Light raising temp

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roydooms

Aquarium Advice Addict
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I have my heater set to 82F but my light fixture is warming up the aquarium to 86F. How do you deal with this? Should I lower the heater to 78F? My ideal temp would be 82-83F. Thanks.
 
I believe people use fans, such as ones used for PC's. Seeing as how I have a few around, I'd just blow one or two across the lights. Also, heaters turn on and off depending on the temp the water is at. (I believe). Might want to have some more people chime in too, but that's my $.02 =)
 
Hillage said:
I believe people use fans, such as ones used for PC's. Seeing as how I have a few around, I'd just blow one or two across the lights. Also, heaters turn on and off depending on the temp the water is at. (I believe). Might want to have some more people chime in too, but that's my $.02 =)

My fixture has a built in fan. It just gets really hot that it warms up the tank a few degrees. About the heater, I know it turns off by itself. My question is, since my fixture raises temp, can I set my heater a few degrees less than my desired temp and let the lights make up for the rest? I guess I'll be doing some experimenting with my lights and temp. Thanks.
 
My fixture has a built in fan. It just gets really hot that it warms up the tank a few degrees. About the heater, I know it turns off by itself. My question is, since my fixture raises temp, can I set my heater a few degrees less than my desired temp and let the lights make up for the rest? I guess I'll be doing some experimenting with my lights and temp. Thanks.

If you were to lower the temp of your heater to compensate for the heat produced by your light, wouldn't the temp of the tank be lower than what you want during light out? I would think that at night your optimal temp would be severely compromised. Sounds to me like the fans built into your light fixture aren't doing their job and maybe replacing them with a bigger/higher flow fan would be something to consider.
 
Consistenccy is IMPORTANT. You do NOT want to see more than a 2 degree temperature swing in a 24 period. When I ran MH lights I had a fan on a timer to blow across the tank top when the MH lights were on. That kept the tank stable within the 2 degree range. The light fans are meant to keep the light cool, not the tank.
 
I use a Ranco dual stage temp controller. When the water temp drops below the low set point (80) the heaters kick on and when it goes above the high set point (82) the fans in my canopy and over my sump kick on.

ETC Supply
 
Great point Mr. Limpet. I will not change the heater temp.

@cmor: do you use a regular fan? What do you use? Is there a clip on fan? The space between my fixture And the tank is less than 2".
 
@ccCapt: how do you set up the fan timer to kick in when temp goes over the limit?
 
The controller is made to control a high temp and low temp. All you do is set the temps (high and low) and plug the fans and heaters into the controller. It does the rest automatically. Check the link I posted.

Here's mine. The heaters get plugged into #1 and the fans into #2 and the temp probe goes in the water.
ranco_7.jpg
 
ccCapt said:
The controller is made to control a high temp and low temp. All you do is set the temps (high and low) and plug the fans and heaters into the controller. It does the rest automatically. Check the link I posted.

Here's mine. The heaters get plugged into #1 and the fans into #2 and the temp probe goes in the water.

Thanks ccCapt! I would definitely get one. I didn't even know there's a gadget like this.
 
I know with my power compact light that I have on my 30g long I had temp swings. I ended up getting some mounting legs to keep the light off my hood. Just raising it an inch or two dramatically lowered the temperature of the tank. I now only see a degree or so of swing in the temperature with the light on and off.
 
meegosh said:
I know with my power compact light that I have on my 30g long I had temp swings. I ended up getting some mounting legs to keep the light off my hood. Just raising it an inch or two dramatically lowered the temperature of the tank. I now only see a degree or so of swing in the temperature with the light on and off.

I have power compact lights too. I built a stand for the light. About an 2" from the glass cover. Can't go any higher because of the canopy. I keep my canopy open to cool the light down a little bit. I have 6-65W now.

I'm thinking that a split photoperiod will help with temp swings. What do you guys think? 4 on 4 off 3on 13 off.
 
Do you usually use that with heater and chiller?
I don't have a chiller. i use regular aquarium heaters and regular clip on fans.
I have power compact lights too. I built a stand for the light. About an 2" from the glass cover. Can't go any higher because of the canopy. I keep my canopy open to cool the light down a little bit. I have 6-65W now.

I'm thinking that a split photoperiod will help with temp swings. What do you guys think? 4 on 4 off 3on 13 off.
A split photo period is not healthy for fish or corals and not natural. I would not recommend running your lights like that.
 
ccCapt said:
I don't have a chiller. i use regular aquarium heaters and regular clip on fans.

A split photo period is not healthy for fish or corals and not natural. I would not recommend running your lights like that.

I have a fresh water tank. As for the split photo period, I want to rid of some algae and will get back to regular schedule once fixed. I bought a fan that is scheduled to turn on and off as the lights. :)
 
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