Help with Heat issues

[dannyny]

hey guys.

my tank is normally around 78-80 degrees, but since the heat wave this week the temp has gone up to 82 on wednesday and now 83.5 on thursday. i do not have a chiller i was planning to buy a clip on fan but havent had the chance yet. my question is how many degrees can my tank tolerate before it really becomes an issue? i have a goby in there along with a handful of different kinds of inverts. thanks!

should i use ice packs?

 

[stooops718]

+1 on ice packs and if you can just aim any type of fan on it

 

[dannyny]

should temperature be lowered 1 degree at a time? i dont think i should drop from 84-80 in one shot?

 

[masterswimmer]

83.5 should be a non-issue. Temps are supposed to be much cooler today and for the next few days. This needs to be a wake up call though. Get your emergency contingency plans in place NOW. We're only in June and it's going to be a long summer.

Russ

 

[dannyny]

83.5 should be a non-issue. Temps are supposed to be much cooler today and for the next few days. This needs to be a wake up call though. Get your emergency contingency plans in place NOW. We're only in June and it's going to be a long summer.

Russ

thanks Russ!

at what temperature will i need to ice my tank? 88? 90?

 

[Reef Fixations]

A few years ago I lost a few things @ 85/86

Once ai had a heater malfunction on a 30g in my bedroom and it got to be about 95 or so and I lost a Sally Lightfoot crab and a Coral Banded and wierdly enough my Linckia star survived for a few years after as did all of the corals. It happened overnight. The corals were softies. I don't even remember what kind of fish I had in there but I know that none of them died. One was a coral beauty.

The first sign was my Linckia trying to climb out of the tank... that got me to get out of bed, and then I saw my dead crab and reached in to get it and that's when I realized how extremely hot it was.

 

[masterswimmer]

thanks Russ!

at what temperature will i need to ice my tank? 88? 90?

I would probably start icing the sump at about 85/86. Remember to turn off your heater too. Most of us keep the heater in the sump and this is fine, but if you add ice to the sump, the temperature probe for the heater will detect a chill and possibly turn on the heater counteracting all the chilling you're trying to accomplish.

Russ

 

[Macropora]

You'll get a lot of algae growth when it's 83-84 degrees, but it should be fine with plenty of water movement. Shutting off or reducing the light cycle will also lower the temp a few degrees during a heat wave.

 

[dannyny]

You'll get a lot of algae growth when it's 83-84 degrees, but it should be fine with plenty of water movement. Shutting off or reducing the light cycle will also lower the temp a few degrees during a heat wave.

thanks! i just purchased a fan will hook it up once i get home...

 

[saltwaterinbrooklyn]

if you have a sump big enough to hold a soda bottle whether a 2liter or a 1 liter, i suggest you freeze one fulll of water and insert it on hot days, i have 3 bottles frozen and ready to be submerged when the crap hits the fan , oh yeah and the fan works great as well!!

 

[thirty5]

if you have a sump big enough to hold a soda bottle whether a 2liter or a 1 liter, i suggest you freeze one fulll of water and insert it on hot days, i have 3 bottles frozen and ready to be submerged when the crap hits the fan , oh yeah and the fan works great as well!!

Just make sure that you don't fill the bottle all the way and leave the cap off when you freeze it!!! I would also only freeze RO water and not tap, just in case that there is a problem with the bottle and it leaks.

 

[saltwaterinbrooklyn]

Thirty You are right , a few good points I left out thank you , and it does work well for me , it's a very economic option for reefers who don't wanna shell out the money on a chiller

 

[dannyny]

Thanks guys I will look for a bottle.

What about those reuseable freezer packs people use for camping? The blue one that looks like bricks?

 

[Djbetterly]

Whats your AC situation at home?

 

[Paolissimo]

honestly the ice solution is not a good one. To me that's temporary fix. If your ac doesn't cool down the tank, you need to invest in a chiller. Do you have corals? If you don't turning off the lights will help reduce the heat. Also having a fan blowing the surface of the water, will cool down the tank but your evaporation will increase, so keep an eye on the water level.

 

[Djbetterly]

I recently purchased a product from a company called Thinkeco.com. They have a product called smartac that allows you to legitimately control a window ac via a thermostat/remote thats provided with the unit. On top of it all, you can monitor the room temp and turn your ac on and off via an iphone or android app. Between my controller, two 120mm fans and my smartac product, I had no problems with my temp during the heat wave. My water never went above 81 degrees.

 

[thirty5]

honestly the ice solution is not a good one. To me that's temporary fix. If your ac doesn't cool down the tank, you need to invest in a chiller. Do you have corals? If you don't turning off the lights will help reduce the heat. Also having a fan blowing the surface of the water, will cool down the tank but your evaporation will increase, so keep an eye on the water level.

I think that the ice bottles are just an emergency thing if the power goes out. I would not use ice bottles just to simply cool the tank. You need to either use fans or chiller, or other things to keep your tank cool for normal use,

 

[saltwaterinbrooklyn]

Simple fix yes , but if you have money for a chiller , why buy that when you can get one of the new friedrich ac units with wifi so u can control it from your smart phone, it also cools your home , as a chiller only cools your tank!!!! It all depends on what works for you!

 

[dannyny]

Whats your AC situation at home?

had to turn my AC off. summer of last year my electric bill was 450$ a month so im trying to avoid that...

 

[dannyny]

honestly the ice solution is not a good one. To me that's temporary fix. If your ac doesn't cool down the tank, you need to invest in a chiller. Do you have corals? If you don't turning off the lights will help reduce the heat. Also having a fan blowing the surface of the water, will cool down the tank but your evaporation will increase, so keep an eye on the water level.

thanks! i have my ato in place for the water level.