How can I cool down my tank?

[Roboat]

I have 75 gal FW tank and it's been getting too warm. Generally I keep it about 78, but the room is warm with the hot weather we've been having and it's up to 82. I just recently moved the tank to my house from my office at work where it was always cool. My Oscar is not eating and seems listless. His color and all is good, no fungus or velvet, I'm thinking it's just too warm for him. He actually seems depressed. I tested the water conditions and they are fine. I saw someone mention a chiller in another post. Can someone fill me in on this? I had no something like this existed.
Thanks!

 

[FawnN]

For a big tank like that, they do have aqua chillers.

http://www.bigalsonline.com/catalog/product.xml?product_id=31875;category_id=3231;pcid1=;pcid2=


For a temporary fix, put a fan blowing directly at the glass or fill up a large ziplock baggie with ice cubes and let it float in your tank (or do both).

I know that keeping all your shades closed during the day seems to help keep the house cool.

I have the exact problem during the summer here in California. Hope that helps a little.

 

[Roboat]

Thanks for the advice, Fawn. I went to the site, and it's a bit too pricey for the chiller, so in the meantime I will do the ice cube trick. I actually thought of dropping a few in but figured that would be useless, but I never thought of using a baggie! We do have a fan running, and I keep the shades down. I also have their light off, so the poor things think it's a very long night.

Ro

 

[Roboat]

Thanks for the advice, Fawn. I went to the site, and it's a bit too pricey for the chiller, so in the meantime I will do the ice cube trick. I actually thought of dropping a few in but figured that would be useless, but I never thought of using a baggie! We do have a fan running, and I keep the shades down. I also have their light off, so the poor things think it's a very long night.

Ro

 

[melonie]

You may also get away with your own DIY chiller. Start with a WalMart style 12 volt electric 'beer" cooler with 120vac adapter. Then buy about 50 feet of thinwall nylon/kynar/styrene tubing one size up from the hose that your canister filter normally uses (guess 3/4"ID 7/8"OD tubing versus standard 5/8" ID hose on your canister filter). Drill two holes right through the cooler's flip-up cover which are just large enough to allow the tubing to pass through. Coil up about 40ft of the tubing inside the cooler, poke the two tubing ends out through the holes in the cover, and seal the tubing to the cover with silicone to prevent air from leaking around the tubing. Connect one tubing end to your canister filter discharge, and the other tubing end to your tank return piping. Put enough water in the cooler to submerge the tubing (you may need to use plastic tie-wraps to hold the tubing coils together rather tightly), and plug in the 120vac adapter.

You could also try this with garden hose or standard PVC tubing, but the risk is that the thicker tubing walls will insulate your tank water from the cooler's water too much. You can also use multiple coils of smaller diameter tubing, as long as the cross sectional area of the multiple tubes adds up to something which exceeds the cross sectional area of your canister filter's standard hose by say 33-50%. The multiple coil approach with smaller tubing does reduce the effects of the tubing material insulating the tank water from the cooler's water though, but it gets tougher to fit all of that tubing in your cooler !

This will still only get you about 50 watts worth of thermionic cooling, but it might be enough to get your water temp back under 80 degrees. You can also give your DIY chiller a 'boost' by adding ice from your freezer to the cooler's water every so often.

 

[Roboat]

Melonie, when I first read your post I was like, what?? I re-read it and it does seem simple enough and could work. I have it down to 79 degrees as of this morning, using *icepacks* and a fan, and leaving the cover open just a wee bit to allow any warm air to escape. But, I will keep your project in mind, if I continue to have this problem.

I have no idea how I managed to double-post up above....

 

[greenmaji]

as much as its talked about the btu ratting of a small fridge is not sufficient to use as a chiller.. a converted window air conditioner could do the trick.. there is an explantaion about how the mini-fridge doesnt work online..
http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~cap/raid/chillers/dormfridge/index.html
great site for researching DIY projects in general..
http://www.kingvinnie.com/aquaria/diy/

 

[shawmutt]

All that money and effort.

Why not just buy a small window AC unit and run that to keep the room and the tank cool? It costs me a little extra in electric, but I keep my AC on all the time in the living room (where the tanks are).

 

[greenmaji]

Ive told I cant tell how many people to get a window A/C unit for the room.. it doesnt seem to sink in...

 

[BillD]

Blowing a fan at the glasswill do nothing but ensure the tank is a room temp. Some people us a 2l soda bottle full of frozen water floated in the tank. You can keep a few and alternate. However, I wouldn't be concerned about 82 degree water, at least in the short term. I have the opposite problem. The warmer it is outside, the more I have to heat, as all my tanks are in the basement, and the central air makes that the coolest part of the house.

 

[DeFeKt]

before you do anything, take the lids off.. it will help decrease the terrarium effect that glass on all sides will do.. i'd even take out sum water, to lower the volume of water that you need to cool.. plus it'll stop oscar from jumping out..