Trying to control a nano tank temperature swing

Well, I've been having a bit of a temperature swing in my Nano Wave 9 setup that is currently "cycling" for a mantis shrimp.

The problem is, the lights that come with the thing get so darn hot during the day. During the day, the temp can get pushed up to above 80. But, at night, even with the fuge light on, it will drop to around 74 when morning comes.

First off, is this even bad to begin with? My little damsel Gregory that's cycling the tank doesn't seem to care...except he doesn't seem to care about anything except food anyways. I'm assuming it is bad, but it doesn't hurt to ask you guys to clarify.

It looks like I could either:
-Find a way to cool the lights off during the day and have a heater running to maintain temp
**or**
-Run the lights during the day w/ no heater, and then run the fuge light during night time with a heater running as well.

I like the latter version better myself, and I'm actually going to experiment with it today and tomorrow to see what I think of it. But does anyone else have any advice?

 

You could get a small clip on fan to run over the surface of the water while the lights were on, that would help a bunch. But then you will have more evaporation.

 

jwin.. my red sea 130D has the same issue. Up and down on the TEMP. I was thinking of upgrading the fans. I was also thinking of a small chiller unit.. I will have to wait and see how the temps are in the summer.

 

also, leave the feeding lid open during the day when the lights are on

 

Ok thank you for the suggestions. I'm running a little test right now to see how much those lights heat it up throughout the day. Right now it's at 76.1, so I think it may actually work to have lights during the day, heater at night. We'll see.

My plan be is to maybe widen the venting holes with a dremel on the lid, or plug up a cooling fan to it. Or both.

 

are you running a heater??

 

Well, I was running a heater. But that's when the temp hit 80. Right now with no heater running the light has got the water up to 76.6, and it's only 11:30 in the morning. So, I'm feeling pretty good about the lights during the day, heater at night plan.

 

OK thanks to Stepho and my mom, another plan has come up. Ditch the dinky little 10 gallon walmart heater I have in there, and buy a higher end heater, like the kind that only turn on when the water drops below a certain temperature. Plan C!

 

thats what I've done with all of my tanks...set the heater temp at 79 or so.. then when the temp drops it won't go below 79....

 

Yep. I'm going to upgrade to a Visi-Therm Stealth 25w heater. We have the 150watt in our 46 and have been quite happy with it. Looking at it, this heater is actually perfect for a mantis. It's matte black, shatter resistant, and there's no red light to bug the snot out of it.

I love having more brains working on this than my brain. I completely forgot about the fact that other heaters exist Two heads are better than one.