Tank temp??'s

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acid_burn

Aquarium Advice Activist
Joined
Feb 9, 2004
Messages
190
Location
MI.
Well my new 120gal. has been setup since Sunday, and my temp is a little high 88deg. I know all of my heat is coming from my 2 400watt MH's, I have 2, 4 1/2" fans cooling them. What options do I have w/o purchasing a chiller?

Also will my corals, fish, and inverts be ok?

Thanks,
Rich
 
88 is definately on the high side, and dangerous if it stays that high for a long time. Try adding more fans in your light canopy if possible and if you have a sump try putting a fan blowing in it. You want to try to get some heavy evaportaion going to try to cool the water.
You may also want to cut back on the time the light are on or even cut back to using 1 of the mh's until you get that temp under control.
 
If you got a glass top, you will want to remove it also. It just holds the heat in not to mention the heat from the lights will heat up the glass which will transfer into the tank for sure.

Mike
 
I took the tops off for now and will make 2 more tops out of egg crate. The tank is acrylic, are they any harder to keep cool?

I set only one MH to turn on for tomorrow. Will my corals be ok? I have a hammer, frogspawn, bubble, brain, acro frag, toadstool & finger leathers, and a goniopora.

Thanks,
Rich
 
i hasve the same problem with my 120 gal. i put a fan under the tank to blow acrossmy sump and fuge it helps some. it speeds up evaporation though i now lose close to 4 gallons a day! 2x 400 MH 2x 96wt actinics in case you were wondering.

hth

mark
 
Oh yeah, I left out my 2x96watt PC's. I have 2 more 4 1/2" fans that I will mount in back of my canopy tomorrow along with a clip on fan for over the top of my Aquafuge.

Rich
 
do you have a sump?

you can place a frozen bottle of water in it and that will take the temp down
just make sure your heater is in your main tank so you don't go too low, if its in the sump the frozen water wont do too much good
 
Well got home today and temp was down to 82deg. :D

I turned the other MH on when I got home, so i'll see if it heats up tonight.
If it does i'll just turn it back off.

ClamKnuckle, I do have a sump/refuge and my heater is actually in my refuge which is before the sump so it actually would work if it got really high again.

Thanks,
Rich
 
I have heard that acrylic tanks are harder to cool then glass. 88 and the summer is not even here! it's going to be a long summer. I freek out when my tank gets to 84...... 88 i would be pulling my hair out. Good luck
 
Sorry to hear the lights heated up the tank! try fans. I like the clip on fans from wal mart blowing on the sump water surface. You can also set the house AC to 70 or 68. ut with the extra poower it consumes you might as well buy a chiller.
 
Is it possible for you to raise your lights up off your tank at all? Without effecting the amount of light reaching your corals that is. Having more clearance should help prevent the lights from heating up the water as much.
 
Right now the lights are 12" off the top, I just made the canopy and from what I have been reading that should've been enough room. If I went up a few more inches would it make that much of a difference?

Thanks,
Rich
 
I doubt any higher would make that much of a difference. I didn't realize they were already 12" off the top. Only thing I can think of (that is recommended a lot in the FW forum, I'm assuming it's safe for SW too) is just getting some cheap clip on fans and pointing them straight on the water surface. It will cause water to evaporate which will cool it.

Just keep an eye on your water because since it's evaporating faster you will have to top off more often.

HTH

-brent

edit: well i just went back and re-read and basically everyone recommended that. haha. except to do it on your sump/refuge instead of the main tank. has doing that helped you at all? or did you not do it yet?
 
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