Reef Tank Summer Time Temp

[ryshark]

What is the hottest your Reef tank gets in the summer time? I am worried I may have trouble keeping mine under 82-degrees this summer.

[fijiwigi]

Originally Posted by ryshark

What is the hottest your Reef tank gets in the summer time? I am worried I may have trouble keeping mine under 82-degrees this summer.

How hot does your house get in the summer. Do you have air conditioning or central air? And what kind of light fixture do you have on what size tank??

[CatatonicBug]

Your house gets above 82? Wow! That would be miserable! I keep my AC at 74 all summer, just for my own comfort. Of course, the midwest humidity is killer above that anyway.

[bodie]

I also have trouble keeping my reef tank below 82 during the summer. I live in California and it's only May and the high today is 103. I think the highest my tank temp has ever crept up was around 84. I started using a directional fan that I can point directly at the light hood and my tank is located under an A/C vent. This has helped prevent my temp from going above 80.

[melosu58]

The key to temps is stability. I prefer the temp to be a little lower than 82 but even that would be OK if it stayed there all the time. You could have it a blissful 78 but if it`s bouncing around then you have stress problems with your fish and corals. Do me a favor both of you and let me know what range your temps are in during a 24 hr period. The lowest and the highest. If you are getting only a 1 or 2 degree change then I would say you are OK. A good temp to be at IMO would be from 77 to 82 in a reef tank.

[ryshark]

My AC in the house is set to a permanent 76-degrees. My tank heater is at 78-degrees. This morning at 6am I noticed that my tank temperature was at 79.7. I usually get less than a 2-degree temp swing from my lighting, which is 440 watts of VHO and 39watts of T5HO over a 75-gallon tank with 2-fans in the canopy for about 10 hours. One fan blowing air over the tank the other blowing air out of the canopy. I just set up my tank last July and it was not a reef tank at that time. It sounds like I am still ok so far. But summer is still to come, its only May. It gets pretty hot where I live in Southern California.

[melosu58]

If it does what you are saying there then IMO you will be OK. Remember the key is stability.

[Ziggy953]

I have a harder time keeping my tank cool in the winter then I do in the summer.

You really want to keep it around 80 if you can. Mine usually gets to 81 during the day with 678w of light running. Like Mike said the key is stability whether you are a little warmer or a little cooler as long as you aren't having major swings from night to day.

I see you said you have 2 fans in the canopy. How large is that canopy? Is it short and the bulbs are close to the surface or is it taller? I think adding another fan might help. I'm guessing that you have a fan on either end of the canopy?,? Maybe put one dead center and have it pull heat up and out of the canopy.

I have 3 in mine. 2 small fans pulling air into the canopy and 1 large one pulling air out. Also the back of my canopy is open so there is lots of air movement.

[cmor1701d]

You can always add a chiller if that becomes necessary, but a well place fan works wonders.

[austinsdad]

Programable thermostat. Don't let it go above 80.

Saves money too.

[bodie]

I've checked my temp all throughout yesterday and the temp dipped down to 78 in the morning and went as high as 82, but for the most part I was able to keep it stable at 80. I think I will set my heater to 80 (it had been set to 78) so that I can keep it stable.

I certainly agree that stability is very important, but that makes me wonder about something I've heard and read in the past. I've heard people say that you can float bags of ice in your tank to drop the temp. But ice melts quickly and the drop in temp would only be temporary unless you continued to float more ice in the tank. And the temp would drop too low, too quickly if you continue to float ice in the tank. Any way, I didn't mean to get off subject, but I just never understood why people suggested doing that.

[fijiwigi]

Originally Posted by bodie

but that makes me wonder about something I've heard and read in the past. I've heard people say that you can float bags of ice in your tank to drop the temp. But ice melts quickly and the drop in temp would only be temporary unless you continued to float more ice in the tank. And the temp would drop too low, too quickly if you continue to float ice in the tank. Any way, I didn't mean to get off subject, but I just never understood why people suggested doing that.

The only reason I could think of was either a heater stuck on or was set wrong or your house temp was high because you forgot to turn on the AC. Floating the ice would be a recovery method from some other kind of mistake causing the problem

[melosu58]

I dont run a canopy on mine. It used to run hot alot so I just use a reflector hood over my lights. Something to think about.

[cmor1701d]

Mike, do you have to remove that reflector to feed or do maintenance?
Are your bulbs just sitting on the frame of the tank?

[Ziggy953]

Do you have a sump on your system?

[melosu58]

No there is plenty of room in front to feed and reach hand in there without taking reflector off and yes they are just sitting on the frame. Just wanted to show a cooler option.

[ryshark]

I have a short canopy with the lights being pretty close to the water. The third fan pointing up is a great idea, but I dont have anymore room to put another fan. Luckily my temp swings have been less than 2-degrees. I angled the return pump more upwards to get more surface agitation. I think this may help with temp a little because of more evaporation. I don't have a real sump on my tank. I am hoping to upgrade later this year and get a reef ready tank, a bigger canopy(I like the canopy/closed look) so my upgrade will have a longer canopy with lights away from the water and a sump with refugium 2 in 1. I saw a 180gallon yesterday, I really liked the size of that and the depth it has for some more creative aquascaping.

[Ziggy953]

If you dont' have room for a third fan take one of your fans and flip it around so that one is blowing in and the other out that will help to cycle air through the canopy.

[ryshark]

Yeah, thats how I have the fans already. I'm only getting about a 1.8 degree swing. So I should be ok as long as I keep my AC set to a permanent 75 or 76. I think creating more surface aggitation helped a little too.