Hot House/Hot tank

[marybeth1975]

Ok, my air conditioning has went out and they won't be here until Monday to fix it. The temp in my tank is at 82 right now. I know it is way too hot and I have the heater turned all the way down. So...should I just turn off the heater all together? Can I add a little cold water? any suggestions would help.

 

[kkyyllee]

you could freeze some tank water into ice cubes and addthem to the tank to keep it cool as needed, or have a fan blowing accross the tank, and cut back ur lighting as much as possible

 

[JStorey]

I put a clip on fan blowing into my sump and it has lowered my tank temp by 3 degrees

 

[Lotus99]

You can probably unplug the heater if the nighttime house temp isn't going to drop too much.

 

[ahullsb]

Fans work great. You can also freeze freshwater in water bottles, or ziplog baggies and float them. If it's going to stay very warm I don't see a problem with unplugging your heater until the ac gets fixed.

 

[Frick-n-Frags]

you can run your lights less for a few peak heat days too.
pretend its a dark and stormy week on your little reef

 

[ahullsb]

Or reverse the lighting cycle to night time! i know it's not the first choice but it's better than a tank full of bleached coral!

 

[szwab]

I wouldn't reccomend turning the heater off maybe turn it down a bit. But it shouldn't come on unless it is needed. Freezing water bottles or even water in empty milk jugs works well. Fans would be most effective just make sure you keep the tank topped off as it will evaporate more. also keeping the lights off won't hurt anything. if you are concerned run them for 3-4 hours. also aim power heads or returns toward the surface to increase your turbulence and gas exchange.

 

[jer77]

You should try to run a fan on the surface of the tank too. It will lower the temp by about 5-7 degrees. Open all the stand doors and make sure all the tanks are uncovered. You'll have lots of evaporation but this is a good thing. I also have lessened my photoperiod by about 3 hours so the lights are only on for about 9 hours. Plus most of the lights are on during the night. This has helped me to lower the temp in my tank from 86 degrees down to 79 degrees.

 

[mr.maroonsalty]

82 shouldn't be anything to worry about ; it just doesn't leave room for it to go up very higher. Frozen water bottles, evaporative cooling, and taking the main heat source (lights) away are your best options if you're seeing temps climbing higher than what they are now.

 

[Frick-n-Frags]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10243959#post10243959 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ahullsb
Or reverse the lighting cycle to night time! i know it's not the first choice but it's better than a tank full of bleached coral!

No, don't do that. corals are very schedule oriented

you will bleach the coral by cooking them, not by temporarily shortening the light period (or even killing the lights entirely for 2-3 days if necessary)

put your fuge on reverse lighting if you can, that IS a good idea

Really, if the lighting tweak doesn't help, then evaporative cooling with a fan is usually the easiest because it can be going 24/7 without any further attention by you (except maybe a little more makeup water than usual)

 

[ahullsb]

You think running your lights during the night is that much of a problem? I haven't heard anyone say that before. I would assume that the coral would have no idea when the real sun is up or not...

 

[kkyyllee]

if you did that i would leave the lights off for a day, then start the new lighting instead of having a whole 24 hours of light

 

[Drix]

I'd reccomend freezing water in 2L jugs if you have an overflow and sump. dump em once in a while into the tank until they melt, yank em and refreeze.

 

[Young Frankenstein]

Unplug the heater, most of the time they get stuck and heat the tank constantly. Freeze some RO cubes and dump them in to makeup for evaporation.

 

[Nano Chris]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10243838#post10243838 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Frick-n-Frags
you can run your lights less for a few peak heat days too.
pretend its a dark and stormy week on your little reef

You can do that, or you can run the lights at night, which the temps should be cooler.

 

[Frick-n-Frags]

Man, you guys don't understand your coral. they synchronize their entire 24hr cycle to the day/night cycle. it messes them up to keep switching their lighting around. they are better off in the dark than 24/7 lighting or completely reversing the photoperiod a bunch of times over a couple of weeks. very unnecessary stress.

If anyone watches, the corals tell you when you have about 10-15 minutes left before lights out. they start setting up their nighttime routines = they are synchronized to the timers
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regarding "fear of the dark"

I have had an acro frag fall in the back and live for several months pale, but flesh perfectly intact. it had enough to eat to supplement. right now I have a toadstool frag that fell in the back in almost complete dark. it is actually pretty happy and that's good because I can't really get to it.

the corals can do fine on surprisingly little light for a surprisingly long time. somewhere there is even a thread about the benefits of turning your lights off for 3 days.


What am I doing as I see the temp licking at 83º these days?
I moved the little red pegs on my two MH timers to 3 hrs instead of 4 hrs. this has bought me about 2º. last night it fell to 77º and I'll take an 82 for a peak. No muss, no fuss. and I'll kill them entirely and just run the actinics without hesitation if I have to.

 

[Europa13]

82 degrees is just fine. As long as the temp doesn't go above 84 degrees, it will be alright. If it gets to 84 degrees, the ONLY thing you need to do is, direct a fan at the water surface, either the main tank or the sump, and that will bring the temp down a few degrees.

 

[savethereef]

i am in the same boat i have a 6g nano and a 120g the 120g has a 1/3 that keeps my tank at 77-78 all day but my house is at 90degrees because of the heat my chiller puts out. hence it make my nano temp go to 85d with no lights what i do it i freez 6 small bottles of water and put 3 in my big tanks sump so it keeps the tank cool then the chiller wont come on as long. then when the bottles water melt again i swap them out with the ones in the freezer and i freez them again. now my nano temp is at 80 degrees and my home is at 82

summer is the harderst time for reefers with no chillers. and its the biggest time people decide to join the hobby

 

[szwab]

depending on what the mean temperature for the tank is 82 could be an issue. I keep mine at 78 so 82 would be really pushing it. if you keep your tank warmer you may have more room to play with.