overheating tank

[leon1972]

Hey guys. I noticed today my tank is too warm. I DEFINATLEY need to learn some patience with this new hobby. I have rushed things a bit. Anyways, thats another story for another time. lol. I had the guy at the LFS tell me it could be an overheating sump, but its a little thing so i dont know if its really the sump or if the guy is trying to get over on me by getting me to buy a new sump pump.
The thing is, im on the 28th floor of my building and im thinking it could be the heat from the condos below. A fellow reefer, but only a few months in, told me he doesnt see it raising my tank to 84 degrees even if my condo hits 90, which it doesnt feel like it hits 90. I was wondering what more experienced reefers opinions were.
Also, If anyone had any suggestions on cooling without a chiller. Those bad boys are SSSSOOOOo expensive for my budget right now? Right now as i dont have anything that can jump out i think i am going to open the top and see if that helps things at all.

 

[Trigger Happy]

Hi Leon,

Overheating is scary. I have managed without a chiller for money reasons too.
I checked my tank before going to bed one night last year and found it at 29 degrees celcuis (84 F). I freaked out and found the heater had malfunctioned and wouldn't turn off. I saved most of my tank inhabitants by doing all the things below. Since then I have done these things as needed during summer when it has gotten really hot or stayed warm for several days in a row.


0. unplug the heater (I found some heaters turn On when it gets really hot????)
1. Open the lid (topping up with RO a lot more than I used to)
2. Put fans in front of the tank, pointed at the glass
3. Pack ice around the filter system (for me the cannister, for you the sump I guess) so the water going into the tank is cooler
4. Float sealed ice bags in the tank until they melt.
These are in the order i did them depending on how hot it was getting.

In the last month I got a portable air conditioner (1/4 the price of a chiller) and pointed that at the tank when we hit 40 degrees celcuis outside (104 faremheit)
Haven't had the tank over 27 degrees since then,

Hope this helps.

:Cheers:

 

[Washburn82]

+1 Trigger
I have the same issue only on the 5th floor of a building but yes heat does rise. My tank ive seen up to 83. I find a fan blowing over the surface of the open tank will cool it very quickly. Although i find when my tank is around 81 everything looks at its best. Corals fully opened, fishes swimming about happily.

 

[little_fish]

+1

Using a fan pointed at the tank will cool the tank very effectively

 

[yote]

Another thing that will help.Get a small,cheap fan from wal-mart and set it so that it's blowing between your lights and the surface of the water.
That one small little step can drop the water temp by as much as 10 degrees.

 

[leon1972]

Yeah, Ive read that. Its not my lights. There is no temp drop when lights are out and no raising of my temp when the lights are on.Though there HAS been about a 1 degree drop since ive opened the glass top so lets see what happens with keeping the top open for now

 

[Shane1]

I'm not quite a year into this hobby but I have learned that leaving the lid open with just the slightest breeze near by does wonders. Another thing to consider, is your temp sensor accurate? When i was questioning my tank temps some of the gurus mentioned that they have several temp checking devices in their tanks. So you might want to get another way to check or verify your current reading. Also frozen water bottles are a great way to get temps down.
Good luck.

 

[marcah]

take the glass tops off the tank .. it will help with gas exchange and keep the tank cooler.. if you do need a lid on the tank build one out of screening for it.. saltwater unlike fresh water tanks you shouldnt have the glass tops on...:D

 

[little_fish]

+1 Marcah

And the fan thing isnt about cooling the lights down, its about getting a small breeze going across the surface of the water

 

[leon1972]

Well, i have 1/2 thd lid open for now. I have a cheap, basic open lighting setup for now so i guess i will have to make do with 1/2 of the system opened up. Though i dont know how long it should take before i notice a difference but there is none as of this morning and i have had it open all night.

 

[yote]

Figure out a way to completely get rid of those glass tops.
You tank will run much cooler and the inhabitants will do much better.

 

[leon1972]

Actually I think my thermometers were off. One was a stick on the side of the outside type and the other was a mercury thermometer. I bought a digital one and it's reading is 80.6 at te hottest. So I think my other thermometers were wrong.

 

[Bifferwine]

It's not mercury -- it's alcohol. And that's the one I would trust over the others. Especially if you have two thermometers saying one thing, and the digital saying another.

 

[yote]

+1 Biff.
Don't trust those cheap digital thermometers.They're wrong 99,9% of the time.Unless of course your using something like a ReefKeeper and even then they have to be calibrated.

 

[leon1972]

I wouldn't take the digital thermometer too seriously but the digital thermometers temps seem to be matching up better with both heaters I have used than the alcohol thermometer is.