Water Temp climbing too high... why?

[djmpj2]

The temp in our tank tonight is 88 degrees. It's usually about 80. Here is what has been happening.

Yesterday my husband added our new Turbo Twist 3x 9 watt Sterilizer to the set up. It is hooked into our Canister Filter.

He also added a 3rd maxi jet 1200 power head to the tank for extra circulation.

A few hours later he discovered our heater was on the blink when he got a shock when he touched our water. He immediatly pulled it out and replaced it with another heater we had as a backup. He set that heater to 80 degrees. Same setting we had the old one at. At this point he did not take note of the temp in the tank.

We got up this morning and the temp was 85. He unplugged the heater and turned out the lights. This evening the temp has climbed even higher to 88 degrees.

Do you think the Turbo Twist is causing the temp increase? Now that the lights and heater are off, this is our guess.

Unless the broken heater caused the temp to shoot up. But then why is it still going up when the broken heater has been removed for over 24 hours?

PS - We are in NJ so our local temp/weather is not causing it to go up.

DJ

 

[melosu58]

Something is not right. I dont think it is the UV as I have the same brand and my temp stays at 76-77 all the time. I would just keep lights off and if temp is still high after few hours or in morning Try unplugging the UV or PH. I got a felling it was your heaters. Most likely the first one broke and the second one is not callibrated to the right settings. I had one one time that I had to set on 70 to get 77 degrees. When I set it on 77 you can imagine what happened.

 

[Guest]

temp

I agree. I never had a heater in my freshwater tanks that was calibrated to the setting.

With my reef I got a Pro Heat Titanium with an external temp setting and it is the first one I ever had that is accurate to the setting.

I would adjust your heater. May take a few hours to do.

 

[roka64]

I agree with the rest. Depending on the size of your tank, it will take longer to heat up or cool down. I would suggest a titanium heater and grounding probe.

 

[djmpj2]

I'm looking at the Pro Heat Titanium on Marine Depot and each size has a list of customer reviews one worse than the next.

http://www.marinedepot.com/aquarium_heaters_won_brothers_pro-heat_titanium.asp?CartId=

Should I be concerned?


By the way - unplugged the heater and UV last night. Water is at 85 today. I guess it will take a while to cool back down?

DJ

 

[roka64]

I read those reviews too. A lot of folks still swear by them. I bought the digital ones here:
http://www.premiumaquatics.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=Finnexheat
If you choose to order from them, use the link from this site, I believe aa will get some support from them.
I love mine, but have only had them for a few months.

 

[MarineFlake]

I had heat issues when I added a 15w current usa UV to my 75G. I ended up retiring the unit due to heat issues. You are pushing water slowly though a tube with a high output (hot) light in it resulting in nicely super-heated salt water. You could try a clip on fan to blow across the water (Assuming no canopy) but 8 degrees may be more than a fan can help dissipate.

Peace.

 

[melosu58]

I guess the reason I dont have problems is that it`s attached to my return line . That is not slow. DJ what was your UV hooked up to?

 

[english-nick]

I don't see how 27 watts of bulbs could be responsible for raising the water temperature by 8 degrees.

It might be the pump that's feeding water to the UV fixture (unless you're piggy backing like Mel).

Keep us posted (very curious as to the culprit)!

 

[roka64]

You also have to take into consideration the phs, they will generate heat. Where is your thermometer located?

 

[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.....

 

[MarineFlake]

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.