Tanks in conservatories?

[pomme]

Tanks in conservatories?

I am just thinking where in the house i can put my tank for the summer, as being a student i get 4 months off, so i will go home to cornwall and get my diving job again, but i am wondering if my tank would be okay in the conservatory if i put a couple of fans above the tank to help the cooling? I have always been told not too keep them in conservatories because they get too hot in the day and cold at night, but i think the night will be okay as my tank keeps at 26, but goes from 25.8 to 26.3 during the day. But i am a bit worried about the day heat? I was just wondering as surely the light would help my sps corals grow well, but i was also worried about the affect of the light on algae, would it increase it that much?

All help appreciated,
Andrew

 

[BillyZ]

strong natural sunlight will certainly help your corals, but it may also spark an algae bloom if you have a lot of nutrients in your water. If the water's good I wouldn't worry about algae.

The temperature issue is only a concern if the temperature swings greatly during the day. I'm not that familiar with Celcius, but a 1-2 degree F change during the day isn't "bad" but should be avoided if possible. If you can keep the temp more consistant then you should be ok. Either hook up an automatic chiller to run during the day (kind pricey though) or kick in extra heat at night.

 

[yaksplat]

Fans above the tank may lead to some drastic cooling of the tank so you have to be careful. The fans will keep a layer of air that contains water vapor away from the surface of the tank. This layer will keep filling with vapor, but in order for this to happen, heat must be removed from the tank to cause the phase change from liquid to vapor. As a suggestion, I would try this out before actually doing it just to make sure that you don't supercool your fish.


People don't realize it, but the number 1 cause of a swimming pool cooling off is evaporation. If there was no evaporation, pools would stay warm for much longer than they do.

I knew Heat Transfer (MAE 336) would come in handy some day . 8)


Jim

 

[pomme]

yeah i think i may have it in the cons... then, but will keep a good eye on the temp.