Its Monday morning, and I am already in hot water.

[C. Alan]

Ok folks, I completed the move of all of my rock and sand into my new 60 gallon set up this weekend. The water has cleared up, but now I have an unusual problem. When I put the tank up, the water temperature (according to my Octopus 3000) was around 80 degrees. I was a little concerned when yesterday evening the temperature read 84 degrees. Now I got up this morning and the temperature was 87 degrees

! The ambient room temperature has been around 79 degrees, and there are no lights on the tank yet.

I have ruled out a malfunctioning heater for this heating problem. That leaves the pumps as my only heat source.

The tank has a pair of external pumps, one is an old little giant, putting out about 200 gph at around 12' of head, and the other is an Iwaki WMD-40RLT pumping quite a bit of water (I don't have and estimate on the flow and head).

The little giant is my sump return pump. I noticed this morning that the pump is warm to the touch. The Iwaki seem to be operating cool.

My question to yall is: could one or both of these pumps be adding heat to my system? If so, Is there a way to counter act this heating?

My fish have been camped out in a rubbermade sump (3 cardinals and a cleaner shrimp) for a day now. Can I add them to my system even if it is as hot as 85 degrees without harming them? In particular, I am worried about the shrimp.

On a side note, I placed two regular aquarium thermometers in the tank last night. This morning, one read 84 degrees, and the other about 86 degrees. I think I need to recalibrate my octopus 3000 temperature sensor.

Any input would be appreciated.

 

[C. Alan]

In fact, I tried two other thermometer! One read 84 degrees, the other 86, and my octopus 3k read 87.6

I am in the process of getting my hands on a lab grade thermometer to recalibrate my octopus 3k.

 

[SPC]

C.Alan, as far as the source of the heat I would say that there is no other choice but the pumps.
Steve

 

[mosey]

this sounds famliar, when i changed my sand bed my tank heated up 6+ degrees. i cleaned out all my pumps, seems like sand gets in the rotor parts and causes extra friction.

 

[C. Alan]

Mosey,
I hadn't thought of that, sand in the pumps. The tank did have suspended sand in it for nearly 24 hours. After you cleaned out the pumps, did the temperature return to normal?

 

[Anonymous]

When you dump (properly acclimate

) your fish into the show tank, it is easier and less stressful on them if the tank they are going into is a little cooler. it is easier on them for their bodies to cool down than heat up.

Best scenerio is the same temp though. If your temp stays up after you clean the pumps, you might want to slowly bring up the temp on the water in the rubbermaid.

Just my 2C
b

 

[Anonymous]

Little Giant pumps do run VERY hot. I don't think its beyond reason for it to add that much heat to a sixty gallon.

 

[Ben1]

Is there direct sunlight on the tank?

Try putting a fan by your little giant to keep it cooler. My tanks run 84 F everyday and about 80 at night so there is no problem for fish at 85. When you do put lights on this may be a problem though considering what type of lighting youll be using. You could also try to put a fan over your sump to increase evaporation, this can cool a tank 5 degrees. HTH

 

[C. Alan]

Nope, the tank is not in direct sunlight.

I will try the fan trick.

Thanks.

 

[schroom]

unplug the heater and see what happens. that should tell you at least if it is the heater or not.

 

[C. Alan]

I unplugged the heater last night.

 

[Anonymous]

Thats a lot of heat for one pump- did you try another thermometer?

 

[davelin315]

If your pump is running at 12' head, I'm assuming that your sump is in your basement. If so, what's the temperature of the floor down there, and also, where are your return lines running through? Is it possible you have them running alongside a hotwater pipe or a heat vent or that they are being exposed to hot wiring or something during the trip through your floor and/or wall?

The sand in the impeller idea seems to have a lot of merit as well.

 

[C. Alan]

There is actualy only about 4 feet of elevation change between the pump and the outlet in the tank. However, there is a check valve on the return line that eats a lot of head.

Both pumps are located in my stand, The Little giant pump has a 1/2" inlet attached to the sump with a 3/4" bulkhead, and the outlet is also a 1/2" line that goes up the back of the tank, through a check valve, and splits into a pair of blowers.

The Iwaki pump runs a closed cirulation system. there is a covered intake on the back of the tank, and the inlet size is 3/4". The water returns to the tank via two spray bars located under the LR, or a pair of directional blowers on either side of the tank.

So all told, there are 6 blowers in the tank. Needless to say, I expect to have no troubles with water circulation. The down side, as I am discovering, is the tank seems to be a consistant 6 degrees above ambient room temperature. I am currently trying to find a small fan to hang from the top of my stand to blow on my sump, because there is no room in the stand for one to sit on the floor.

BTW, I moved my fish over to the tank yesterday at lunch. All the fish and the cleaner shrimp seem to be doing fine, and eating well.

[ October 16, 2001: Message edited by: C. Alan ]