the main culprit.... my two panworld 100px pumps. The tank is a 4' 120g with 40 breeder sump/fuge with a diy 120 3w led for lighting. I realize part of my problem is my 150+ year old house that is hard to cool, so room temp stays around 80 in the summer.

My question is what is my best means of cooling my tank down a couple degrees?

Here were my thoughts.
1. Add a fan to the sump hooked to the apex. (my question with this is where to place the fan? skimmer section where there is the most surface aggitation or return section or on the closed loop pump or somewhere else.

2. Replace my return pump with a mag 12??? would a mag 12 have less heat transfer than my panworld?

3. Something else???

Id rather leave my closed loop alone for numerous reasons.
Thanks in advance for your help

 

[rsaha]

Do you have a controller? I use evaporative cooling in my 95 year old house. I have 4 vantek stealth fans mounted in my canopy angled down to the water surface. Of course, you are making a big humidifier if you do this and an auto top off system is a key part of it as well.

 

[rsaha]

Doh - you have an apex. Sorry - I will learn to read more closely.

 

[CorbetJackson50]

I also have an auto top off. Where will fans give me the most noticeable difference?

 

[damonbrodie]

I switched away from iwaki pumps due to noise and heat. The reeflo blowhole 2700 is silent, and my daily temp swings dropped from 4.5 degrees down to less than 2 degrees.

 

[Peter Eichler]

Unless your tank starts getting a few degrees warmer for extended periods of time I would worry about it much.

 

[sanababit]

84 degress is still ok, worry when it gets closer to 87 or above i would put a couple of frozen water bottles to lower the temp

Sana

 

[Sonyardo]

Fans across the top of the sump will make a significant difference in most cases. That's the place to start, No need to use a controller for the fan. Just turn it on.

 

[thegrun]

If you have the controller, why not use it? I have a fan blowing across the sump that is set to turn on when the water temperature hits 79.5 degrees.

 

[alton]

What pump do you have for your Skimmer? And why two 100PX, switch to 1 - 100 PXX or 2 - 50 PXX for circulation. On my 300 I use one 50PXX 24/365 and 1 - 40 PX 8am till 10pm. I am not sure why you need that much water movement? A Tunze at 8 watts will do a much better job.

 

[CorbetJackson50]

One 100px for the return and one for the closed loop... Skimmer pump is a sicce 1000. I will put some fans on the sump and see what happens. Thanks!

 

[ca1ore]

I've not found the pan world pumps to be that bad in terms of adding heat unless they are run in an unventilated space. Mag pumps are much worse IME. Definitely try the fan first.

 

[alton]

100PX 790 GPH pressure rated. 50PXX 1110 GPH not pressure rated. For return and closed loop you dont need pressure rated pumps unless you are pumping over 6'? With two pumps you would be saving 60 watts, plus 50PXX is much quieter than a 100PX.

 

[CorbetJackson50]

I use the pressure rated one because Im punching through 5 penducters which perform much better with pressure rated pumps.

 

[CorbetJackson50]

Hit 86 today :-\

 

[vaporlockv2]

Try using bags of ice. If it gets that bad again. I have frozen cubes or ro/di and thrown a bag in the sump. Do a couple bags because they are gonna melt fast. You could consider a chiller. Know it's expensive but better than losing everyone. Also having a fan blowing across the top of the tank is awesome. Evap is a powerful weapon for keeping your tank cool. Just watch your salinity constantly. You are gonna have to top off a lot more.

 

[dkeller_nc]

From the perspective of effectiveness, an inexpensive vortex-type fan from Home Depot or Lowes is going to be considerably more effective than adding ice blocks/freezer blocks to the sump. The reason is the thermodynamic properties of water - melting ice pulls 80 calories per gram of melted water from the environment. Vaporizing the same amount of water pulls 540 calories from the evaporating body of water.

The only drawback to the fan is that if the air in your house already at a relatively high relative humidity, the amount of water that the fan can evaporate (and thus the amount of heat it can pull from the aquarium) will be a lot lower than if the relative humidity is low.

 

[CorbetJackson50]

My house believe it or not is pretty dry. Im thinking that is a good thing when it comes to evaporative cooling.

 

[Sonyardo]

If the fan doesn't cut it, then I would be looking into insulation and an air conditioning unit. Preferably an efficient split A/C or Window unit for the room with the fish tank. You want the heat dumped outside as opposed to inside the house. Chillers work but are not all that efficiently and then dump the heat into the room they are located. Why not just chill the whole room and you and the fish tank can get some relief

 

[toshiba]

I've found the Pan World pump is not too bad with heat transfer, but I know for sure any Mag will raise temperature up 5 degrees. What light cycle are you running? I would run all of your lights at night and keep them off during the day.