Heat Issues!!

[gibson981]

My display was getting up to about 84-84 degrees during the day. My lighting is 250 Reeflux 20,000k run on Ice Cap electronic ballasts (times 2). I run them about 10 hours per day. They were about 4 inches from the water line. Now I made the canopy taller and the bulbs are now about 13 inches from the water line. The sides and back of the canopy are open. Both sides have a clip on fan blowing at a 45 degree angle on the water. There is eggcrate over the water. With all of that over the last 4 days, the highest the display gets now is 80 max, but mostly 79. I would like to lower it another 1-2 degrees to allow extra room at the high end. How do I do that? I keep my house between 68 and 72 at all times. I don't have room for a chiller. I run a Mag 12 for the return, and it is submerged in the sump. Can I drill the sump and run that externally? Would that take a good amount of heat out of the water. Is there anything else I can do? I also have a Mag 9 submerged in the sump to run my AquaC EV 180, and a RIO Hyper Flow (17 I think) running through a T setup to my GEO 612 Ca reactor and a couple of media reactors.

[Bandomo]

I too am struggling to cool my tank by 2 degrees. I was thinking of incorporating an iceprobe chiller.

http://www.marinedepot.com/chillers_...eprobe-ap.html

[greenbean36191]

With all of that over the last 4 days, the highest the display gets now is 80 max, but mostly 79. I would like to lower it another 1-2 degrees to allow extra room at the high end.

Your temperature is already below the average temperature on the worlds reefs. There is no need to cool it further. The reasoning that doing so will increase the margin of error is faulty because the threshold for temperature stress in corals is not a set value. It varies dependent on acclimatization to the average temperature regime and as a rule of thumb is about 2-4 degrees F of the maximum seasonal temp. In other words, whether your temp stays at 80 or if you get it down to 78, your margin of error is still about 2-4 degrees. Trying to reduce the temperature more is unnecessary and there's no reason to believe it will provide any real benefit. In fact, I would recommend that you not even try to reduce the temperature more since doing so makes the maintenance of that temperature within that margin of error dependent on even more failure points.

[hfleming]

I agree, your temp is acceptable where it is. Taking the mag 12 will also remove heat. A fan on the sump will reduce heat. A shorter photoperiod will reduce heat.

[Ganzel]

wow greenbean, can you explain that again for dumb people like me who didn't get it the first time

What do you mean by : dependent on even more failure points ?

So what is the max temp I can allow before worrying?

Thanks

[Luiz Rocha]

Originally Posted by Ganzel

What do you mean by : dependent on even more failure points ?

If you keep your temp at 78 and whatever you use to cool the water fails, then the temp will increase to 82, and a 4 degrees increase is a lot. If you keep it at 80 and it increases to 82 due to a failure, a 2 degrees increase is not that bad. Bottom line, the lower you keep your temp the more the reef will suffer if your system fails.

Originally Posted by Ganzel

So what is the max temp I can allow before worrying?

It's not so much about max temp, but about the temp variation. The absolute max I would say is around 85 for most species, but if you keep it high for too long everything will stress out. I would say a comfortable max should be around 82. But if you keep your tank at 74, a sudden increase to 80 would kill a lot of things.

[danceswithfish]

+1 on more fans if you want it cooler. More fans means more evaporation, and the cooler your tank will get.

but, yes 80 is a good temp. It don't think I would make a big effort to lower it from there.

[Ganzel]

thanks!

Originally Posted by Luiz Rocha

If you keep your temp at 78 and whatever you use to cool the water fails, then the temp will increase to 82, and a 4 degrees increase is a lot. If you keep it at 80 and it increases to 82 due to a failure, a 2 degrees increase is not that bad. Bottom line, the lower you keep your temp the more the reef will suffer if your system fails.



It's not so much about max temp, but about the temp variation. The absolute max I would say is around 85 for most species, but if you keep it high for too long everything will stress out. I would say a comfortable max should be around 82. But if you keep your tank at 74, a sudden increase to 80 would kill a lot of things.