Cooling a tank

So as summer comes with my first SW tank and the local temp being mid 80s lately I am starting to realize that it does not take long for 46gallon to start to climb!! I even left the lid completely open the past couple nights and it still seems every 12 hours the temp shifts up .5 degrees with the house temp at 80. Cant wait to start the ACs again but in the meantime the tank went from 78 to 81 degrees over the past few days.

Without any cold SW made I figured the best and safest way to bring the temp back down would be to fill a large zipblock with ice and float it in the tank so that I do not dilute the salinity. Am I safe in assuming this is a safe and practical method and if so how fast should I drop the temp?

 

It is a method many have used , but at 81 degrees , IMHO you may not be at the point you need to consider it as yet

my softie tank seems to be OK up to and around 84 degrees, if it gets warmer the corals start retracting

whilst floating a bag of ice is a good method, you do have other options

a fan directed across the tank will also help to cool
lifting the canopy a bit higher if you are able to do so, will also reduce heat from lamps contributing to the ambient temp as much

the benefit of the fan method with raised canopy is that you set it up and leave it
rather than going for bags of ice a couple of times or more per day.

 

If thats the case should I raise my heater temp from 78 to 80 or 82 so it stays higher but more stable? I know they say stability is key with reefs.

Also how high does the temp get before your tank basically becomes immune to ich? I know in FW if you get an ich outbreak a method of treatment is raising the temp high enough to speed up the lifecycle and kill it not sure if this is used in SW as well. I do not have an outbreak but good to now for any possible future issues

 

80 would be a good idea on the heater

saltwater ich question, I honestly do not know if there is an upper temp and if there is, that temp would probably be so high as to make life extremely uncomfortable for anything else residing in the tank

better to quarantine and treat new fish , than deal with the issue later IMO

 

To think I just lowered the temp on the heater thinking it would be better for the tank. Back up we go! Thanks for the help

 

I believe that the temperature to quicken the ich cycle was around 84 - 86 degrees.

 

I should also note that the tank should be fallow because higher temperatures dissolve the oxygen and not good for fish and inverts.

 

Speeding up the life cycle does nothing to help your fish. In fact it just helps it spread faster as well as possibly stressing the fish with higher temps.

 

I have fans turn on and blow air over my water when the temp hits 78.2 F and turn off when it goes back down to 77.9.

Currently my apartment is 78F "closed up" and my tank is at 78.1.

Heater is set at:
77.5 ON
77.8 OFF


Not that large of a swing.

 

I just realized what I wrote. If the fish tank is fallow there is no fish in there anyway. I had two thoughts in my head at once. Sorry Steve.