Alex T.
Active member
The circling is more pronounced when other fish are around. It's his scare tactic to hoard the food for himself. :lmao:
My 280g Custom upgrade.....
- Thread starter SPotter
- Start date
The circling is more pronounced when other fish are around. It's his scare tactic to hoard the food for himself. :lmao:
jamesdawson
New member
Hi Steve,
Hey I did a quick-read of all 20 pages of your beautiful build but I could not find info about where you obtained your algea scrubber.
Can you share either here or through PM please?
Mucho thanks,
James
Hey I did a quick-read of all 20 pages of your beautiful build but I could not find info about where you obtained your algea scrubber.
Can you share either here or through PM please?
Mucho thanks,
James
SPotter
Active member
Well after changing about 600 gallons of water, excellent skimming and my algae scrubber developing gold growth I am happy to say my no3 = 0 and po4 = .009. my water is crystal clear but do have a few small patches of cyano that I am dealing with.
Now onto another problem...HEAT. Tank temps reached 82.3 last night. I have been torn between a portable ac unit and a chiller. so last night a bought a couple of fans and so far hung one over the tank.
from the front....
and now the back....
so far my $44 investment is paying off. it took about twelve hours to get the temp down to 78 again but it did it slowly and now its set to turn on at 79 degrees which has already happened and the temp is dropping again. Im debating whether or not to hook the 2nd one up or not.
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Now onto another problem...HEAT. Tank temps reached 82.3 last night. I have been torn between a portable ac unit and a chiller. so last night a bought a couple of fans and so far hung one over the tank.
from the front....
and now the back....
so far my $44 investment is paying off. it took about twelve hours to get the temp down to 78 again but it did it slowly and now its set to turn on at 79 degrees which has already happened and the temp is dropping again. Im debating whether or not to hook the 2nd one up or not.
Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk 2
Alex T.
Active member
Also, since the tank's in the basement it wouldn't hurt to "T" into one of the HVAC lines going to one of your house registers and get some cool air into the canopy of the tank when the AC goes on. Keeping the fan on would help blow that cool air around and down to the water surface. There's probably a line down there closer than you think.
Look at your livestock too. Eighty two really isn't such a big deal. I've jumped to 85 at midday on my last tank before with no ill effects. If you're like me and the AC isn't on full bore yet, then you're probably seeing the upper limit of where the tank will be when it's hot outside without air conditioning.
Look at your livestock too. Eighty two really isn't such a big deal. I've jumped to 85 at midday on my last tank before with no ill effects. If you're like me and the AC isn't on full bore yet, then you're probably seeing the upper limit of where the tank will be when it's hot outside without air conditioning.
Dustin1300
Reefaholic
Steve, sorry to hear this and I'm still not certain why the ambient temperature is that high? We've been in the 90s this weekend and I've sealed off the register to my fish room to keep the room isolated from the rest of the house for humidity reasons but I'm still keeping all my tanks at 78. Our house temp is around 73-74, can you open up door and leave it open to fish room until your able to come up with a full solution? (Air exchanger, exhaust fan, etc)
The fans are going to help to maybe drop you a ~degree but you're playing with fire reaching that high of a number IMO.
The fans are going to help to maybe drop you a ~degree but you're playing with fire reaching that high of a number IMO.
SPotter
Active member
@AlexT...unfortunately our ac handlers are in the attic so I have no access to AC lines in the basement.
@Dustin...I am pretty sure the problem is coming from the heat being thrown off by the Santa Fe Dehumidifier thats located in the room right next to my fish room. It blows the exhaust right in the direction of the door for the fish room. I'm the pump on my skimmer and the eheim 3000 pump I am using to feed the scrubber are adding some heat as well. I am thinking about feeding the scrubber from my manifold now.
The fan seems to be working as the temps got as high as 79.4 for a couple of hours and that was during the t5 light cycle. I did order a 12k BTU portable AC unit that should arrive on Tuesday. I will use the duct work that was installed for the Fantech HRV unit. The total exhaust distance is about 8 ft which exceeds the 5ft recommended distance by the manufacturer. I spoke with the manufacturer of the unit on friday and they felt that as long as I have as straight of an exhaust run as possible and go with a unit that is bigger than needed it will work with no problem. This was one of my biggest concerns when we were remodeling the basement. I wanted to at the very least tap into the ac on the first floor but my contractor talked me out of it because he said the below grade temps would keep the room cool.
Everything in the tank looked fine when the temps broke 82. They were definitely a lot more active at this temp!
@Dustin...I am pretty sure the problem is coming from the heat being thrown off by the Santa Fe Dehumidifier thats located in the room right next to my fish room. It blows the exhaust right in the direction of the door for the fish room. I'm the pump on my skimmer and the eheim 3000 pump I am using to feed the scrubber are adding some heat as well. I am thinking about feeding the scrubber from my manifold now.
The fan seems to be working as the temps got as high as 79.4 for a couple of hours and that was during the t5 light cycle. I did order a 12k BTU portable AC unit that should arrive on Tuesday. I will use the duct work that was installed for the Fantech HRV unit. The total exhaust distance is about 8 ft which exceeds the 5ft recommended distance by the manufacturer. I spoke with the manufacturer of the unit on friday and they felt that as long as I have as straight of an exhaust run as possible and go with a unit that is bigger than needed it will work with no problem. This was one of my biggest concerns when we were remodeling the basement. I wanted to at the very least tap into the ac on the first floor but my contractor talked me out of it because he said the below grade temps would keep the room cool.
Everything in the tank looked fine when the temps broke 82. They were definitely a lot more active at this temp!
I'm having a similar, but not as dramatic, heat problem on my 270. I've peaking near 79deg with a low of 77. I really don't want to go over 78deg. My heaters are essentially not coming on at all. I had hoped the 6 Radians were not going to create as much heat as they are. My problem is the heat is captured in the canopy with no where to go. I'm going to put in an in-wall fan to pull the heat from the canopy and send it to the fish room. One that I can hook up to my Apex controller and only turn on when the heat rises. I may also put a fan pointed at the water as well..
Alex T.
Active member
I honestly think you'll be fine. To save on electric, maybe you can have the new AC on a timer and only have it kick in during peak lighting/heat hours. If it doesn't reach a higher than desired temperature during that time, it most likely won't after lights out. If it makes you feel any better, I have a chiller hooked up to come on when the tank hits 83 degrees. I've never had adverse reactions from running that high. It's just a safety net, but I've never heard it kick on.
I asked a few questions on another thread a few years back regarding why some people have problems at high temperatures and some don't. The consensus was that if corals and fish were slowly acclimated to these changes you'd be fine. People that have experienced problems seem to have been those that kept a tight temperature range of a couple degrees and then their chiller blew and the tank temps reached many degrees higher than they ever did. Some people just let it swing. His name escapes me, but there's a member on this board with an incredible SPS tank that actually has "temperature swinging" in his signature. He regularly let his tank jump from 77 to 85 during the day with no ill affects. It may be that we worry about it more than our livestock does.
I asked a few questions on another thread a few years back regarding why some people have problems at high temperatures and some don't. The consensus was that if corals and fish were slowly acclimated to these changes you'd be fine. People that have experienced problems seem to have been those that kept a tight temperature range of a couple degrees and then their chiller blew and the tank temps reached many degrees higher than they ever did. Some people just let it swing. His name escapes me, but there's a member on this board with an incredible SPS tank that actually has "temperature swinging" in his signature. He regularly let his tank jump from 77 to 85 during the day with no ill affects. It may be that we worry about it more than our livestock does.
I believe that its not just the temp that people have issues with in their tanks but as the temp rises the water contains less dissolved oxygen so if you have a tank with high stocking combined with a temp rise it could be a big deal, if you are stocking low then its less of an issue. As with most things in our hobby its never just one thing that affects the tank its the impact that one thing has on other things. Personally I've had tanks with both wide and narrow temp swings 77 to 85 and 76 to 78 you just need to find the right balance for your system. Interestingly the larger swing was with a chiller and the tighter was with fans just like the one in your pic. The rest of the set up was the same just different houses.
Good luck!
Good luck!
david00061
New member
The fan over your sump should drop temp down to your house temperature.
I think you will be fine with that
I think you will be fine with that
Dustin1300
Reefaholic
Glad to see you got it down Steve. If it becomes a problem you could also change up t5 period so it is at night and when temperatures are better.
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SPotter
Active member
I'm going to position one over the sump since I am concerned with the amount of evaporation and it having a negative effect on my lights. Still waiting to hear back from Pac Sun if this is something to be concerned about.
Only problem is room temp in the fish room is at 80 right now. So hopefully the portable AC unit that is coming tomorrow will bring the temp down at least 5 degrees and then I should be ok....hopefully.
nightOwl
Premium Member
Steve,
I am just catching up on your temp issues. Normally below grade helps. Since I changed bulbs and increased the light cycle my chiller has been coming on more as well
. I keep the tank in the 78 degree area and have my fans com
e on at 78.5 the chiller kicks on at 79.1 and runs till I am at 78.3. So far the chiller runs 3 times a day for 46 mins. I could probably make it less by adding another fan or two. You have already ordered the portable AC unit so try having your fans come on earlier till your unit arrives. Right now your fans are functioning like my chiller...last line of defense. Good luck...oh and look for your meter this week. I changed the rest of my bulbs this weekend. Thanks again
.
I am just catching up on your temp issues. Normally below grade helps. Since I changed bulbs and increased the light cycle my chiller has been coming on more as well
. I keep the tank in the 78 degree area and have my fans come on at 78.5 the chiller kicks on at 79.1 and runs till I am at 78.3. So far the chiller runs 3 times a day for 46 mins. I could probably make it less by adding another fan or two. You have already ordered the portable AC unit so try having your fans come on earlier till your unit arrives. Right now your fans are functioning like my chiller...last line of defense. Good luck...oh and look for your meter this week. I changed the rest of my bulbs this weekend. Thanks again
.
SPotter
Active member
AC unit arrived but I havent unpacked it yet and I might return it at this point. When my dehumidifier system was installed I did not know that there was a duct kit for the exhuast and that I actually had said kit sitting a storage closet until I spoke with the contractor that installed it last week. So right now the exhaust is just being blown into the room right next to the fish room. So, I will try my skills at hvac installation and attach the kit and then vent it out of my basement. I also called fantech about the hrv unit I have becuase I wasnt feeling a lot of air flow coming out and after sending them some pictures of how the unit was installed, they made suggestions on changes I should make that will improve the air flow from that. That will help exhause some of the heat as well. The fan is definitely working but I am still concerned about the rate of evaporation I am seeing. Humidity is not an issue but I am starting to notice an odor that reminds me of my lfs which is not good. So in the end....an air conditioner might be what I need.
Dustin1300
Reefaholic
Come on Steve....You don't like the smell of your LFS in your very own basement? Can't be any worse than when you were curing the rock
On a serious note, I'd guess that exhausting that dehumidifier should help a lot with the temperature of the room. I'd hold of on unpacking the AC unit.
On a serious note, I'd guess that exhausting that dehumidifier should help a lot with the temperature of the room. I'd hold of on unpacking the AC unit.
SPotter
Active member
5/13/2012
6/4/2012----notice along the top back rim in the middle is filling in nicely
5/2/2012
6/4/2012---the skirt is extending out
5/13/2012
6/4/2012---tips are branching out
I have a couple of acro colonies that are really starting to take off both in growth and color but I can't seem to get good pictures of them.
6/4/2012----notice along the top back rim in the middle is filling in nicely
5/2/2012
6/4/2012---the skirt is extending out
5/13/2012
6/4/2012---tips are branching out
I have a couple of acro colonies that are really starting to take off both in growth and color but I can't seem to get good pictures of them.
