Hey Ivy-I agree on the room AC....if the room isn't hot...the tanks don't get hot.

We resorted to a small window AC in our kitchen with a couple of FOWLR (with a coral or two in them...:redface:) closed the room tightly and today the temps look OK. The 120g was at 87 yesterday and today is at 79-80 and the 50g was at 88+ yesterday and is at 82-83 today...both have fans blowing on them also today as we didn't quite realize HOW hot they actually were until we got more thermometers yesterday. Thank God for the chiller on the reef tank or it would have hit low 90's as it did last year and we would be picking out shrimp bodies...(never buy a stucco house with lots of windows....ARGH! Gets smokin hot inside)

Im useing a 6" fan over the sump and a 16" occilating fan blowing across the top of the tank.The temp still slowly goes up over the day,so after work I add a bottle or 2 of ice.Today it was only 81c when I got home.Oh ya and close to 5 gal a day make up water.

But for those using AC, don't you turn it off when no one's home? AC doesn't seem like a 24/7 solution.

I turn the AC off when it's cool enough to do so. If it's hot overnight, the AC stays on. If it cools off overnight, which I hope it does tonight, the AC goes off. When the weather isn't hot, the AC isn't on.

Maybe not the most energy-sense but don't see why I should come home to an oven (place was getting to 88° without) plus the tank was one of the considerations when purchased the unit. Also have the thermostat at 75° so not feeling that guilty.

When we bought Central air this year, we were told NOT to keep turning it on and off. thay said to pick a comfortable temp and stick to it.

Turning it on when you get home puts more strain on the system and can cause it to freeze up.

Without the central AC from the Heat Pump my tank would be toast. Right now I'm not sure how much evaporation I'm getting as currently my sump is connected directly to my RO/DI. I will be installing a reservoir in between the two once the final repairs from the flood are completed. I think the tank generally sweats about 4-5 gallons per day. I leave my elicient (exhaust) fan running 24/7. The other fans come on after the MH's come on. I have 1100 watts of light on top of my 150. 2 - 400watt MH and 2 - 110 VHO lights.

The main concern for me was that my tank temps would never exceed 82. With the system I've set up I've had very little problem doing that. Usually we keep the inside temp of the house between 71 and 74 in the summer. We stay comfortable and so does our tank.

I've always had the air conditioner running while the chiller is running actually. I've never tried to run only one at a time. I've got 4 250W MH's over a six foot tank though so I don't think I could get away with just an air conditioner.

I have been having a heck of a time with my tank. 175 gal and with the past weekend being above 30 degrees every I cannot keep my temp below 88 degrees. On saturday when it was +36 my temp was not even reading on the thermometer. I have been freezing milk jugs of water and nothing seems to help. Believe it or not i have not actually lost anything yet so thats a good thing. I might have to try fans on the water though, that seemed like a good idea.

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What about people with their tanks in their basments? How much cooler do your tanks stay? I can't wait until I get a new home with a basement just for that! Well, and a possible fish room.:mrgreen:

Even with fans, the lights off and the skimmer off my tank still got over 84 on Sat. Before next summer I'm moving my tank to the lowest level of our split level (unless Santa brings me that 225). A couple of my Candy Cane heads have bleached, otherwise all is still OK. Sure hope we've seen the last of that!!

Rob

My tank is in my basement and I live in Kelowna. My thermometer has been showing outdoor highs of around 37 or 38 degrees Celsius the last couple of days. With the tanks in the basement and central A/C the highest my tank temperature has gotten is 82 degrees Fahrenheit with lights running all day. I often close the A/C vents in the basement so that the upstairs gets the maximum cooling and allow the cool air from upstairs to settle into the basement and this seems to work well since the basement stays much cooler anyways.

In a cool ground floor suite, my unheatered reef tanks stay around 78F normally in the summer, but during the heat wave it was around 82-83F with fans going. That's not bad considering the max. room temp hit 83-84F on Saturday, which was still a lot cooler than outside. Sunday, I was able to leave my MH lights on their regular timer schedule & only shut off for a few afternoon hours on Sat. & Friday.

Anthony

Dont know if it would help a tank but is sure is a cool Idea :)
http://www.eng.uwaterloo.ca/~gmilburn/ac/

Another example of why I believe Central AC should be more efficient that employing chillers and fans - try adding up all the wattages of equipment being used to cool your tank. Also consider the other effects such as additional heat gain from the fan and chiller motors. Using fans to blow air across the surface of the water to cool is somewhat counter productive. Evaporative cooling cools by reducing the latent heat through evaporation - therfore by accellerating evaporation rates you will increase cooling, however as you increase evaporation you increase humidity levels in your space, therefore making it seem hotter and making it even more dificult to cool your home. Unless your RH is very low (very dry air) in oder to cool your home you will need to dehumidify.

Too complicated.... :drinking: Simply put, if the room environment is kept at a constant cool temp, your tank temp should equallize maybe a few degrees higher without evaporating accessive amounts of water. My 2 ton system consumes about 6 amps - it keeps my house and tank comfortable.:wink:

Hey jgoldsney, nice to talk to you again..

Great link, Actually if you were to coild the copper tubes around a 'very thin' walled pipe that is food safe and connect the thin wall pipe to a small pump for more contact time with the coil, you have just created a very crude exchanger. The theory is that the heat from the tank water slowly pasing through the coil section will be pull out. Essentualy you are creating a simple emmersion chiller. Here is a link to a cheap home made chiller used by people that brew their own beer.

http://www.allaboutbeer.com/homebrew/equip/chiller.html

I totally agree. The interior of my home at present 71 degree F. Outside it's 30 degrees C. My tank is 77 degrees F. Everyone's comfortable and I'm paying a dollar a day to keep my house at that temp. I love my heat pump.

Bill

I'm soooo very jealous that you have a heat pump!!! That is on our "to do" list over the next 2 years. And then I won't have to have chillers and fans and more fans ... and issues (like today) where you plan for a very hot day, turn on the fan over the 120g and leave...only to come home later to a tank at 74 (or 21 for us Canadians!) that is on the chilly side cause the house didn't get hot....Heat Pump here we come...one day.

Central AC... go for it, your fish will like it, you will like it and your pocket book will like it...:wink: