Temperature control

[Treebeard]

I am about to go through my first summer with a reef tank and already I am concerned about my tank temperature.

My tank is on the main floor and my sump is in the basement where the temperature is much cooler which helps reduce the temperature a bit.

The frozen pop bottle idea sounds great! How well does it work?

Originally Posted by Aquattro

So, summer is here (ok, not so much) and this is the time of year people drop in looking for ideas on temp control. What is everyone doing, or planning on doing in mid July when the days hit 30?
chillers, frozen pop bottles in the sump, alternate lighting schedules, etc?

Let's hear all the great ideas, and any experiences on past "great ideas", thoughts on what is acceptable, what is not for temp swings.

Go on, heat it up!

[mark]

Before the central air was keeping temp steady just with some muffin fans over the basement sump.

[michika]

The usual for me:
- chiller as a last resort (OMG the power consumption and extra heat in the room is brutal!)
- fans, in the canopy, one pushing air in and one pulling it out, and over the sump
- if the power goes out, frozen bottles of water or frozen bags of water I keep on hand
- keep my blinds closed
- move my lighting from 10am-6pm, to 6pm-2am, and reduce my MH use by a couple of hours.
- move my lighting higher (worked in the past pretty well)

[Chaloupa]

AC is on in the whole house...but the room that the tanks are in still heats up a bit...so have fans blowing at the sump and an Icecap fan in the top....all doors on cabinet and top open....seems to work ok.

[Lance]

AC in the house and fans on the sump. Fortunately, it doesn't get that hot here.

[crtrcrzy]

melt way to fast if your sump is in the basement i woyuld try a fan blowing across the surface water small clip on fan should do the trick only bad news is more evaporation

[Chin_Lee]

My LPS tanks lights (2x175, 1x250) are on during the day and my SPS tank lights (2x400W HQI) are on at nights. I set up that schedule last summer and I forgot to change it back for the last 10 months. On the alternating lighting schedule, my temp swing only vary by 2 degrees farenheit all year round.

[EmilyB]

It's going to hit 30 here?? Woot !!!

[Marlin65]

I like my chiller my tank is the same temp all the time no stress when the temp comes up.
Not like that is going to happen though we are going straight to fall.

[Doug]

The solution,
move to a Manitoba basement.

My central air keeps the house temp. decent. With my modular/mobile house, the tank would over heat without it. I do run a decent fan over the open top design also, when the halide is on.