Fan Setup help needed

Sooo i've tried it all.. have a small 5" fan in the hood pushing air into it to clear out some of the hotness from the MH's.. but I feel that my sump is the cause of all my problems..

Its a 155g bow front with 3 175w MH's and 2 6' vho's.. along with a 30g or 20g sump.. not sure which.. Sump has 3 pumps.. one for the return.. a rio 3100 for the in sump skimmer.. and i just added a cheap temporary pump for the UV sterilizer.. Tank was maxing out at about 82 degree and settling down to 78 during the evening before i had the skimmer running..

Now with the skimmer and uv.. the sump's at 85-86 during the day.. and the tank hit 84.5 at peak last night..

temperature in the room is around 80 and dips down a bit at night as well.. which dosn't help the matter..

so I used to use a small 8" circular fan on the sump.. aimed straight down at the water.. which worked well with only the return pump going... now with the 3 pumps and UV.. i've got a huge window box fan jammed above the sump... and that's barely doing the trick.. can't hear the gurgle anymore


so.. in closing.. what do you guys recommend besides a chiller.. i don't want to draw more power then the tank is allready.. I'm fairly confident the correct fan placement can resolve the issue.. but my question is.. should I be concentrating on cooling the sump? or would it be easier to cool under the hood since it has more surface area.. I need a simulator..

thanks guys

 

external pumps produce far less heat in the water than powerheads. in your hood with the fan, turn it around so it pulls the hot air out instead of blowing room air in. fans only work so good and with the room temp being what it is, the tank wont go below that point, a chiller is about the only way to go. other than that your gonna have to spend alot of time putting ice bags in the tank.

why are you running a uv? they kill everything, good and bad.

 

Cooling you tank

You need to get the rooms temp down to no higher than 75 and have a fan blowing on top of the main tanks water and the sump and then you temp will drop. You don't want higher than 80. The rooms temp has the biggest influence on the tanks temp. The fans can't do it alone.
Adam

 

temp

Even with your powerheads if your rooms temp would be in the low 70's the water temp has to drop also if using the fan also
Adam

 

Yah i'm not too sure why the rooms so bloody hot.. I guess i should worry about that more then the fans on the tank.. probably the MH's causing it all :/

 

yup, aquaeuro makes a small quiet chiller

 

yah thats the one i've looked at in the past.. i like the dual thermostats for a heater .. thats about the best feature a chiller could have.. One day.. i'm going to try and get through the winter without one.. and see how the AC in the house does against combatting the tank temperature.. if all else fails... i'll be chillin

 

Have you tried placing one fan "pushing" in air and another fan on the other side "pulling" out air? If you have central a/c and keep the temp. somewhere in the low-mid 70's, I dont see why you cant lower the temp in the tank. I have 2-250w MH's with no fans and had to buy a heater to keep my temp at 78-79. Have you also tried directing an a/c duct pointed to the tank? Usually by placing a fan either on the DT or the sump takes care of that problem. Luna