Tank water cooler.

[Rotaripsnoc]

I've never had a problem with it before, however our 60 gal seems to heat up more than was expected. We live in an older house 1930's or so, it's decently insulated, and the tank is out of the sun. Now that winter seems to have gone away, we've been getting up into the 90's and my tank went from 79-80 to 84 in about 6 hours.

The tank has 2 Florescent hoods, ( I forget the wattage but I'll grab it on lunch ) which do heat the surface but not enough to raise the temp that much. For now we have a window ac in the room to keep the temp down, but it is inefficient so our next option is to use a tank cooler, and I was wondering if anyone has any experience or suggestions for brand \ make \ model etc.

I was planning on purchasing an inline heater, however it can wait until fall, unless there are any dual mode units out there.

 

[FreshyFresh]

Mine warm-up too, especially after a few hours of the fluorescent lighting being on. I don't think my 55 has gotten over 80F though. The 48" twin T5 HO lamps put out a lot of heat on the 55g, but I don't have the backs on the glass Versa-Tops, so there's an ~1.5" gap along the full width of the back.

Can you blow a small fan across the top of your tank? Maybe if anything, it will pull some of the heat out and away from your fluorescent hoods. You'd only get evaporative cooling if the fan air comes in contact with the surface water.

 

[Rotaripsnoc]

Thanks FreshyFresh,

I am a little worried about our Oscar jumping through any gaps, he's still quite small. After posting I saw this http://upaqua.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/UA-050.jpg but I wasn't sure how effective it would be. After doing some research, and with your input I'm going to print a 40 mm fan holder similar to the pic in the link, so the fan can hang on the back, and direct air into the tank behind the hoods.

Hopefully that will prevent it from heating up too much.

 

[Lotus]

The other thing you can consider is switching the light cycle for the evening hours, when the house is cooler.

We live where it regularly gets over 115 F outside, and even when the house is cool, the tanks often go up to around 86 F. The fish are generally fine with it as long as there's enough water movement (there's less oxygen in warmer water) and the temperature swings aren't fast. The daily heating and cooling doesn't generally cause the fish any problems.

We do have a chiller on our saltwater tank because the corals won't tolerate temperatures above around 84 F. Chillers are expensive (about $600, depending on tank size, etc.), plus you need a pump to keep them going, plus the cost of electricity.

For our fresh tanks, we let them rise and fall naturally, within reason.

 

[Rotaripsnoc]

Thanks Lotus for your input. So far the side cooler is working great, my tank is now stable at 80 F even if the indoor temp is over 90. I do have some hornwort and java moss growing in the tank, but I could break up the light cycle - mornings \ evenings the room does get bright enough midday for a few hours and the lights probably only add heat during that time.