temperature help!

[keepsmesane]

I can’t seem to keep my temperature consistent! I need advice! I have 25gallon display with 25lbs of live rock, two fish, one cleaner shrimp, some snails, hermit crabs and some corals (i.e. Pulsing Xenia, hammer coral, lots of Zoa’s, some mushrooms and a Kenya tree) filtered by an 8 gallon sump/refugium.
I have separate timers to run my two different lights. From 11am – 11pm I am running a 2x32watt PC combo Dual Lamp (with half Dual Daylight and half Dual Actinic bulbs). And from 5pm – 10pm I am running a 175W 14K MH with ARO Electronic Ballast on that same timer I have a 15w cooling fan that works pretty well. In the sump I have a 200 Watt Heater that I have set at about the 80 F range. I try to keep my air conditioning running at a constant 74 F but doenst always keep up and not always at 74 (sometimes warmer. Also, I am in Indiana where outside temp in June ranges from about 69 F in the morning to almost 90 F in the middle of the day and them back to about 75 F by 10pm.

My problem is that at 7:00am the lights are not on and it’s not as hot outside so the tank is about 80 F. But from 1pm till about 9pm the tank is at 82.4 F. too hot IMO and too much fluctuation, right? That will stress out my fish and hurt the corals, right?

What do I do?




Thanks!

[Clown-N-Around]

2.4 degrees fluctuation is very minor, I wouldn't worry about it.
(We have the same temperature issues in Colorado, 90s in the day, 60s at night. )

Glad to see you are concerned with taking good care of your livestock.

[doox00]

I have the same thing, my tank is 79-80 in the morning and 81.5-82 by evening.

[Hal]

Geez, my tank is 82 in the morning and 85 by evening. Most of my corals are brown, but I think that's a nutrient issue. (Correct me if I'm wrong.) Other than that, they seem to be fine.

[doox00]

I think 85 is getting to the point of dangerous isn't it?

[theop]

You could try ventilating your hood better which would remove the heat from your lamps and give you some evaporative cooling. Just pay attention to your sump water level and top off as needed.

[bjonesjr1]

I have my heater on a timer also, that comes on for 30 minutes at a time, and only 4x during the night only, I live in Florida so we to have constent high temps, but it took alot of playing around to figure out what my temp was at when the lights went out for the night & what the temp was at in the morning when the lights came on... I had to play with the timer alot, but got it just right to where my temp is now always 79.5- 81.5 degrees.

I don't trust the temp controls on the heater themselves, so I use a digital temp gauge.

[delor]

Originally posted by keepsmesane
In the sump I have a 200 Watt Heater that I have set at about the 80 F range.

My problem is that at 7:00am the lights are not on and it’s not as hot outside so the tank is about 80 F.

Thanks!

I would turn your heater down a bit. I live in southern indiana and my heater rarely turns on in the summer. My 55 stays 79-83 during the summer months.

[keepsmesane]

Originally posted by spe934
I would turn your heater down a bit. I live in southern indiana and my heater rarely turns on in the summer. My 55 stays 79-83 during the summer months.

Right on! My wife is from Evansville. I love your signature by the way!
I was thinking about turing off my heater during the hot months, duh, right? Why didnt I think of it before. I will try that for a few days and see how it works.
Or like "bjonesjr1" does by putting the heater on a timer also, like maybe just run at night or something.

thanks guys!

[goda]

if your worried about it...
see if you can turn up your heater to 82 and if you can then KEEP the temp at 82 even with lights on.
somtimes its better to have a warmer tank with better stability


or try turning off the heater and see if you can get hee 2 degree variations to be from 76-78 instead ( imo its better to have variations when its cooler then when its hotter. less stressfull i think)

[Holygrail45]

You guys all seem to have things under much more control than I do, my place is like a swamp. I can't seem to get the temp to stop rising, I pulled my heater completely out 2 months ago! The tank stays between 80-86 throughout the day. I flood it with salt water ice cubes (I freeze them from the tank water), I do daily water changes, I draw 5 gallons out and place a cooling fan directly over the bucket for 20 min. before pouring it back into the tank...I even reduced my lighting to just 3 hrs a day. I hate doing all these measure because Im afraid it will stress out the tank, but 86 is just too dangerous. Chillers are so expensive though...so is starting all over. I guess that's my next bet...anyways, all of these tactics above have helped me reduce high temps down a degree or two. Dropping 12 or so ice cubes in the sump sometimes reduces the temp a degree or two over 10-15 mins. Im not sure if my methods are safe or not though...the tank seems to be doing well. I spend more time in the summer on tank temp. maintainence than I do pracically anything else. Good luck!

[delor]

Originally posted by Holygrail45
You guys all seem to have things under much more control than I do, my place is like a swamp. I can't seem to get the temp to stop rising, I pulled my heater completely out 2 months ago! The tank stays between 80-86 throughout the day. I flood it with salt water ice cubes (I freeze them from the tank water), I do daily water changes, I draw 5 gallons out and place a cooling fan directly over the bucket for 20 min. before pouring it back into the tank...I even reduced my lighting to just 3 hrs a day. I hate doing all these measure because Im afraid it will stress out the tank, but 86 is just too dangerous. Chillers are so expensive though...so is starting all over. I guess that's my next bet...anyways, all of these tactics above have helped me reduce high temps down a degree or two. Dropping 12 or so ice cubes in the sump sometimes reduces the temp a degree or two over 10-15 mins. Im not sure if my methods are safe or not though...the tank seems to be doing well. I spend more time in the summer on tank temp. maintainence than I do pracically anything else. Good luck!

I have never done the Saltwater ice cube thing, but on a few occasions, I have had to resort to the frozen 2L bottle deal. It is safer than just chucking cubes into the tank because the waters never mix, and IMO the cooling from the bottle is more gradual causing less shock to the system. I have a CPU fan in my cabinet blowing on my sump. I loss ~1 gallon of water every day, but that is cheaper than getting a chiller..

[doox00]

getting a cheap smaller or used window air conditioner is another option as well. Can get the small new ones for 100 dollars or a medium used for that price or less.

[nctommy]

I had temp issues like all of you. Now my temp is always somewhere between 79.5 and 80.1. I just bought the ranco temp controller for $130. Was the one suggest on here. http://diyreef.com/shop/product_info...roducts_id=212
Then purchased 3 $12 high velocity fans from wallmart and put one fan on each side of the tank and one over the sump. I connected all three to the cooling side and my heater to the other. The fans turn on and off as needed. I have no change even with the lights on. I have peace of mind, so I feel it was the best piece of equipment I have bought.

[Depth]

Keepsmesane,

I read your post with great interest, since I have same size tank (26 gal bow) and similar problems with temperature. However, my tank is only FOWLR, no corals. I also have no SUMP, so everything is hooked "hang-on" style, behind the tank.
I got the heater out a month ago and don't regret it. It was a 100W heater for up to 30gall tank but even at its lowest setting (68F) it gave me temperature higher than 80F (??). So did the previous heater I had (what's wrong with me??) So I finally got rid of the heater altogether. I wonder how come your heater is more powerful, and lights go on for so long, and you still are within range most of the time.
So my approach is, I have taken the tank top off and have put a clip-on fan to blow on the water surface. I switch the lights on for feeding/watching only, no more than 2 hrs a day. But I know it is best for the lve rock to have more light. My tank is kinda old (got it used) and my hood only supports ONE 18 inch 15 watt bulb. I've spoken to DrsFoster and they've discouraged me that much can be improved. Even if I were to buy a new hood, it would only have space for TWO 15-watt bulbs (I use fluorescent).
I am amazed you can have such good lighting for such a small size tank. What kind of hood and lights do you use exactly? (item #, exact name, from where, etc).

What kind of hood and lights do you use exactly? (item #, exact name, etc).

So, with the open top + fan approach, I still experience some undesirable fluctuations but I plan on getting a controller - the Reefkeeper (or Reefkeeper 2) by Digital Aquatics. You can go on digitalaquatics.com and take a look. It's a great machine.

My timer can only hook up one unit. (just a regular appliance timer, got it from Home Depot). It is also too bulky for the plug. What timers do you use?

[milkshake]

It might be chiller time....that's if you can spare $300.
Or try putting a fan of some sort over the sump to cool the water a degree or two. The evaporation will be greater so you would definately need to do bigger top offs. If you ran a chiller you could go with the ReefKeeper or AquaController Jr or even a Medussa 3 stage controller. You could keep your water temp within a degree or two constantly. My wife likes to keep the house warm so I had to hook up a chiller to my 40 gallon. The chiller is model CL-280 by
Pacific Coast Imports. Very good product in my opinion.

[silversnake]

i think some temp variance is good my tank swings 8 degrees during summer months.

[theop]

Originally posted by silversnake
i think some temp variance is good my tank swings 8 degrees during summer months.

I think the general consensus is that temp swings of more than a couple of degrees throughout the day are a bad thing. Why do you think that they are good?

[Depth]

Definitely bad. Swings more that 3 degrees fahrenheit wreaks havoc in fishes' immune system.
I think it is best to try with a fan before one buys the chiller. I am very happy with a fan blowing over the surface (i don't have a sump), and I do daily top off. But I still get fluctuations and I have to make up a timed schedule of the fan day by day, depending on the weather forecast. What I need now is a controller - from one side you put the fan, from the other - the heater. I was thinking of getting Ranco's dual controller.