Temp Is High

Hello all, my tank has been at around 81-82 for the last couple of days and i did not know why. i had the ac on and nothing...i finally figured out...well u know LA can be hot...well...i put my hand on the wall that my tank is up against and wow its hot! i wanted to know if anyone knew what kind of insolation i could get to get rid of the heat

 

Styrofoam sheets from your hardware store like homedepot. They even have foil covered insulation although this is unsitely. Why is your wall hot?

 

Insulation keeps the heat in, you want to move some air over it. Many stores ae having sales on those little 6" clip ons, they work fantastic. I can lower my tank temp by several degrees just by putting a fan blowing across the sump.

I experimented with some cooling options today as it's supposed to get in the 90s here this weekend and my tank runs 3 degrees above ambient room temp. I can keep it stable at 78, if, I have a fan blow across the sump, a fan blow behind and across tank, and leave me window open. IT was 83 today, tank still stayed at 78. The second the halides went off, it went to it's holding temp of 77.

Removing your glass top, and keeping cabinet/canopy doors open really help as well. I run all open top systems simply for the cooling reason. Bah, lie, I hate removing glass every night and every time I need to get into the tanks.

I don't think I lke those options above though, some I'm making a chiller. Not a freon type chiller, but rather a remote cool tank that will run threw a coil in the sump. My basement never goes above 70 degree's, so I'll stick the tank in there. I have some electronic ball valves and a controller used for drip irrigation. They work just fine as salt water won't be moving thru them. I'll have a heat sensor trip the controller, open the valves and turn on the remote pump. I guess I know next weeks project. This weekend is building of a 4x6x4 stand for my new prop/frag system Finally, some well needed acreage.

 

see the problem is, is that my room is at about 74 degrees but the wall that is up against my tank is baking in the sun all day...

also if u check the weather in los angeles it is like in the 90s lol...record highs for this time of year

 

I meant for you to put the insulation sheets against the wall! You might also be able to hire an insulation company to spray insulation in the wall.

 

ok...so the temp is ok at around 80 for most of the day. but starting around 4 the sun is directly across from my room...lol so it tops off at about 82.4 !!!! so i put some ice in it...hope it works...it is melting a bit but...what temp does it become deadly?

 

wow...ok like 5 mins after i put the ice in...its almost fully melted...this is not good....ugh...i dont have $600 for a chiller...any other ideas?

 

ok this is good, i found a window ac and hopefully that will cool my room down...for some reason the central ac is dead lol...wish me luck

 

81-82 is not that hot. The water on tropical reefs can reach the mid 80's during the summer with no problem. Depending on local conditions, the water canl be that warm to over 100ft. (My wife and I are divers, and don't even like to go until the temp hits 80! ... we're spoiled! ) The thing you need to watch out for is rapid changes in temp.

 

Do you have a canopy or glass top on your tank? If so you could replace it with an egg crate so the top of the tank is open and allow more evaporation and cool the tank some. You can even run a small fan acroos the top of the tank to aid in cooling. Also how high off the tank do your lights sit? I keep my powercompacts at least 3" above the tank.