Constant temperature?

[soheix]

I've just finish installing my metal halides and it heats the tank up to about 82-83 but thats for about from 12pm to 8pm. I have two heater that keep it around 78 F in the morning and at night. Should I bump up my heater to higher to keep it constant?

thanks

 

[ChrisRD]

Do you have any cooling fans that kick on with the halides? If not, you might want to try that first.

FWIW, your temp range is fine, and some people have that much swing during the day with no trouble. Personally I prefer keeping the temps from fluctuating that much in a single day.

 

[SnowManSnow]

I agree that I'd try to keep fluctuations to a minimum, but I would try to get the avg temp down under 80 if possible.

When my use to get high like that I would ALWAYS experience increased algeal growth, and my corals would show as they should.

I just have better luck with 75-77

b

 

[extremepb319]

Mine sometimes went up to above 88 (my lcd thing only went that high and it was off chart lol) and then back down to 78 during the night when it cooled down and my tank was fine. but then again i dont have anything too delicate in my tank. What do you keep in your tank?

 

[soheix]

My tank is relatively new. Its a 175 gallon tank with 40 gal sump and about 130 lb of live rock and like 3 inch of sand bed. Its been about month or so. I've just added 3 - 250w halides couple days ago. I've have 2 small tomato clowns for a week and half. Every since I added the lights the clowns has been barely swimming, they just swim up and down next to the overflow. Could it be the heat?

Ammonia: 0
ph: 8.4
nitrite:0
nitrate: 0
calcium:380
alk: 3.54
SG: 1.024
Temp: 78-82

The canopy is open air with the lights sitting about 5 inches away from the water. Today I open all the glass tops and couple of windows and the temperature been around 81.5 with the lights on.

 

[cindre2000]

Do you have glass tops over the tank? If so, remove them. That should easily net you a 2-3 degree temperature drop, especially if you are only going up to 82-83.

Also, a simple 120mm computer fan (or bank of them) can do a whole lot to cool a tank.

 

[Anonymous]

like it was mentioned your temp swing is not bad. Not sure about the fish behavior, that's out of my knowledge.

I don't know where you live, but come summer you may consider purchasing a chiller. Temperature stability is very important. I had the same problem before and I would get ice double bagged with fans running. With a chiller temperature is automated and I have one less thing to worry about.

 

[soheix]

I'll try taking off the glass top, will not the evaporation damage the metal halide bulbs? BTW little off subject, about how many medium size tangs can I put in a 175 gallon tank?

 

[ChrisRD]

Taking the glass tops off, raising your lights a bit and/or adding a fan or two would easily solve the problem.

Very few people run a reef tank with the glass tops on because of the heat issue. Evaporation won't damage your lamps, but a splash might. This is one of the reasons that folks who run unshielded lamps often mount them a bit higher up (that and having the lights higher helps with the heat issues).

Your tank is large enough to house more than one tang but you should research your choices carefully and plan a stocking order ahead of time. Many species get large, require lots of swimming room and are very aggressive - especially with congeners. A separate thread in the main discussion forum should get a bunch of opinions/suggestions...

 

[Anonymous]

I run 80-82 in the summer and 78-80 in the winter with just fans.