Do I need fans?

[bjoiner]

I have a 55 gallon aquarium that's just about done cycling. I'm running 2x96W PC's. But I'm having a very difficult time keeping the temperature down. Right now it's running close to 90F. (No fish yet - don't worry). I've tried most of the common tricks for keeping the tank cool, including removing the lid and using a small fan but this only brings it down to 82F or so. I think the high temp is a combination of the powerheads, lights, and skimmer.

So I've decided to give in and purchase a chiller (the fewer parameters I have to worry about the better and it would stink to lose fish/corals because the tank got too hot). I originally went with the PCs because I didn't want to buy a chiller, but since I'm going to anyway, I was also thinking about upgrading to MHs. The canopy is slightly less than a foot away from the top of the tank. I'm not real worried about the water temperature as I'll probably go with the next size up for the chiller, but I'm more worried about the acrylic top/wood canopy getting too hot. Has anyone had issues with this? Do I need to get a bigger canopy if I want to go MH? Are fans a must?

Thanks,

Ben

 

[Len]

Just a heads up, but running chillers in-doors is problematic. They make some noise (the better ones are fairly quiet though), but they create a lot of heat. If it's a small room, it's going to get humid and hot from the chiller.

That said, a fan isn't necessary for canopies with halides, but they are useful. It'll help keep your chiller running less aggressively, and will help with gas exchange between the tank and air (less of an issue if you have a good skimmer). Since you have an acrylic tank, I'd recommend a couple low CFM, quiet fans to help keep things in there from becoming a sauna. Halides in close proximity to acrylic is troublesome/dangerous without controlling temperature of the canopy space and the exposed acrylic.

 

[Anonymous]

I'm wondering why you're having heat issues of this magnitude when running PC's.
How hot is the room? Where do you live/do you have hot summers?

I didn't even need a chiller when living in California and running MH's...although I did have to run the tank at 84 and offset the light cycle during the summer.
Chillers ad setup cost, and add an ongoing monthly cost, not to mention the cost of running MH's, changing bulbs every six months....

Be realistic with your long term budget.

Jim

 

[bjoiner]

Thanks to both of you for the quick responses.

@Len
Thanks for the heads up. I thought about the extra heat, but didn't even consider the extra humidity. I don't think it should be a huge problem as the tank is in the dinning room/living room area which is pretty spacious, and we do use the AC and a ceiling fan.

@Jim
Yeah, I was a bit puzzled at the high temperature. At first I thought it might have been a faulty heater, but I've tried unplugging those and the powerheads and it's still gets up close to 88-89F. I live in SoCal. It's been warm the last few days but not hot. When the AC is turned off, the room temp is around 77-78 (Not as hot as it's going to be in the summer). I also thought it might be a bad thermometer, but you can tell the water is too warm just by sticking your hand in the tank. I can't imagine why, but could old PC bulbs run hot? (I was planning on changing them after I get the tank cycled/stable)

Ben

 

[Anonymous]

Is there a trapped mass of air above the tank? (between water and a glass top)
This can contribute hugely to overheating, and simply opening the space up, possibly adding a small fan can alleviate the problem.

 

[drhyne]

Another thing to consider is the location of your pumps and ballasts. Pumps and ballasts located in a fully enclosed base cabinet can cause the temp of the sump to rise considerably. I made the mistake of sealing the doors of my cabinet to block out light and my temps rose from 77 to 82. I'm in the northeast and my room temp is between 64 and 68. I knew I was going to run a little hot. I was forced to submerge my closed loop pump. That's 60W worth of energy being transferred directly into the water.

All of my issues were solved with 1- 120mm fan and power supply from coolerguys.com. It was a total of about $30 and is dead silent. I installed it in the cabinet with a grill on both sides. The cross flow has increased my evaporative cooling and elliminated the moisture problems in the cabinet.

D_.

 

[bjoiner]

I found the problem - It was one of the heaters. When I got home the other day the temperature was reading 80F and one of my heaters was ON!!

Something is going a little screwy with the thermostat on one of my heaters. It apparently has been turning itself on and off at random without regard to the actual temperature of the tank. Since I have two in the tank, I just removed the faulty one and now things seem to be stable at about 78F.

 

[Anonymous]

I knew there was something amiss...glad you found the problem.