Temp swings

curiousphil

Super Active Member
Joined
Apr 15, 2013
Location
London, Ontario
What kind of temp changes do you guys see during the summer?  I've suspected for a little while that my temp was on the high side, but just goy up and running with a digital thermometer last week.  And what I disovered shocked me... when I first plugged it in, it told me my tank was sitting at 84 degrees.  (I don't have central AC.)  Sceptical, I pulled it out and mesured the temperature outside to compare it against what the Weather Network was reporting - and it was spot on.  So I put a fan right behind my tank to increase evaporation,and it helped a little by bringing the temp down a few degrees.  Most of this week I was fluctuating between 76-82.  Today it is ridiculously humid and I noticed that my tank is back up to 84.5.  Was at about 82 when I woke up this morning.

What kind of temperatures do you all see?  Are my numbers alarming???
 

TORX

Administrator
Staff member
Website Admin
Joined
Nov 27, 2010
Location
Blenheim, Ontario
Website
www.thefragtank.ca
77-78

I was running around 82 and could not believe it got that hot that quickly with the weather change. We have central air even and the wife likes it freezing in here. Normally around 74-76. I added a 120mm PC fan blowing on my waterfall from first chamber of my sump to cool the water as it falls, brought my tank from the 82 range down to a steady 77.
 

dale

Active Member
Joined
Jan 24, 2012
Location
Sarnia, Ontario
i go from around 77 to 84 or so even up to 86-87 a few times in the past couple years.. no problems... .,., about 4 years ago it went to 90 for a few days and killed off 2 diff corals entirely ..just put a fan blowing at my tank trying to get airflow under the canopy and it worked like a charm...
 

spyd

Super Active Member
Joined
Jan 31, 2011
Location
Kitchener, Ontario
My tank moves very little. 78.9 - 79.1. But it is in the basement so very little humidity. Even if you are not running A/C, you may want to consider a dehumidifier? You can find decent units on sale at Canadian Tire all the time. It will promote evaporation and remove the humidity in your place. 84 is not the end of the world, although it is high... It is the speed of the temp swings that can stress out fish and corals. SPS would definitely not appreciate it.
 

waldo

Member
Joined
Mar 31, 2013
Location
Kilworth, Ontario
My tank is in the basement also and my dehumidifier crashed last week, Spyd is correct my tank increased about 1/2 a degree then when I purchased the new dehumidifier it is now back to normal.
 

curiousphil

Super Active Member
Joined
Apr 15, 2013
Location
London, Ontario
This heat wave is KILLING me!  Tank has been 86-88 this week....

My echinata RTNed yesterday and I noticed that the bottom branches of my incredible hulk acro are also fairly white :'( and the hulk was just starting to look good!

I setup a dehumidifier in the next room over (tank is in my kitchen, put the unit in my living room) but it's hardly helping.  The readout is showing a relative humidity of around 60% without the unit turned on, and I can get it down to about 45-48% when I leave it going - but the exhaust puts out warm air so there's a big trade-off.  AT least I can breathe now, just about choked when I went downstairs yesterday morning!  (Have a portable AC in my bedroom so that I can sleep.)
 

curiousphil

Super Active Member
Joined
Apr 15, 2013
Location
London, Ontario
The only other solutions I can see are.... get another portable AC unit for the downstairs, but thats not really feasible as I don't have any windows I could use for the exhaust - only windows that open are one above the kitchen sink and a tiny one beneath the picture window in the living room.  I'm also not even going to be in this house for more than maybe three to four more weeks.

The other option I can see is setup the frag tank I got off Brandon down in the basement.  This is already part of my move plan (use it as a temp holding space while I rebuild the tank at the new house where it will live in a basement) anyways so I guess I'll just accelerate things! 

egymu3yt.jpg
 

MrHermit85

Active Member
Joined
Mar 19, 2013
Location
London, Ontario
I noticed mine jump from 78 to 80 over the last few days even though my tank is in the basement and I have ac running. I just place a floor standing fan nexto my tank blowing on the side pane and it dropped back down to 78 within 24 hours. Who would have thought lol
 

spyd

Super Active Member
Joined
Jan 31, 2011
Location
Kitchener, Ontario
Wow! That is definitely getting too high. 88 is no good. Maybe you should invest in a used chiller for your tank??? Just a small 1/5hp.... Maybe even 1/10hp would work wonders for you.
 

GirDance

Member
Joined
Mar 27, 2013
Location
Cambridge, Ontario
I have a blue line temperature controller on my tank, but I noticed that I crept up to 82 even with the controller set at 78... I unplugged it and have now been hovering around 80 for teh past week even with the air conditioning on and the tank in the basement.

Our humidity is super high even with a 65 pint dehumidifier on non-stop...  We are thinking about a redesign to take care of the humidity issues.
 

curiousphil

Super Active Member
Joined
Apr 15, 2013
Location
London, Ontario
spyd link said:
Wow! That is definitely getting too high. 88 is no good. Maybe you should invest in a used chiller for your tank??? Just a small 1/5hp.... Maybe even 1/10hp would work wonders for you.

This is another thing I have considered. Anyone on here know of one thats available? I haven't seen anything recent/local in the classifieds...
 

Boga

Active Member
Joined
Jan 12, 2012
Location
Dorchester, Ontario
I have a spare dehumidifier that I do not use. If you want, I can give it to you for few months. If you have the time, you can try some modifications like running some poly tubes through the cold section or something like that .... I know that you are very good with DIY. I really don't mind if you drill it or take it apart ... :)

I was away for a few days and I left the AC set too high. Came back and found the system at 28 deg C. Now is coming back very slow.
 

spyd

Super Active Member
Joined
Jan 31, 2011
Location
Kitchener, Ontario
pulpfiction1 link said:
I once made a chiller from an old bar fridge. A bucket to hold some water. some clear tubing and a maxi jet 1200.

Sent from my SGH-I747M using Tapatalk HD

All right Pulp.... From now on you are known as MacGyver!!! Let me guess, it still was able to hold beer too.  ;D
 
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