Is 97 degrees fatal?

[PeeJ]

Well...apparently the two extra lights I added really kicked the heat up...much more than I expected...tank was 97 degrees when I got off work. Galaxia was totally retracted. Xenia is....well...shrivled. I'm guessing they won't come back??

What can I do to battle the heat? I have two like 8 inch fans aimed at my sump which knocked the heat down to about 87 now.

Any suggestions??

[BA]

more fans maybe in canopy, will kill you on evaporation, but that's what i do...also can boil eggs...

[RobertG]

Hate to say it, but extremely! Take Minh into your thoughts & his disaster. :cry: I have no canopy so no help from me. Sorry hope it works out.

[PeeJ]

I figured as much. Perhaps this is a good excuse to get a bigger tank and a larger, more airy canopy. HA!

[captexas]

If you have a sump you can put a clip on fan on it. I saw clip on fans at HEB for only like $5. Also you can try reducing the number of hours the halides are on or run them during a cooler part of the day. That and lower the temperature on the good old thermostat! lol

[matt]

If your tank really hit 97 degrees I'd be amazed if anything survived, but I guess it wasn't that hot for that long? Fish okay? No bleached corals? Surprising...you're lucky.

It sounds like you're going to have to redesign your canopy or go open top or something. If you hit 97 after one day, no fans on the sump are going to fix that. Maybe you need a chiller. Good luck, and if you come up with a new way to deal with heat, we'd all like to know about it!

[matt]

I have an idea; instead of top off water, just use top off ice. Might work, and you could start a little polar sub-habitat in your sump with mini penguins and seals.

[NaCl_H2O]

It's all about heat exchange! Water is a great thermal sponge, it will hang onto heat or cold, and you have to do something drastic to change it! Your lighting is a DRASTIC source of heat! I struggled with heat, I tried ice, and a DIY evaporative chiller (see below), I finally broke down and bought a "real" chiller, and very glad I did. However, I experimented with a DIY evaporative chiller. The basic concept worked and I dropped my 125g temp by about 3-5 DegF, but the volume of evaporation was significant. A quick sketch of what I did is below, maybe you can take the concept and improve on it?

I hope this file attachment thing works, here goes ...

[BA]

hey looks cool

[R.Allard]

Im with Matt.. Get A chiller! i bought mine from Jim Norris and was the best thing i ever did for my tank... my tank stays within 1 degree of 81
at all times and the medusa controller also runs the heater. so not only does the heater itself have a thermostat but incase it fails the controller will shut it off.
how close are your lights to the water?? and how are your fans set in the canopy??
IMO. you need to put one fan as an intake and one as an exhaust. yes you have to replace the exhaust fan every 6-8 months from salt creep and rusting but it will get rid of more heat that way.
and BTW i dont have to run any noisy fans with a chiller,just a small one
on my sump to help me evaporate the water alittle more so i can add more Kalk at night.
HTH
Robert

[NaCl_H2O]

srodgers, that's a neat design. I wonder if a separate water source could be used so as not to use up so much RO/DI. I guess after buying a coil and all it might be better just to grab a chiller though.

Before I broke down and bought a chiller, I looked at other possible designs using a seperate (non-salt) water supply and a glass or titanium coil for heat exchange. There are some really neat & efficient designs on the internet used to cool CPU chips for "overclocking". The physical size, evaporation, and cost finaly drove me to my chiller purchase.

[brewercm]

With that much light I'd definately look into a chiller for the tank.

As far as the xenia goes, I had the same problem a while back where my fan didn't work one day and tank got real hot. Didn't quite reach 97 but probably around 90. My xenia retracted for about a month before they started coming back. I was just watching them closely to make sure they didn't start melting away or anything that might be bad for the tank.

[PeeJ]

Yeah I am lucky...all the fish are fine, which is crazy.

[PeeJ]

The xenia is now opening up and pulsing like it used to....Hopefully the Galaxia will emerge soon.

[GaryP]

Unless you really oversize a chiller I'm not sure even that would result in a 15+ degree change in temp. I just don't think they are designed to overcome that much of a difference. I'm sure someone here could tell you. Maybe one of the vendors that handles them can help you size a cooler.

Let me ask the obvious question. Are you sure your thermometer is accurate?

Gary

[Brett Wilson]

Maybe your thermometer isn't accurate.........................????

[Brett Wilson]

nm, just saw GaryP's post above mine asking the same thing.

[PeeJ]

Honestly I do not know. I think it reads high...

I wake up in the morning and the therm reads like 80. No way....Its usually always like 73 or so when I wake up in the morning.

[Brett Wilson]

I hope you dont mean your tank is usually 73... I am going to assume you mean your house is 73 and it's telling you 80 in the house...

[PeeJ]

Yes..the tank temperature usually stays aat about 78 in the tank at night. Either way, it doesn't matter now. I've just been runnin the 20ks now. I believe I might make the switch to pendants.

[Brett Wilson]

No matter what live stock you keep I feel it's always an issue if you don't know your temperature.
I'd suggest a probe style digital thermometer from radio shack. Mine has worked for 2+ years now and I paid about $5 for it.

[PeeJ]

I do have one - I believe it reads wrong

My mercury thermometer usualy reads 78-79 at night. However, when the tank overheated, I did not look at the mercury therm. Just the digital one which read 97. That is my fault for not comparing the two. So yes, I do know (with the exception of one day) the temperateure of my tank.

[Brett Wilson]

ahh ok, well that is good. Are you selling this same tank or is that another one?

[GaryP]

PeeJ,

Go down to Radio Shack and get an electronic indoor/outdoor thermometer. I think they are about $6-8.
Drop the probe in your sump and velcro the readout unit to the side of your sump.

Gary

[Brett Wilson]

I have the one that Gary is talking bout. works great.

Kinda like this one here but it's a single display and is $10 cheaper usually.
http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=CTLG&category%5Fname=CT LG%5F010%5F005%5F001%5F000&product%5Fid=63%2D1035 that one would be even better. Just make sure they have a plastic probe...