Well if your house gets up to 28 degrees inside I can understand the issue and need to cool the tank but I'm not sure how someone could live in a house that gets that hot. I'd recommend at the very least a room air conditioner if central air is not an alternative purely for your own comfort.
As for other cooling alternatives, some kind of evaporative cooling system could be very efficient and can be as simple as a single fan blowing over the display or sump. My last tank was open top with a halide hanging fixture. The fixture used no fans but I used a single small fan to blow air over the water between the fixture. Worked on a controller and never let my tank go over 82F even when it was 35C outside (I did not have any AC in the house).
You can get more creative with an evaporative cooler but you'll want to vent the air outtake outside to keep humidity down in the house. Keep in mind an evaporative cooler will still work when ambient air temperature is above desired tank temperature. Actually the hotter and dryer the air the better.
Last edited by sphelps; 03-11-2011 at 04:08 PM.
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