Water Temp climbing too high... why?

[djmpj2]

OK, here's the latest. On Monday night we unplugged the (replacement) heater and the UV Sterilizer. On Tuesday morning temp dropped slightly to 86. Left both off for the day. Came home last night and put a fan on the tank. By 11 pm we were at 83. So, we decided to just plug the UV back in. Got up this morning and it had gone up to 84.5.

Normally, the tank temp drops slightly at night b/c the lights are out. So, I am thinking the UV is definitely brining up the temp some. We left the UV plugged in and I'll see what it's at tonight when I get home.

We have our Turbo Twist UV Sterilizer hooked up to the output on our Eheim Canister filter.

We have a 54 gallon bow front tank. We have one power head on either side and one straight back in the center. The heater is also directly back in the center mounted vertically. We have 2 thermometers in the tank. One is a cheap suction to the inside of the glass on the left and the other is the more expensive remote digital type with the probe mounted to the back wall (not near the heater). Both consistently read the exact same temperature.

Thanks for your interest. I did a search here and read other posts about the UV Sterilizer and it seems it's been debated whether it increases tank temp. I am not the first to have this issue immediately after installing the UV Sterilizer.

DJ

[roka64]

I guess one way to test the theory would be to put your thermometer at the intake and the other one by the output, see what the readings are.....

[PC]

It should be noted that the ambient room temp can add or subtract 2 + degrees. Have you recently switched on the heaters in your home due to colder weather? Just another thought..

Peace.

[djmpj2]

When we got home from work temp had increased to 86 degrees. So, I guess it is the UV Sterilizer in combination with our lights it just gets too hot.

However, we really want to keep our UV so we're wondering if we can buy "feet" for our 30" 2x65w Coralife Lunar Aqualights to pick them up a few inches and maybe cool it down a little?

I originally purchased my lights from Darren at Captivereefs.com, but when I type that in it goes directly to customaquatics.com and I can't even find Coralife products on that page. Did captivereefs go away?

Thanks
DJ

PS - the temp in the house is 70 degrees, which is what we keep it at summer and winter, so I can't see that effectiving the tank temp, but thanks for the thought

[melosu58]

I still dont think it is the UV. The output to your canister is pretty high flow is it not.

[djmpj2]

Well, let's put it this way... (you many have hit the nail on the head!)

The Eheim 2215 Canister Filter is supposed to have an output of 164 gph. We have never felt we get anywhere near that. The pressure on the drip bar is just little more than a dribble.

We have never been happy with this canister filter from the day we got it. I think our live rock does most of our filtering.

So, if the water is not flowing through our Eheim at the correct rate, it maybe going through the filter too slow and then not going through the UV sterilizer fast enough and therefore, getting heated by the bulb?

DJ

[melosu58]

We may have solved the case on this one. That sounds reasonable. Do you have another way to hook your UV light up to another line.

[djmpj2]

I am trying to revive this really old post. We are continueing to have a problem with our tank being too warm. Now, you can see by this post that this started in Nov 06. It's nine months later and our tank is 99 degrees. Hardly ever changes. We have unplugged the UV months ago. There hasn't even been a heater in the tank in months. We live in NJ and run our air conditioner in our home daily. It's set at 72 dgrees.

Beleive it or not, our fish are living through this very extended spike without issue. I guess because the rise in temp was gradual and over time, they have gotten used to it. Needless to say, we cannot add anything new to the tank as it woud probably die from the heat.

At this point we are assuming we will have to get a chiller. The only thing we have going in the tank are 3 power heads and our Eheim is our method of filtration. Even our skimmer's been turned off for weeks.

DJ

[chase33]

There may be something wrong with your thermometers. I too live in NJ and the last two days have been kinda cool. My tank temp has dropped 2 - 3 degrees over the last two days due to cool weather. I too have 3 powerheads in my tank and run two submersible pumps in my sump and the highest my temp has gotten this year was 83 degrees. It ususally runs anywhere between 77 and 80. I would check the thermometers. Also, I assume you got a new heater by now and hopefully it wasn't the pro heat titanium. I have that one also and it is not calibrated correctly. plus, the dial is so sensitive that I'm afraid that if a wire or something rubs against it it will change the setting. I bought two and never opened the backup. I'll get another before the windter starts. Maybe I missed it but what size is your tank, what type of lighting and how far away from the surface are you lights since you mentioned purchasing feet to raise them?

[fishman]

DO as someone suggested and run a box fan on high pointing at it or buy some little fans that you can place on top of the tank and point it at the water. I had heat issues and when I did this each small 1 ft fan lowered the temp 1 degree.