fan or chiller

Nimboli12

Reefee
How many of you have luck with fans on your sumps to cool down tank water. My tank water is 80 to 81. Does warmer water have anything to do with red slime algae? I keep cleaming it out of the tank but in a couple of days its there again.

If I have to get a chiller can you suggest what kind and size? I have a 60 gal.
 
A fan is much better. Worked wonders for me and much cheaper.
Plus if you put a chiller in the room, it will heat the room up while its trying to cool the tank down, so its kinda pointless. My tank water is also at 79-80. no problems here.
 
Higher temps is correlated to slime algae blooms. You will probably benefit from lowering your temperature (even though your current temp is safe for your tank inhabitants).

Like Waddi said, chillers are like window AC units -- they blow heat back into the environment. So if you have one running in the room, it will heat up the room as it cools the tank, which is counterproductive -- the tank will continue to get warmer and the chiller will continue to work harder. In order for them to be efficient, they need to be vented to the outside.

Plus chillers are super expensive. You will pay at least $400 for one for a tank your size. You are much better off getting a couple clip-on fans from Walmart or Target and have those blowing across the surface of the water.
 
By water, you mean sump water or fan over the tank water.

You need the fan to blow air above the main tank's water surface. Unless your sump has adequate surface area that would be comparable to the main tank.
More water surface = more contact surface between water and air for heat exchange.

The air moving above the water surface will increase heat exchange between the water and air, resulting in evaporative cooling of the tank water.
The side effect though is that you will need to top off more often.
 
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