Recommendations

[Bathel]

I have a 45 Gal Salt with coral, inverts and fish.

It's been established for years and years at another location, and been in it's current location for 1 year.

The issues I'm having is evaporation and heat. It seems that being down south has made it a lot harder to keep the tank under 82 in the summer time. In the winter I can keep it at 78 pretty easy.

Also, evaporation has taken a lot of my time in keeping the tank full.

I've been thinking of a DI/RO unit that would auto top-off the tank, but are a little unsure how they work in relationship to getting the water to use. IE how does it hookup to get water to RO/DI? I've also thought of a Chiller/Heater, but find it very hard to find any good informatin on any of these units.

What recommendations would you have to help solve these issues?

 

[supertech3]

what temp are you keeping the house at in the summer? what type of lights are you using (is this when the temp increases) in the tank also?

 

[Bathel]

In the summer the houes temp in the day time gets up to 82-85 degree. (No one is home during the day)

I have the Coralife Lunar Aqualight Deluxe Linear Strip Fixture lighting my tank.

The heat in the summer comes in part from the lights and part from the heat in the house. For me to drop the temp in the house down to 78 degree during the day bumps my power bill from 150 to 200-250 range. Get's pretty expensive.

 

[compulou]

Bathel,

Turn on that A/C!!! Or buy yourself a chiller. The ambient temp surrounding the tank has a lot to do with the tank temp itself. I myself work from home but when I'm not there I have my 12 year old golden retriever who I love too much to let him deal with the South Florida heat we have here almost year round. So I keep my A/C at around 79-80 during the day and about 75-77 during the night. Yup my bill comes in around 150-200 a month but I'm used to it by now. BTW my tank temps never get any higher than about 78-79 degrees at any time of the year.:eek2:

 

[chadfarmer]

suggest breaking down and buying a chiller


1/10hp should be fine

 

[Bathel]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6558483#post6558483 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by chadfarmer
suggest breaking down and buying a chiller


1/10hp should be fine

What chiller would you recommend? Do they make any that will both heat and chill? I think I've seen one of those before.

Also, the evaportation .... what topoff unit would you recommend?

 

[javajaws]

The topoff strategy I use is to have a freshwater reservoir automatically filled from my RO/DI unit (controlled with a solenoid/float switches/etc). From there, a LiterMeter III pulls the water and doses it into my tank. You could optionally setup a kalk reactor and have the LMIII feed it instead.