AC out - tank advice?

[Kristy]

Appreciate the feedback Bill! I was not planning to cut the powerheads / pumps, mostly because our powerheads are Vortechs, so the motor and heat source are outside the water, so less of an issue than it would be for most. One more reason to be glad we bought the Vortechs!

[wesheltonj]

I had this problem about a month ago. Borrowed a chiller. As the house temp climbs so will the tank, no matter how many ice packs, blocks of ice, etc you drop in. I dropped in a lot, too much water volume to make a difference.

[Kristy]

UPDATE:
Well, we officially have AC again and the temp in the house is getting cooler by the second.

I am astonished to report that temp in the tanks never became an issue. The small tank crept up to 82 and then dropped back down to 81 with an ice pack in there, which we only had to do about five times over the nearly 48 hours of miserable heat. I had a plan in place for the big tank that was to go into action at 82 degrees, but it never did hit 82, only got as high as 81.5 a couple of times and mostly just stayed at 81.

We had three small clip-on fans blowing across the surface of the water (that we use every day) and also two larger fans pointing toward the open doors / open top. I guess that's what kept the temps in check.

Thanks so much for the advice, support, and well wishes from everyone and particularly the offer of a chiller from JT (gseclipse). Gotta love MAAST as a community of support!

[Bill S]

Great to hear. See folks, it CAN be done! On one of the hottest weeks of the year.

Kristy, when y'all get a chance, it would be cool if you wrote up a list of everything you did for thiis process. Maybe then we can post it as a "Sticky" on the Emergency Forum.

[sampsonndelila]

My tank will get to 83 on a normal day with the halides on, Its probably fine. sounds like your doing all the right things.

[Mr Cob]

Kristy and Mike, glad to see this wasn't a disaster. I'm sure the vortechs helped...

[Markster]

I had this happen on a Saturday a few weeks back. The house got up to 89 and 90 before getting the outside unit replaced Monday afternoon. My 75g reef was creeping up to 82, 83, then 84 before I could do anything about it. Used ice in the sump and it cooled nicely. Did that for a day and it held.

[Sherri]

Kristy...glad to hear all is well...this happened to us earlier this year. Got up to 91 in the house - seems as tho it always happens on Friday or Saturday...ice packs and ice helped us...never got past 82 on us...

[JimD]

I have a spare 12000 btu window unit in storage and a generator to run it just for these wonderful occasions... Learned that lesson a long time ago!