Summer heat in full effect...

Well, summer is in full effect here in So. Cal.. I went on vacation a week ago and apparantly it was very hot while I was gone.. I think my tank temp spiked at some point.. My original xenia frag melted a large chunk off and has continued to deteriorate over the last week.. Its almost completely toast.. Other xenia stalks that had grown around the tank look fine.. it also looks like a couple of the pieces that melted off have "re-established" themselves and may recover.. I stuck a couple of them in some holes and they look pretty good.. Hopefully they will continue to recover.

I also noticed my zoos dont look too good.. They have been somewhat closed up for about a week.. I dont know if they took a shock or if the are hiding from the melted xenia in the water.. My torch, shrooms, gsp's, and yellow polyps along with the fish seem fine..

My tank runs at 80* even in the winter.. so there is not much room for any heat spikes before things go south.. I think it may be time to invest in a chiller.. I love the hobby and really enjoy seeing the corals grow..

To keep things in check since Ive been home I have been running our home AC at 78* during the day until I can figure out what to do..

Do you folks think the chiller is the way to go? I have been looking at the JBJ 1/10 hp. They sell in the LFS for $399..

Does a chiller have other benifits such as increased coraline algea growth, reduced nussiance algea, less evaporation, etc?

Thanks,
Jerid

 

Well in my opinion it depends on the size of the room your tank is in, If it is a small room you may want to use an air conditioner instead of a chiller as a chiller gives off quite a bit of heat themselves and your chiller may end up fighting it's self to keep your tank cool unless you can put the chiller in a different room or even the cellar or garage. Plus a small air conditioner is only like $80.00 to a little over $100.00 compared to the $400.00 or so for a chiller. John

 

In the long run, it's cheaper to run the a/c 24/7 during the summer.

 

A $20.00 fan works wonders for me! temp is at 80 degrees!

 

thanks for the comments guys... I am suprised so many of you just use fans.

I live in a 1200 sq ft condo and the tank is in the living room.. The living room is connected to the dinging room, office, kitchen and hall without any doors.. The one thing about this place is that it gets HOT in the afternoon.. Lots of windows on the west side of the house...

I have a connection in the business and will talk with him tomorrow to see if he can get me a deal on the chiller.. I guess I'll be running the AC or getting a fan for the meantime.

Thanks for the comments.

 

My tank hit 84 yesterday. A couple weeks ago it hit 87. My landlord is supposed to install a screen door out front today which should help though. I can't wait. It's hot out here.

 

Chicago is putting 87 to shame. These days.
My air has not turned off in 3 days.

 

It's absolutely roasting over here in the UK, currently 91, and that's hot for us! 8)

Anyway, I've had to do something with my tank as my house gets very hot and the temperature soared to nearly 88! I decided to use the fan idea, basically it's just a desk fan, I put it on a timer to run for around 3-4 hours during the day at different intervals. My tank is now a cool 78-79, hurahh! The fan only cost me £5 ($3), what a bargain. ;D

 

Mine is managing to make it to about 82 by the end of they day and I have 3 hood fans running. Everything looks great at this temp. It makes ya wonder about the oceans coral reefs. Temps their spike to 89 and they all survive it.

 

It's pretty hot up here in "The Great White North" as well.

My main tank hit 86* and I invested C$47 and bouth some eggcrate and a 16" fan. I replaced the glass tops with the eggcrate and placed the fan to blow across the tank-top. I sure hope this works. My fishies look a bit too mellow for my liking. We'll see.

My mini-tank is showing 81* as of this morning but I'm keeping an eye on it. My newly acquired softies seem to be OK upto now.

Best of luck with the heat (to everyone affected).

This round is on me

Cheers.