HELP! temp in tank 84 degrees!

[NanoPerson67]

the temp in my tank is 84 degrees.... how do i cool it down?.... it's covered with a custom cut acrylic top and a plastic piece on the back... it's 99% covered in my opinion... i cover it because i dont want any evaporation.. is this a safe temp??? no fish or anything as of now... cycling with live rock 7 pnds and 10 p;b sand.. my tank is 10 gals... i added a power head with 160 gph yesterday and it has a tetra heater ( non adjustable) and a aqueon... i got a 2 18 w t5 nova extreme yesterday but i dont think thats whats causing it to heat up.. it's not even turned on.. when it's done cycling i will turn it on.. i turned it on only for a few secs...

 

[ming]

Open the top.. evaporation has a cooling effect. Also, closing the top will hinder lights, especially once salt creep starts building on it. All your pumps are adding heat to the tank. Make sure the heater is not turning on unless its below 78F.

 

[NanoPerson67]

Open the top.. evaporation has a cooling effect. Also, closing the top will hinder lights, especially once salt creep starts building on it. All your pumps are adding heat to the tank. Make sure the heater is not turning on unless its below 78F.

the heater doesnt start working unless the temp is below 76 degrees... it keeps it at 76 constant... my lights arent on at this time.. i guess ill make a little hole in the plastic and see where that goes.. maybe i should turn power head off????

 

[STHILL]

i would take the tops off the tank for sure

 

[greg 45]

84 degrees if fine

 

[albano]

.. i guess ill make a little hole in the plastic and see where that goes..

Make a hole in WHAT plastic? the cover? If you're that worried about the evaporation rate of a 10g tank...you might have to rethink this hobby!

 

[NanoPerson67]

Make a hole in WHAT plastic? the cover? If you're that worried about the evaporation rate of a 10g tank...you might have to rethink this hobby!

i know it's alot of work but thats not wat i meant... i have r/o water eady anytime... anyways.. my light sits on top of a top.. thats the way it was made... it cant hang on the edges... i can remove the back part though... it leaves a good opening... i wasnt trying to seem lazy

 

[tosiek]

If its 84 without the lights on the tank is going to cook. You don't want the temp higher than 85, and anything over 86 will start melting coral if 85 doesn't stress it out. Plus it adds for more oxygen to enter the water since your probably not using a sump or skimmer.

You can make/buy legs for the T5 fixture to raise it higher and allow for your tank to not have a cover.

 

[NanoPerson67]

ill try to mod it in a way it's not heating up too much... for now im going to move back cover and see what comes of it... will keep everyone updated

 

[NYreefNoob]

pumps add heat and a tank that small will be easy to heat up

 

[ming]

Keep in mind that today is a cool day and you're already having heat issues. I'd try to removing the whole cover and put the light on legs instead.

 

[guarda]

keep some plastic water bottles in your freezer for when you have a temp spike like that. (I use ro water in case of a freak accident and they leak)

 

[Imbarrie]

What do you have in the tank?
Is this a spike or has the tank been running this hot for a while?
Is the room air conditioned?

Depending on the livestock a short increase to 84 and back is not a emergency. If you dont have fish that jump, take of the cover, reduce the light cycle and increase the AC in the room.
Also, increasing air flow around the tank could cool it also. Point a fan on the glass of the tank. Most of all dont do anything that will bring the temp down too fast.

 

[pweissma]

pumps add heat and a tank that small will be easy to heat up

Your acrylic cover is keeping heat in and your pumps are adding heat. You can try replacing your pumps with low wattage ones. There's some nice circulation pumps that only use 3.5 - 4 Watts.

It's fairly easy to make a mesh top for a 10 gal and that could be a good option for you as it would let heat escape. Many of the fish such as a Yasha Haza that would be nice in a 10 gal are jumpers so I think it's a good idea to stick with a cover.

Evaporation is an issue. I have a 7 1/2 gallon and there is appreciable evaporation. I use an auto-top-off to maintain the water level.

Good luck

 

[DrMusik]

what ATI do you use for a 7 1/2 gallon? Most of the systems I've seen are too bulky for my 10 gallon. Luckily I have an unemployed roomate as an ATI for the moment.

 

[bigdog1428]

freeze ro water in a bottle and put the bottle in the tank with the cap off,,,that worked for me

 

[noobzy]

Definitely watch out for that temp... I hear Wednesday is going to be 87+

Make sure there is air circulation above the tank, and you could probably benefit from a fan for any day that gets above 84. Chemically, evaporation actively cools the tank. This is your best bet at keeping your tank alive, if you don't have a chiller or AC. Expose as much surface area to the air as possible, if not for the sake of good gas exchange (keeping a high enough pH), then for the evaporation potential.

Good luck!

 

[pweissma]

what ATI do you use for a 7 1/2 gallon? Most of the systems I've seen are too bulky for my 10 gallon. Luckily I have an unemployed roomate as an ATI for the moment.

LOL, It's my office tank. We need the ATO for weekends, holidays, etc. I use an ATO from autotopoff.com. The sensor is kind of big, not too bad. I didn't want to spend too much time setting it up. The Madison sensors they use are a kind of big and the housing adds some bulk. For the ATO I use an aqualifter pump with the intake tubing routed through the inside of the handle of a gallon jug of distilled water, no RODI here.

For my Solana at home I have the Reef Fanatic ATO. It came with horrible suction cup mounts that I replaced with a snail guard and and bracket from aquahub.com. These sensors are much smaller. They also sell sensors seperately, housings and complete ATOs.


Smaller tanks have MORE of an issue with evaporation than big tanks. Take a 24" cube and a 12" cube. The ratio of the areas of the top surface is 4:1 (24^2:12^2) but the ratio of the water volumes is 8:1 (24^3:12^3). Sure the rate of evaporation on the smaller tank is less but because the much smaller water volume, the salinity will rise quicker.