Aquarium is getting too hot!!!

[Tim Marvin]

Turn the heater down to 76, remove the glass tops, and run the fans on the hood.

[StephenA]

I doubt it's the heater. Remove the glass lids.

[Ross]

Just take the heater out until winter. It could malfunction and boil the tank.

[dan]

i would take the heater out. it's probably not coming on anyway. if it is that could be your problem. the hottist part of the day for me right now is about 81 to 82 on a hot day. i have seen it at 83.5 a few times and we are not into summer yet. my tank is in a room by itself so even with the air on in the house that room still gets hot. fixing to put a window unit in. that should take care of that problem. i had a friend that had a unit in his fish room and it was really nice.

[Tim Marvin]

Not if they are up 4-5inches from the top of the water. Do they have a shield in front of the bulb?

[Tim Marvin]

Doesn't have a piece of plastic in front of the bulb though? At any rate, if the fixture is not being splashed with water it should be OK.

[kaiser]

Go to home depot and have them cut You some acrylic or plexiglass to fit under the lightfixture. The plain petsmart light do not have waterproof endcaps on them. The saltwater will cause the contacts to corrode.

[Tim Marvin]

Right!

[PeeJ]

What I did...

Laid eggcrate over my sump...
Purchased 10" box fan from Wal Mart...
Laid fan on eggcrate....
Turn fan on high...
Lost 9-10 degrees.

[R.Allard]

84-86!!!aughhhhhhhh josh your AC is gonna be workin overtime..
the best thing i did was to buy Jim Norris s chiller.
at any rate your light fixture has the ballast sitting on top of those lights and the combination is probably the problem. its heating up the glass and heating up the water and without a way for the heat to escape its just building up in the tank.
If there isnt anything in the tank and your just cycling it i would remove the old light fixture and glass.second check your heater and make sure your setting is right and its not getting to hot. third set your new hood on top of the tank to keep excess dirt, bugs,cats well thats another story but you get what im sayn. then check your temp in a day or so if that dosent work and you have a sump try running a small fan over the sump to cool the water.
HTH
Robert

[Tim Marvin]

Be careful that box fan doesn't start dripping the rust and corrosion into the tank when the saltwater gets to it.

[PeeJ]

Well the blade assemply is constructed totally of plastic, and covers the motor wholy. It's really not possible for anything to drip unless the "cup" fills up. Only downside is noise, but ill deal with it for 10 bucks

[PsychFish13]

You should also use your heater in Summer. I know it sounds funny but stick with me on this... The dip in temp at night to 50's from 90s during the day can cause too much of a thermal change during the night and you can counter act this temp change by heating the water at night.

Day--->>> Night----->>> Day--->>>Night
84 ...............78................84............... 78 6 degree difference
84 .............. 82(h)............84...............82 2 degree difference

Basically heat at night to keep stability in the water temp. Temp difference can be the leading stressor in vertebrates (fish).

I hightly recomend atleast one heater if not 2 and ALWAYS on a GFI. This is mandatory for aquariums on out side walls or close to windows. I seperate pumps, heaters and light on seperate circuits. I also run a battery back up on a single power head as a caution.

In general.. we all know that water quality is most important aspect of aquariums... 3 main aspects, pH, salinity and Temp. pH and salinity are affected by Temp. Stabilize your temperature.

[PsychFish13]

In short...I'd rather have Fish soup than fish popsicles

[matt]

My tank rarely gets below 82 without a heater. One thing about this time of year is that humidity is high in our houses, because we don't have the AC running all the time. This makes a huge difference in my tank. Last wet spell we had my tank temp shot up to 86. First step was to get a clip on fan pointing at the sump and run my refugium light only at night, but I'm worried about the summer. I may have to switch skimmer pumps (T3, adds a couple of degrees), ditch my canopy, and go for open top w/HQI mini pendents. I've got the icecap fans in my canopy, but I still think having an open top would cool things down quite a bit.

[Instar]

The heater is for those surprise cold nights when you leave the windows open or surprise hot days when the a/c blasts arctic air into the house. That heater keep the temp from dropping below 78 as that much flux is too much. Make sure the heater is set correctly, then leave it in there and monitor it just like you monitor all the other equipment.

I got 2 8 inch all plastic fans with clips at WalMart for 9 bucks. They are totally quiet. Took 9 degrees off the tank temperature by blowing one over the refugium at low speed and one over the center brace at high speed to get rid of heat from the lights. The fans come on with the lights. My heater keeps it from getting too cool. Tank temp runs about 78 to 78.5 degrees, 24/7. It used to run 82 to 87.5 before the fans if my a/c wasn't running hard.

[drehere]

Most of y'all mention putting the fan over the sump. Any reason I'm not thinking of for placement over the sump rather the main tank? My thinking is that I've got so much more surface area for evaporative cooling on the tank as well as the fact that despite other techniques, my hood doesn't vent well without the fan.

I've not got a radioshack fan (4") that's pretty quiet and on a timer to run from about noon til 5. After a couple of days with the technique I've brought the temp from a pretty steady 82 to 76. that's sure to need some adjusting as summer comes in.

I believe the AC units not being on all the time like this time of year does make a large difference. You get some mid to upper 70s wet bulb temps in your house and you won't be able to evaporate enough to bring the temp down. I tend to keep the house pretty warm in the first place.

I'm also thinmking of getting a thermo couple or something to monitor the temp and have it activate the fan. I've done this with homebrew equipment.

Maybe someday I'll get a commercial chiller. About time to bring another circuit to the tank.

[RobertG]

Window unit in my room is working wonders. My tank stays between 77 to 80 Degrees. 77 @ night up to 80.5 in the evening/night. Lights all on. The room itself I keep it at about 75 My heater is in the fuge on one side. I have it set at 78.
Does anyone run a Medusa Dual temp controller?

[PeeJ]

I put it over my sump because its big, and noisy, and I didn't want to have to deal with it if I had to get into the tank.

[StephenA]

The fan promotes evaporation which will radiate heat from the water. The big fan will work well over the surface area of the sump.