"Heatwave"

Thank you for backing me up on that one. +1

 

+1 Your right that is the very reason i and lots of others left reef central hope this is not the beginning of the same here !!!!!!!!!

 

Otty, come on bro. There is a few on here that cant afford a chiller. I happen to be one of them. I would say go freeze a few 2 liter soda bottles of water tonight, and tomorrow morning before you go to work toss one of them in the sump. It will drastically cool the water down and get you through it. Believe it or not, many people actually do this. ide rather do this then have to get a chiller. Free vs 500.00. Ill take the free route.

 

I live in the tropics, right under the equator. I too have high temp issues but I can't afford a chiller so I have to settle for a natural sunlight and 3 hour MH light regime. My temp rises to about 86.5F max and then I switch off MH's my corals and fish are excellent. I plan to get the small fan to help lower it a bit more.
Those belligerent remarks have me feeling utterly disgusted.
Homegrowncorals, I think it could be the beginning of negativity on this friendly forum.
I wish that I were full of money and be so swelled headed as some individuals so that I can put people down and embarrass them just to boost my ego by a notch... hummmm
Let's start a new thread: We can't afford chillers so we're gonna quit the hobby.

 

Siddique,
My intention wasn't to turn this into an angry mob, no reason to get that personal. In the end this hobby is supposed to be fun and relaxing, it adds all sorts of aggravations without getting heated over a forum.

That being said, I am from the school of thought that running a little warmer isn't necessarily a bad thing. Paying attention to the habitat of creatures you are keeping would give you a much better idea of "perfect" temp then arbitrarily saying 78*. I do think that high-80's into the 90's is excessive, but I would much rather have my tank run at a CONSISTENT 81-82 then a 3-4 degree swing of temp over the day/night cycle.

 

dont lisent to coments like that i live in florida and is hot as hell down here mi ac broke last week and my tank when all the way up to 90 is not a good place to be... i wend to home depot and i got 50 feet of 1/4 plastic tubing i got a 5gallon buket and coild it around inside the buket. with both ands out , one for input and one out put i had and old power pump arownd 200 gph i put the pump in my sump with one end of the tubing to the pump and the other end of tubing to the tank, then i wend to the store and i gad two bags of ice for 2.05 put that ice in the bucket withing two hours my tank wend downd to 75 ... this can last for 12-20 hours it will stay at normal rage if you have a coler it will last longer because of the insulation of the coolerd and the lid, if you have a heater your going to need it to keep water from going to could i spend 25.00 that day and i use it for 5 day strait my ac is fix but i have it for emergensis... i hope this work for you or any one with same problem

 

this is what it shoud look like

 

I can see where Otty's coming from... but the approach could have been less harsh. Reef keeping is like any other hobby I guess, you can't know everything... but having a plan in place to deal with emergencies should be high on the list of priorities. Power outages, heat waves, cold snaps, leaks, breaks... pretty basic considerations.

Anyone reading this who doesn't have a contingency plan for the common/basic emergencies take note. Have a plan, don't rely on a quick response from a forum to save your butt when the ish hits the fan.

It's really common sense. You should know the limits of your tank, and know how to respond to basics. I don't think you should scrap everything and quit over it of course... but this could be a good learning experience for the OP and others getting in on it now.

I don't know if 90 is too high for your tank, I KNOW it would be for mine. I know the common wisdom is that 90 is well into the danger zone, I know that from reading posts here and reading a couple books about reef keeping.


...that said.... ice bottles are good, make sure they don't split and leak fresh water into your tank, but not a common problem. A fan is another great idea. I would also second the $100 room AC if you have a window you can put it in. heat waves happen, and i doubt this will be the last one, so it's a worthwhile investment... more so than a $500 chiller, plus it makes your fish room cooler and you can spend more time in it looking at healthy cool fish

The plastic tube in a bucket is a cool idea. I'd use a 5gal igloo cooler, but I dunno what they cost, I have an old one. Any cooler would work, might hold the ice a bit longer.

I'd also suggest that EVERYONE have an emergency fund for their tank. Many of us have > $1000 invested in our tanks, so putting 10% aside for emergencies would not be a bad idea. If you have $5000 in a tank, $500 would go a long way to fix most major emergencies - broken tank, bad pumps, chillers, medications, money to set up a hospital tank, etc.... it's peace of mind.

Anyways, good luck with your temps. If the tank hasn't melted down yet you probably have time to get things under control, and don't fret the negative too much. If you can learn from this that's a positive.

-Doug

 

+1 for the awesome idea. Been trying to think of something like this just couldnt quite come up with the full idea. Thanks for sharing.

 

The bucket is a decent idea. I would just be there to control it more. Going from 90 to 75 in 2 hours can be very bad in itself.
The jugs are a great idea. Also, just get some ventilation going. Do you at least have a central fan in the house? You can even try just putting a fan in the room and cracking a window. We were in the high 80's today, and my tank didn't go past 78.7, and I run halides with no fan and no chiller on the tank, and no AC turned on just yet. Keeping it cool is easily doable.