When is it too big?

[BackPackHunter]

Originally Posted by asylumdown

Will this tank be in a basement? What sort of temp fluctuations does the room it's going in get over the course of a year? Even just being inside a cabinet (top and bottom) can cause over-heating issues on my tank in the summer. The AC is set to prevent the house from ever going above 24.5, but at 24.5 ambient, with both the upper and lower cabinet doors on my tank closed, my tank will easily pass the 27 degree mark. While LEDs don't transmit much heat to the water with the light, the units themselves still put out a great deal of heat. It might be less of an issue if the light fixtures were not enclosed in a cabinet. My tank has two 6' long viewable sides, and a 90cfm fan in the ceiling of cabinet that is permanently on. Even in the winter I generally leave the office side upper doors of the enclosure open the help keep the tank cool and the light fixtures cool.

If you had a chiller, or if that tank is going in a room that is perpetually cold, the insulation might make sense year round, but with insulation I can foresee the potential for a dangerous situation to develop. Could you make it removable?

It's going in the basement , the house will have AC, so stable temp
I'm building it it's own room, for work and only viewable from the living room
I will have a huge turbine fan to suck out hot air if need, on a temp gauge
I could make the foam removable , and thinks that a very good idea
I can run the AC n heat into the room off the current system