Tank Temperatures

[GaryP]

Hey folks. I tend to make this post a couple of times a year. With the kind of warm, slightly humid weather we are having now its real easy for your tanks to get warm. Temperature problems seem to be more common in the spring & fall when we aren't running our AC as much and the humidity in the house is higher. Keep a close eye on the temp. If you don't hve an electronic thermometer, now would be a good time to get one. Most LFS have them and you can also get the inexpensive indoor/outdoor thermometers that are basically the same thing at Radio Shack.

I noticed my temp. had gotten up to 83 yesterday afternoon and I turned on some extra fans and got the temp. back down. I'll be watching it closely today.

If you're tank is warm, you can help things by adding more cooling fans and in a real emergency put a 2 or 3 liter bottle of frozen ice water in your sump to help cool it down. You can have a couple of these and just rotate them until the weather changes or you turn your AC on. Keeping one in the freezer for emergencies is a good idea. The water will melt slowly and gradually bring the temp. down. I suppose you could also make some DI water ice cubes and store them in a zip lock bag as well. Just a few at a time to help bring the temp. down. After they melt, they will just become make up water.

Air Conditioning not only cools the air but it also removes the water vapor from it. High humidity means that evaporation is lower in your tank. Evaporation is the main way that an aquarium is cooled. A lot of heat is carried away when water evaporates. Its sorta like the way we cool ourselves by sweating. If the air is humid, the sweat doesn't evaporate as quickly and we get hotter.

[GaryP]

BTW, its also not unusual that this time fo year (spring & fall) seems to be when we have the most Ich outbreak posts. The two are related. The higher temp. seems to cause greater fish stress resulting in a lower immune response. Not only does the warmer water itself cause stress, but oxygen has lower solubility in salt water the higher the temp. is. I think the stress is a result of both of these situations. Salt water only contains about half the dissolved oxygen that fresh water does to start with.

This can be an even bigger issue with high temps. at night when you don't have algae producing oxygen (without a fuge on a reverse cycle) or if you are having a hair algae outbreak. The algae actually consume oxygen when the lights are out. A good protein skimmer will help this. A lot of small tanks that do not have a skimmer at all may be even more suseptible to low oxygen due to warm water. To add even more problems, the higher dissolved organic carbon content in a skimmerless tank will also cause decreased oxygen levels. So, temporarily adding a air pump and air stone may be wise under these conditions.

Totally oxygen saturated (the most it can hold) saltwater only has about 6 ppm oxygen at the temp. we operate our tanks. Most saltwater fish will start to die below 3 ppm. The area in between is where we seem to start to see stress that can result in the outbreak of disease. The difference between 77 F and 86 F is almost 10% less capacity for saltwater to carry dissolved oxygen. That's 10% on top of whatever oxygen the animals, plants, bacteria, and dissolved carbon are using already. Its sometimes enough, on top of the warmer water, to cause the outbreak of disease.

[PeeperKeeper]

Is there an inexpensive digital thermometer that has an alarm built in so it beeps if the temp gets above a certain number? Seems like it would be an easy thing to make, in fact we have a cooking thermometer that has a probe and it does it for like when a turkey reaches a certain temp in the oven, but I don't know if it can be set that low, nor do I know if the turkey probe would be safe to put in a SW tank.

If anyone knows where you can get one for a tank, not to expensive, please post a link.

[hammondegge]

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Product/Prod_Display.cfm?pcatid=3841&ref=3532&subref=AL&N= 2004+113769

here ya go

[seamonkey2]

there has been a lot of postings about this subject, and here is something I did in my house that improved the heat problem.

is a little long but worth it

last summer, chillers and all the temp in my tank remained at 75 degrees, but it cooked the fish room, all the heat couln't get out of my house fast enough, so I got thinkin, yeah.. bad idea,why don't I remove the heat by using an exhaust fan, so I go to HD and start looking at the bathroom ones, well the most powerfull 340 CFM's was $170.00 to expensive, so I start looking around and found the exhaust use in attics, 1540 CFM's for $54.00 w/ thermostat, so I thought let's give it a shot.

came home, cut a hole in the ceiling between the tanks padded the exhaust fan, plug it, set the thermostat to 70 degrees and BAM!!!

in about 15 min. the fish room was as cool as the rest of the house, yeah baby!!! score.

the exhaust has been running for a while now, the electric bill has not change, I'm keeping the whole house now at 79 degrees and it feels cold.

the whole thing is, hot air raises, if you remove the hot air, it does not help heat you tank.

I used to run 6 big fans in the fish room to help circulate the air, HAHAHA, what a donkey I was, now one fan inside the stand per tank and that is it.

I got to point out, that I also installed 2 more exhaust fans in my attic, blowing the air out, so since the one for the fish room blows air into the attic and the 2 in the attic blow it out of the house, the house remains cooler.

If any body would like to look at the set up, LMK

Jose

[TheOtherGuy]

Jose - Yes Thanks.

I have plans to add 3 of those fans.
1) In my Livingroom where the seahorse tank is going to be.
2) In my office closet where the chiller is going to be.
3) In my bedroom where my 75 acro tank is running.

I think these will help a bunch with air temp and air circulation.

[captexas]

One thing to remember about using exhaust fans is it is best if they vent to the outside, not just your attic. Not only are you venting hot air, but also moisture that evaporates from the tank. Moisture in the air leads to rust and more importantly, mold/mildew problems.

I've had tanks in three rooms of my house plus the water storage/salt water mix tub in my laundry room. All rooms have had the ceiling mounted air vents show signs of rust, a metal sliding closet door track has rust, and metal shelf brackets in my laundry room have rusted. The bedroom where I had my holding tanks had lots of mold around the window seal and I wonder if there is mold growing in a/c ducts due to the warm air rising into them when the system is off. My house is always kept below 80 degrees and I had ceiling fans circulating air in the rooms where the tanks were. I've always wondered what the long term effects were of warm moist air entering a/c ducts and if it would be beneficial to have the duct cleaned yearly. Exposure to mold can lead to a lot of bad health problems.

[seamonkey2]

that is why I also had 2 installed in the attic, sucking all that moisture and heat out of the house, but even then I know there will be some left over, will see in a few months if there is any build up

good point Chris

Jose

[Bill S]

For my 215, I've put in a VERY quiet fan I got off of fleabay, and a thermostat. I've also located my ballasts outside, protected under the eaves.

[fiji2000]

Bill,
What ballast did you locate outside?

Russell
fiji2000

[Bill S]

My coralvue metal halides and an icecap for VHOs.