Cooling tank!

[SAAVE853]

I keep my house around 70 in the winter and ever since I changed my lights from VHO to MH and started running my MH more than 4 hours, I noticed my tank is warming to almost 84 F towards the end of MH cycle.

I have a 75gal and as we all now chillers are very expensive so I want to try and use a couple fans to get this under control. From what I've read on here it seems that if you have 100g of water, for every 1 gal that evaporates, the water temp can/will drop aprox 9 degrees.

Questions:
How much truth is there to this statement?
How many fans I would have to use in order to keep my temp at about 80?

Lighting specs:
2-250w MH
4-65w Atinics

 

[PrettyFishies]

Don't know about that statement, but hear that ppl use a clip on fan over their sump to cool/evaporate water. In addition to a couple of fans for the lights.

 

[thincat]

Here is a picture of the fan I used to use.

I now use a chiller.

 

[SAAVE853]

Here is a picture of the fan I used to use.
I now use a chiller.

What temp was your tank before and after the fan?

 

[ccCapt]

From what I've read on here it seems that if you have 100g of water, for every 1 gal that evaporates, the water temp can/will drop aprox 9 degrees.

Questions:
How much truth is there to this statement?
How many fans I would have to use in order to keep my temp at about 80?

Lighting specs:
2-250w MH
4-65w Atinics

Quoted from "BeanAnimal":
The evaporation of 1 gallon of water will remove just over 8,000 BTUs from your tank. If you have about 100 gallons of water at ~8.5 pounds per gallon. That is about 850 pounds of water. That means that for every gallon of water evaporated out of your system, the tank temperature will drop by about 9.4 degrees Fahrenheit.
BeanAnimal's Bar and Grill - Home
Reef Central Online Community - View Single Post - DIY Chiller.... PICS

I have 3x175w MH and 2x160 VHO's in my canopy and have 2 fans similar to what Thincat posted in my canopy. They are controlled by a Ranco temp controller. When the tank temp gets to 82 they turn on and when it drops to 80 they turn off. The controller is 2 stage and also controls my heaters so if the temp drops below 78 they turn on and at 80 they turn off.

 

[thincat]

the temp. in my DT use to hit 85 degrees in the summer. I set up my fan simular to ccCapt with a controler. it droped the temp to ~81 degrees. I finally got tired of the evaporation and bought a 1/10hp chiller.

 

[PrettyFishies]

I would argue that a fan/auto topoff setup would be cheaper than a chiller

 

[thincat]

I would argue that a fan/auto topoff setup would be cheaper than a chiller

Everything in life is realitive.lol

 

[SAAVE853]

I put in 4 fans...looked all over for them and found them at biglots same exact one you have thincat. They work too well, need to put them on timers now to match my light cycle. They took my tank from swing between 78-83 to a nice 79-81

 

[cabezon]

Are you heating the house to 70? Where do you live? Is it dry?

See I live in florida, and the rest of my house is nice, but I walked into my room where the fish tank s, and it was hot and muggy. If you are in a dry area, it might be nice to have all the evap in the air. Me, no way. In the spring, my AC will be fighting the evap and I will be chasing the dragon. More evap means more AC, which means more evap...

If you have more air over the lights themselves you might use less heat in the house.

 

[SAAVE853]

Yeah I live in florida too, I was heating the house to 70 up until last week, but now that spring is here must admit the humidity will keep the a/c blowing if I run the fans. I'm keeping two fans anyways to help cool my MH but a chiller seems to be the best method for water cooling. Will try and find myself a good deal on a chiller off craigslist.

It seems there's really no DIY chiller