Help, my chiller is broke!

vlangel

Premium Member
Hi all, I am asking for advise on keeping my seahorse tank temperature down while I am waiting for a new chiller to come in this Thursday afternoon. I have turned the lights off and put a fan to blow on the sump. The room temperature is 74 degrees. I have floated sealed bags of ice in the tank which seems to help a little. Any other tips?
 
I would do that except a Colombian family is staying with us for the summer and they are already wearing their coats in our house because they are cold. It's crazy I know, but I must take our guest's comfort into consideration. The AC does go down to 70 degrees at night though. I did a water change this morning with cold water and that takes the tank down about 2 degrees. Right now the tank is 72-73 degrees. It is only until Thursday afternoon. If the tank creeps up on occasion to 76 for a little while, for this short a time do you think they will be alright?
 
Yes, they should be OK.
It would take longer I believe for the nasty bacteria to get to a problem point knowing your husbandry practices are almost certain to be sufficient.
 
Fan. Ordinary house fan blowing on the water surface. It'll knock temperature down fast.
 
Thanks Ray. Even with the lights on a few hours the temperature never went over 72-73 so I think it's going to be ok.

Yep Sk8r, it's definitely running the fans over the tank and over the sump that has held the temps down. I am glad I have an ATO though.
 
If something like that happens again, you can freeze RO/DI water and top off your evaporation with the ice instead of water. It helps some.
 
Yes, it got pretty warm here the last 2 days so I was glad to get the chiller. It was good for me to learn that 2 fans blowing on the sump and top of the tank will keep it cool in case I have a chiller mishap in the future.
 
This Coralife 1/6 hp chiller is pretty sleek and easy to use. The temperature controller is built in, (maybe they all are nowadays). My old chiller was probably 15 years old and needed a separate controlleer.
 
I'm sure they will be fine for a little bit. I used to add tuperwares or 2 liters of frozen DI water to the sump of my tank every morning and night when my air conditioner was broken.
 
I would say just take the heater out of the tank since they like cooler water. My room temp tanks are at 77.5. No heater means you don't need a chiller. But my tank that has no heater is only a huge goldfish - freshwater tank.
 
Seahorses stand the best chance of long term survival in aquariums when the tank temperatures are kept between 68° and 74°F.
 
I would say just take the heater out of the tank since they like cooler water. My room temp tanks are at 77.5. No heater means you don't need a chiller. But my tank that has no heater is only a huge goldfish - freshwater tank.
I don't have a heater in the tank but like Ray says I keep it between 71-73 degrees. With the AC set at 74 during the day and down to 70 at night the tank stayed in range with a couple of fans, 1 on the tank surface and 1 on the sump surface. That is a bit distracting since the tanks are in our living room. This new chiller runs reasonably quiet and not terribly often.
 
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