Big Problems please help!

[sslarison]

Lately its been pretty hot here in So Cal and this caused my tank temp to go up to about 85 degrees. Ive lost my alveopora and my hammer coral is on its way out also. Also my zeina is not looking so good. I did a water change but it didnt change anything. The biggest problem of all is that I dont have the money to buy a chiller right now so are there any other options? Any suggestions would be a big help. :?

 

[mountainbiker619]

I have 3 computer fans mounted inside my canopy blowing air across the top of the water. I am also looking for a clamp on fan so I can have it blowing on the water in the sump. Luckly I live a mile or so from the beach. If I lived more inland, I would be in a world of hurt since I do not have any air conditioning in my apartment.

 

[liquid]

Here's some ideas:

* Add more fans blowing down onto the tank water.
* Buy a window air conditioner for the room
* Run your lights at night when it's cooler
* Take a couple 1 liter bottles and add water to them. Freeze them. Float them one at a time in your tank to keep the temperature down. Add or remove bottles until you get a consistent temperature. Or take your RO/DI water and freeze them into icecubes and add a couple of those to your tank to keep the temp down.

Shane

 

[sslarison]

Im not into the window air conditioner idea because their not cheap either. Will the fans make a difference? I think the bottle idea could be good. Ill try that.

 

[sslarison]

hey if I run the lights at night will that have an impact on the fishes rest cycle? Because the room gets light during the day also.Not alot but I think they can tell its day time and they swim around.

 

[mountainbiker619]

I have been also thinking of the idea of running a 2" pvc pipe from a window, or patio door. One the window or patio door side will be a computer fan mounted to the pvc pipe blowing air into it, and the other end would be placed to my liking, either in the canopy or above the sump. This idea would blow the cooler, shadded air from outside to be used to cool a tank.

 

[AQUADOC]

You can build your own chiller from a discarded college dorm refrigerator(one of the small box types).
Cost you around $50 bucks for the PVC, if you use your ingenuity and your mechanical ability to put it together. The chiller is already assembled. The cooling unit for the refrigerator .........Sort of a handyman special if you are short on bucks. You can use a seperate sump to set it in or have the H2O pumped through a seperate tank into your sump, then into your tank. You can also use the controller for a "thermostat, if you will, to regulate cooler or warmer for the unit.
Aquadoc-

 

[kparton]

Do you have a canopy? If so, is there any easy way to change your lighting to being suspended above the tank? I used to have a canopy and always had fans running and the top propped open to keep the lights from heating it too much. now that I have pendant lights, my water temperature is staying a very stable 77 degrees. I'm not running a fan and the lights are about 6" over the water surface.

 

[Anonymous]

Use the fan to evaporatively cool the tank as much as you can. For every gallon of water you evaporate off, it is worth several gallons of ice you put in it.