Overheating Tank-Suggestions?

[drwonga]

My 55 gallon tank is hitting around 87ish during the day. I'm running two Seio and 440watts of VHO sitting on top of the tank. Ambient room temp is anywhere from 69-78ish. Is there anything I can do to lower the temp? I was going to lift the lights a couple inches off the top, and maybe cut some vents into the back of the glass top. Thanks!

 

[Anonymous]

Add a couple of fans blowing across the surface. If that does not help you may need to add a chiller.

 

[Anonymous]

Add a couple of fans blowing across the surface. If that does not help you may need to add a chiller.

+1 - Waz is right. I've got a fan blowing over my sump on my 55, and it lowers the temp 4-5 degrees. Due to extra evaporation though I'm adding ~1gallon of RO every day.

 

[drwonga]

Sounds good! Thanks!

 

[Kevin1000]

I agree with the fan recommendion ... until you get the fans setup just turn off the lights which are generating all that heat. Once you get the fans setup you can experiment with the number of hrs you can run the lights without running into a heat problem.

 

[IslandCrow]

Also, do you have the top of the tank covered with glass or acrylic? That can really trap in the heat. How close are your lights to the surface of the water now? A 20 degree difference between tank and air temperature with your setup seems like something else is going on. If you haven't cleaned the Seios in awhile (around 6 months being awhile), you may want to give them a good soak in vinegar and take an old toothbrush to its insides.

 

[drwonga]

I do have a glass cover sealing the top-I'm thinking that's probably trapping heat. The VHO's are resting right on the top of the tank, probably not good...

 

[Anonymous]

Take the galss off and you will probably notice a few degree drop.

 

[trido]

maybe cut some vents into the back of the glass top.

Get rid of the glass top.

 

[pcardone]

you can raise the lights 400 watts is a lot of light for a 55 gal

 

[Anonymous]

My 55 gallon tank is hitting around 87ish during the day. I'm running two Seio and 440watts of VHO sitting on top of the tank. Ambient room temp is anywhere from 69-78ish. Is there anything I can do to lower the temp? I was going to lift the lights a couple inches off the top, and maybe cut some vents into the back of the glass top. Thanks!

4x 110 watts ?

cut back to two-raise the lights a tad, remove glass, as others stated above, add a fan,and run lights no more than 8 hrs/day-your tank doesn't need more than that

 

[jay24k]

How deep is the tank? VHO doesn't have the depth penetrating power of MH or T5's. So I would think twice about raising the lights too much. Like others stated, I would drop a fan going across and remove the glass tops. Do you have a sump on the tank? Great time to add one and put the fan underneath to make it aethestically pleasing.

 

[turnburn]

I'm going to have to buy a chiller. But, for now, I bought ten one gallon jugs of water that I have frozen solid. I put them in my sump a couple at a time. This drops the temp a little bit.

 

[Smoker]

Powerheads create a lot of heat. I added a new one to my 20 gallon and the temp went up 4 or 5 degrees. If you can get by turning any off for awhile until the weather gets cooler you'll likely notice the difference.