Temp is very very warm, running out of ideas!

As long as it's not long-term (more than several days) you'll be fine. Corals are more resilient than most people probably think. Some people do several-day complete black-outs just to get rid of algae. lol.

 

As Seano mentioned, they make chillers designed specifically for this kind of situation. If you have hot summers every year and you plan on having the tank for a long time this might be something to look into. I'm having the heat as well in California and what I'm seeing is that a 2 liter is really only good for about a 1 degree temp drop, and only as long as there is still ice. This method is useless if you have to leave the house, as you seem to be noticing as well.

 

make sure you have fans blowing across the top of the water, not just "at the tank". evaporation will help cool quite a bit.

 

sounds like you need better AC. A chiller will cool your tank but would make the room with the tank in it very hot(depending on tank size).

 

+1

Killing the lights completely for up to 10 days is a common method for eliminating nuisance algae, and they say the corals will be okay. I would think a few days during a heat wave wouldn't be a problem at all.

 

Double Post.

 

That's not terrible, that's a reasonable thought. It doesn't seem like a good investment(a "waste of money, as some people call it), but it will be by your side the few days you need it most.

With that said, I don't run a chiller. It gets crazy hot here in Ohio in the summer (like today) and below 0* sometimes in the winter. I turn my heater up a bit in the winter or turn down the furnace in the house. For the summer I only had one fish when it got hot so it wasn't as big of a deal (you have coral and fish). Last time my tank heated it got to 92.5* (last month) and I think that was with the AC on. Luckily I didn't have fish in that tank at the time. I'm afraid they would have fried if they were in there.

 

Do they make small clip on fans for tanks? I just have a desk fan. It doesn't reach the water line directly b/c it's on my desk but it blows across the lighting fixture...

 

Yes, walmart used to sell them, don't know if they still do.

 

I couldn't find anything on the Lowe's website for "clip-on fan"...but I did find this (below).

Walmart.com: Optimus 7" Convertible Personal Clip-On / Table Fan: Heating, Cooling, & Air Quality