# Excess temperature of tank water



## 30searay (May 1, 2007)

I am finding that I am unable to keep the lighting on my tank from really heating my tank up. I have a 110 gallon with 6x55w CF (330 w total) 2x55 - 5500k; 2x55 - 6700k; and 2x55 - 7800k. Plants are doing well and algae is almost non-existent. However, I am cooking my fish! 

Over the weekend the tank hit 87 degrees and I am losing fish so I just unplugged the heaters and turned off 2 lights (the 6700K) so I now have 220w total lighting. I am concerned about running only 220w (2 wpg) as my tank is 29 inches deep. 

My question is, what are peoples thoughts on running a Chiller on a fresh water aquarium? I am still running 83 degrees in the morning hours so the tank is not cooling down. My house temp is 74 constant. 

I have seen other threads here that don't seem to recommend a chiller.


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## crispo069 (Mar 13, 2007)

Chillers are very expensive.....Unless you are running CO2 you should look into getting some fans to blow across the top of the water....something like these:

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produ...&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial&Np=1&pc=1&N=0&Nty=1

Also, 83 doesnt sound that high.....I've hit 84-85 before and didnt lose any fish at all nor did they show any signs of stress. But if you are hitting 87 and staying there, I guess that could cause some issues.


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## bhaladog (Jun 8, 2007)

I am running 6x65w CF total during part of the photoperiod, and was encountering the same problem on the several warmer days we've had in SEA so far this year. My homemade hood sits pretty high off the tank's surface, so I had room to mount a compact clip-on fan, like you find in a hardware store, or Walmart.

Like this: http://tinyurl.com/339g92

Reduced the tank temp by 3-4 degrees. I was surprised at how much it helped. Go there before you go with the chiller. Pretty cheap fix compared to a special aqua-fan too, if you have the room for it.

I am running pressurized CO2, and haven't noticed much difference since using the fan, which is connected to the timer running 4x64w, so the fan comes on only during the max light intensity. The fan doesn't point at the water surface, but kind of blows in from the rear and angles across to the other side. Also pretty darn quiet, really--don't even notice it when the hood's doors are shut.


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## net (Mar 27, 2007)

Yes a small clip on style fan will help allot. If you have a canopy it may be trapping heat. My tank stays at 83 with the canopy on and my fish are fine. Without the canopy the temp will be at 81


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## 30searay (May 1, 2007)

crispo069 said:


> Chillers are very expensive.....Unless you are running CO2 you should look into getting some fans to blow across the top of the water....something like these:
> 
> http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produ...&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial&Np=1&pc=1&N=0&Nty=1
> 
> Also, 83 doesnt sound that high.....I've hit 84-85 before and didnt lose any fish at all nor did they show any signs of stress. But if you are hitting 87 and staying there, I guess that could cause some issues.


Crispo,

I went ahead and got the 4 fan from Foster/Smith and we'll see how it works. It says for up to a 42 gallon tank but will fit nicely into the back of the canopy. I re-measured the canopy and its 8.5 inches high so I should have the room. Leaving the canopy lid up is keeping the temp at about 82 but I would like to keep closed if possible. Thanks for the help.


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## goalcreas (Nov 20, 2006)

You could also run your lights at night time and leave them off durring the day time to help with the temp swing.

If that was mentioned already, sorry, I did not read the whole thread.


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## crispo069 (Mar 13, 2007)

30searay said:


> Crispo,
> 
> I went ahead and got the 4 fan from Foster/Smith and we'll see how it works. It says for up to a 42 gallon tank but will fit nicely into the back of the canopy. I re-measured the canopy and its 8.5 inches high so I should have the room. Leaving the canopy lid up is keeping the temp at about 82 but I would like to keep closed if possible. Thanks for the help.


No worries....I was having the same problem, but my tank doesnt have a hood, just a glass cover. I found that by leaving the glass cover open, I could drop about 2-3 degrees. I recently started the same thread and the fan option was recommended to me. So I figured, it seemed like great advice so I passed it on..... and if I have any issues with tank temps in the future I will defintely be getting the same exact fan. Repost here when you get the fan to let me know how it works out. Good luck.


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## dhavoc (Mar 17, 2006)

must be the hood trapping heat. my 120g gets to about 82-83 during the day with the lights on, but with the ac set to 73 at night, by morning, the water is down to 73 also. only difference i can see is the hood, i run 432 watts of T5 HO, but on an open top setup. T5 doesnt put out as much heat as CF so thats why the tank doesnt heat up as much during the day (plus the open top), but i let the house temp rise to around 78-80 during the day also. the fans will help, i used to use one as well last fall. it did drop the water temp 4-6 degrees, but the evaporation got to be a pain. i was topping off 5 gallons of water every 2 days, so i just took the fan off, and the fish dont seem to mind. maybe you can leave the hood open at night to allow more heat to dissapate.


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## smr (Mar 17, 2006)

I live in Karachi, Pakistan, where the average tempreture is about 95 and can go up to 107 on hot days between April and October. We do not have airconditioners working around the clock as you do in the US. 

I had three aquariums full of plants and fish with no cooling, that is the water was at room tempreture (and the room tempreture hovers around the tempretures listed above). Everything was going fine, until TRAGEDY stuck a blow on a Friday evening about three weeks ago, my 55 gallon somehow cracked the front glass and the water just spilt out into the living room. I was at the office at the time. The fish and the plants were put into two separate 5 gallon buckets until I got home and transferred some of the plants into the bucket with the fish so that they could have more oxygen and some kind of kind of balance. However by next morning all my Tiger Barbs had died (12 of them) but my Plattys survived. That same day (Saturday) I got a 10 gallon aquariium and transferred my plants in their with the fish, however within a week all my plants had burned up, that is turned brown, and some of my plattys had died as well.

When I spoke to some other fish folks about this they told me it was due to the heat. But my other fish in the other aquriums are doing fine with no casualties. Now I am confused if I should get a chiller, a Chinese made chiller would cost about $300 here. The fans would be no good because the humidity in Karachi is quite high and water only cools down if there is evaporation. 

Reading the here and elsewhere on the netcolumns, there seem to be some reservations about chillers, why?
Is it because of the the cost (initial and running) or some other factor?
Wouldn't a chiller be the best option for a totally self contained and self managed environment like an aquarium?

Regards.


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## dhavoc (Mar 17, 2006)

SMR- for your application a chiller is really your only option. the reason most people have reservations about them is the cost, and the fact that the cheap ones from china tend to only last a few years. i have had 3 brand new ones go down in 6 months for various things like the start capacitors and condenser fans going out. easily repairable, but only because my bussiness is in HVAC and i have access to the parts. the quality ones like TECO cost a WHOLE lot more. 

I use them because there is no way to keep certain inverts like CRS here in Hawaii without them, and because mosses and such just seem to grow better at lower temps. i also got tired of filling up evaporation losses every few days.....


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## mhoy (Jun 12, 2007)

30searay: Be sure your heater isn't sticking ON. Probably not the case, but worth checking.


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## klintman (Mar 22, 2007)

a chiller unless vented directly out of the house will raise the ambient temperature inside. so if you have other tanks in the house or room make sure to have good ventilation running through.


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## teacherthomas (Jul 14, 2006)

Even in Taiwan where it is very hot and my stands are at 33 degrees C right now, I avoid a chiller for the reason Klintman mentioned. It makes the fish comfortable but makes the people less comfortable. Running a chiller is both expensive to buy and expensive to run on electricity. They you need to use house AC when you are home as well or you will cook.

The fans work fine, and will keep temp below 30 degree when run only when the lights are on, usually at 28 degrees if running 24/7 but you need to top up the water every two days. 

Taiwan is very high humidity, but we still get evaportation from the fans and it does drop the temperatures.


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## klintman (Mar 22, 2007)

i have tested out using a fan across the surface of my 75gal. -3 degrees F. for a $16US fan investment i think this is an easy solution. only problem is not all of my tanks can have the hoods/covers removed because of jumpers like my chalceus and the barb community. 

when things warm up is when the tinfoil barb and the chalceus usually have their super psycho chases. without a tight lid these two would almost certainly end up flopping around on the carpet. 

i guess a ducted 120mm computer case fan in a hang on the back configuration will have to be the next DIY project for me. i want to move the chalceus and the kribensis into the 75gal so the glass top is a must.


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## bhaladog (Jun 8, 2007)

klintman--

I've used a clip-on fan to reduce the tank temp during summer months in my 75gal: with and without glass covers. I have a DIY oak hood that's top sits ~high (12") above the water surface. The main problem RE temp in that circumstance was the buildup of heat in the dead space inside the hood. The fan cicrulates the air in/out of the hood. I didn't notice _any_ tank temp difference with/without my glass covers installed (I did notice an evap difference).

It'll depend on your equipment configuration--but the fan does not need to blow directly on the water to lower tha tank's temp.


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## 30searay (May 1, 2007)

Well, July 3rd update. 

With only 220watts running on the 110g (2wpg) and the 4 unit fan from dr. f/s, I have gotten the temps down to around 80 degrees morning, 82 late afternoon. However, now I have a nice infestation of some type of string algae (very course, hard to pull off plants), some green spot algae, and possibly a tiny bit of other algaes on the plants. Tank parameters appear to be OK. Will let run for a couple more weeks then may need to change strategy. I am not sure that the 220 watts of CF are reaching the bottom of the tank very well (glosso is growing very slow and getting algae on the leaves as are some of the crypts). Fish definitely appear to be happier though. 

I have some additional plants coming in from aquariumplants.com so will see how these do under current conditions before doing anything too drastic.


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