It's gettin' hot in here!!!

[PB_Smith]

Temps are in the triple digits this week and my tank is sitting at 91 degrees right now.
Any good ideas on how to keep it cool when at work?
Floating frozen water bottles in the HOB right now.

Temps are gonna be higher tomorrow and I fear I may come home to boiled fish and not the yummy kind.

 

[tangs27]

If you have some fans you can point them at the water surface it will help cool the water.

 

[Sniperhank]

Fans can only cool the tank so much. If the air around the tank is hot, it won't really lower the temp of the tank with a fan. As it stands, the frozen water bottles is probably your best bet.

 

[tangs27]

I meant to use the fans with the ice bottles. It will help avoid boiling fish.

 

[PB_Smith]

well I lowered the water level a bit to provide a lot more surface agitation to help oxygenate, and have a fan in the window blowing down over the tank and floating ice, temps actually went up too 92 but have started to drop after lowering the water level. now down to 90.
There is a Fiji damsel, a Green chromis, Fire Goby, Banded Coral Shrimp, 5 hermits and a nice collection of little hitchhikers that came with some chaeto I picked up the other day, five brittle stars, a few worms a few snails and a plethora of miniscule white starfish that I fear may become a plague.

So far the only one noticeably distressed is the Fire Goby, he's just sitting in his cave leaning against the rock.. he definitely isn't happy at the moment. he did come out and eat a little but then right back in where he is lying down

 

[tangs27]

How big is the tank and how many bottles do you have? You may need to add a few more.

 

[PB_Smith]

it's a custom, 25"w 13"d x 20" tall, approx. 30 gallons.
Well there were 3 bottles in the freezer when I got home,(somebody's gonna be pissed ) I have done one at a time and they last about 15 minutes before it's warm, then grab another....

My main fear is tomorrow when nobody will be here to check on them....I fear I may lose the gobie.

Gonna set it up the best I can and hope we finish early tomorrow.....and cross my fingers.

 

[tangs27]

That is really fast. are the bottles completely frozen? I would definitely put a few bottles in at a time to help cool it a little faster.

 

[PB_Smith]

yup, bottles were completely frozen, it's just really friggin' hot!

problem is it takes a while to freeze a water bottle and I just used ones I'm sure someone was looking forward to enjoying...Ima gonna be in troooouuuubllllle

gonna go stock pile some now

 

[PB_Smith]

your in Phoenix, how do you deal with it without $500 utility bills?

I could run the AC, but then I wouldn't have enough money to pay rent and would have to live in my car and there is no room for the tank, my kids and the wife, so I guess the family will just have to manage on their own.....

 

[tangs27]

Yea I can understand that lol. My bf bought me led lights to help lower the temp and I also have my ac on and I use fans to keep the room cool.

If the temp does get out of had I use frozen water bottles to drop the temp more.

 

[Bectan01]

I lost my coral banded shrimp when my tanks temp hit that high. Unfortunately a chiller is going to be the best method to keep temp stable and they are expensive! What lighting do you run?

 

[PB_Smith]

just fluorescent's.
I managed to get the temp down to 82, so I'm hoping it will not climb too much today.
Keeping the lights off, top open, fans and hope for the best.
so far the shrimp seems to be fine

 

[TheTodd]

Getting a used chiller might be the solution if you can't keep your air on all day. I'm in the Palm Springs area, so triple digits today too. I had a chiller on my 75 last year and it worked great. I sold it (wish I had not). This year, I'm hoping the upgraded 240 will stay cooler. Same with the 60 in the bedroom. I might end up getting a chiller for them, but the one for a 240 is gonna be expensive.

 

[PB_Smith]

Well luckily the temps are going to be reasonable this week and I didn't lose anything.

Thankfully the wife had come home during the day and put a bunch of frozen bottles in the tank while I was at work Thurs. She said the temps were over 95.

Wondering what I'm gonna do in August.

 

[54seaweed]

running your ceiling fan in reverse will pull the heat away from your tank
I also keep small computer fans on tank 4 blowing in 4 blowing out it makes a world of difference keeping the heat down

 

[Cichlid-dude]

Sounds like you really need a chiller. Its going to become a full time job just trying to keep the temp in a safe range.

 

[PB_Smith]

Already got it covered.
I made a DIY two stage canister filter that uses 2" pvc as the canisters and is about 30" tall. The whole canister assembly will fit nicely into a tall trash can like the size you would use in the kitchen, and then I can fill the can up with ice when it gets too hot.
Haven't tried it yet, but I think with a little improvisation I could get it to keep the temps under control......with supervision.

 

[tangs27]

Hopefully it works! That is way more cost effective. Let us know how it works.

 

[TheTodd]

That sounds like it might be pumping really cold water into the tank. Chillers have thermostats and will keep temps constant. Remember that you don't want more than a two degree swing in a day. I tried the frozen bottle thing with my 75 last summer and it was just too much of a swing afterwards.

I would try fans and see how that works. I'm adding a couple underneath my 240g soon to see how well that works.