DIY Chiller?

A couple fans blowing accross the surface of the water will lower it 3-5 degrees

 

^ plus 1 to black runner

My tank has been getting to 82-83 I unplugged my heater. I haven't noticed any ill effects on any of my corals sps,lps or softies. my fish are all still happy too. I have a 60 cube with an open top and AI's over it, my house doesnt get above 77 so I tried to find the source as well. I turned my skimmer off and the tank dropped two degrees overnight. I also think my UV turbotwist might be adding some heat as well so ill turn that off and see what happens. good luck

 

I had a powerhead going bad awhile back that was heating my tank up.

 

This is just my opinion, but I wouldn't be unplugging my heaters if I were you guys, unless they are malfunctioning that is. What temp are they set to? My house is kept at about 74 degrees and if I took my heaters offline, my tank would drop somewhere around 71-72.... Water typically is always cooler than the ambient air temp. So all I'm saying is your tanks could easily have pretty significant temp swings by leaving the heaters unplugged. Just my two cents. /DesktopModules/ActiveForums/themes/_default//emoticons/smile.gif

Good luck finding the heat source!

 

Also, what is the ambient temp of the rooms the tanks are in?

 

this time of year my room doesnt drop below 77 or so.

 

this time of year my room doesnt drop below 77 or so.

 

If you are judging your tank temp by the sensor on the heater, you are going to be in a world of trouble.  They are rarely reliable and accurate .




Many people normally run their tanks at 80 degrees.  It speeds up the metabolism of everything in your tank though.

 

One cheap thing I used to do is freeze RO water in 2 liter bottles, and put in the sump. Its not the best fix, but works. Just keep a few extra so you can replaces the thawed ones with frozen, and then refreeze. I would remove the canopy and get a few more fans running over the surface water in the DT. Just watch the temp and don't let it swing to much to fast.

Good luck, this is always a hard time to keep the tank at temp.

 

I agree with xroads complete about not using the heater as a temp gauge. I had one that was a good couple degrees off.
Troy also had a good "quick-fix" for those times when it heats up in a room and your in a pinch. But like I said before, watch those temp swings.
Get some fans to blow over the surface of the display, it should help you out.

 

My heater is extremely far from telling me the exact temp of the tank. I have 2 different thermometers In my system. At least 1 digital and one old fashioned. One in my dt and the other in the sump

 

Just leave your tank temps alone reefers. The temp swings will not kill them. In nature temp swing happen all the time and more and more in the summer times. Please don't unplug your heaters you are just asking for problems. If you see the Temps going up make sure nothing else is doing it as this case with this post. IE heater vent. We are all seeing tank temp swings right now with windows open and air not on yet. My basement is around10 dagree cooler then my upstairs and I am still seeing my temp up 2 degrees from normal. Everything seems fine. Most of our common corals come from Your fish will just want to eat more.
Also since most aquarium corals are collected from the Indo Pacific and the Caribbean where the water temperatures are routinely between 85 and 89 degrees Fahrenheit, perhaps you may not need to get too concerned as long as your tank temps do not rise above this level.
http://saltaquarium.about.com/od/aquariummaintenancecare/a/reeftanktemp.htm
Just my 2 cents

 

I have switched my lights to come on at night when it is cooler and my MP10s to be on sleep mode during the day. Makes it a bit tricky to sleep (tank is in my room) but keeps things a bit more stable

 

Since the original topic was DIY chillers I will throw in my half a cent (I can't throw in two since I don't know enough about them).

I toyed with the idea of making a DIY chiller and did some pretty extensive research (as far as I could get on forums as well as talk to a buddy who is in thermal engineering). The bottom line is it is pretty cost prohibitive to do it right. By that I mean it is literally cheaper to just buy a chiller made for this very purpose than to build your own.

Unless your tank is severely overheating, fans should do wonders, as some have mentioned.

 

I follow you about the lights, but not so much about the MP10s. I would think that they would add very minimal heat (about as close to none as one can get) being that the motor is actually external.