89 degrees with lights on! Ouch.

[Spar]

:shock:

Wasn't expecting it to be that hot. No canopy on yet, lights sit 8" above water level. 1 fan inside the lighting unit.

I put a small 12" fan blowing beneathe the light for ventilation / air-flow to help cool it down. I am interested to see how much that helps by the time I get home today. This 89 degree temp was at night, so could be even hotter. Also, this was with the heaters unplugged.

Think a chiller set at 82 will cure this for sure? Haven't set it up yet to test out.

also, no livestock in the tank yet.

 

[blide]

Check your heater...

 

[Spar]

@Matt wrote:

No heaters are in place. Temp was 85 prior me to turning it off, so increased since.

indoor air is 73. have checked that as well. actually says 75 in the living room where the tank is, so a little off from the thermostat setting.

have 2 thermometers working. 1 pinpoint in the sump says 89. one coralife reading from center of tank/water reading 88.

 

[DalaiTom]

How long had your lights been on before you reached this temp?

 

[Guest]

Do you have the glass tops on? Sure sounds awefully hot. I run 500 watts of MH, my house is at 76 and my tank temp is 80 deg. max. No chiller, just a few fans to cool.

 

[Spar]

@DalaiTom wrote:

Just under 12 hours.

Nope. Open top right now.

It must all be from the lights because the tank when running for the first day stayed at 75 with no heaters or lights.

I have 2x400W MH and 2x96W PC.

I am hoping that the fan helps out today. I am a little worried about what will happen when I put my canopy on though. I better get some more fans!

 

[chrisrush]

What type of reflectors do you have on your 400w's? How deep is your tank? You could probably get away with lifting the MH off the surface a little more. 8" isn't much room for ventilation.

Chris

 

[Spar]

@Olaggie01 wrote:

I'm not sure what type of reflector it is (I am not up on that jargon yet), but here is a link to the light I purchased; just switched out the bulbs to have 2 XM 10,000K 400w and 2 Actinic PC 96w:
http://www.premiumaquatics.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=PFO-48SL10400&Category_Code=PFOshim

Tank is 30" deep (48" x 28" x 30")

There is plenty of room for me to raise the light. Think 12" is good? More / Less?

 

[BigSteve]

What pumps do you have on it? Man, thats odd to say the least.

 

[Spar]

@BigSteve wrote:

1 Mag 12,
2 Mag 9.5

Will be adding a 3rd Mag 9.5 for my chiller.

Also will have 4 300gph powerheads in the water... don't have them in yet.

 

[Spar]

Skimmer - Mag 12
Back-wall-spray-bar - Mag 9.5
Main flow - Mag 9.5

All are in the sump, so no closed-loops.

 

[chrisrush]

Well, with a 30" deep tank, you probably don't want to go much higher than 12" off the surface. What are you currently keeping and what do you plan to keep (coral-wise)?

Chris

 

[Spar]

@Olaggie01 wrote:

again, my SW lingo is pretty poor right now. But in the jests of it. I want to keep anything that is colorful &/or unique looking :roll:

I am assuming that would cover at least a few things within each type of coral (SPS, etc). including Brains, Clams, Anenomes, etc.

 

[Spar]

update - fan didn't help. still 89 degrees.

good news is that it didn't increase at all. the lights have now been on for 24 hours straight. with 98 degree weather, guess that is the climax of where the temp can get (89).

I am going to setup my chiller today to see if that helps. I would still like to get the normal temp down as to alleviate a little $$$ from running the chiller non-stop. so keep the ideas and questions going please

 

[Spar]

@Matt wrote:

I don't think that leaving the lights on for 24 hours straight is a very good idea or a likely scenario. I would put them on a normal lighting schedule and see how that effects your temps? Also, get a 2 liter bottle of coke or whatever, fill it w/water and leave it in your freezer. Once it is frozen you can place it in your sump to try and bring the temp down to a normal range."]

So you mean to turn the lights off and get the temp cooler manually. Then re-turn on the lights with the fan blowing and see if the temp stays neutralized? Guess that makes more sense than never letting it cool down first.

THanks for the idea

 

[Spar]

tank is completely empty. just salt and water. so these swings in temp aren't affecting anything (as far as I know).

lights are off now and water is in the freezer.

given that I will most likely have some serious temp issues in normal routine now, should I turn my chiller on to 82? I was planning on 78-80 before knowing this temp problem.

 

[disbjohn]

@Matt wrote:

82* would probably be a good point but I would wait and see if you can get the tank to a stable temp first. You don't want your chiller to run all the time so your average daily high should probably be determined first. I just re-read the beginning of the post and see that you hit this temp w/the lights on for only 12 hours. That is still way too high. You need to make sure that you have a fan blowing over your sump (preferably) down towards the water and a fan in your canopy doing the same thing. Once you get the canopy installed, make sure that the back is ventilated to allow that hot air a place to escape."]

Mag pumps do give off quite a bit of heat.

 

[Spar]

@Matt wrote:

82* would probably be a good point but I would wait and see if you can get the tank to a stable temp first. You don't want your chiller to run all the time so your average daily high should probably be determined first. I just re-read the beginning of the post and see that you hit this temp w/the lights on for only 12 hours. That is still way too high. You need to make sure that you have a fan blowing over your sump (preferably) down towards the water and a fan in your canopy doing the same thing. Once you get the canopy installed, make sure that the back is ventilated to allow that hot air a place to escape."]

my stand is not ventilated well at all, so I bet adding a fan should help. I may even 2-3 fans as the stand is 10' long. Those ballasts for the lights get so stink'n hot that the temp has got to be steaming underneathe.

This is why I am allowing my testing period to extend so long! Always best to take things slow! Thanks again for your help.

That was my first thought as well, but when having all 3 Mag's running and no lights my tank stayed at 75, so I figure they aren't contributing too much. I am considering running at least the Mag 12 in-line instead. I will see how all these other steps go first.

As a new question... Since my temp got up to near 90 for almost 24 hours now, do I have to worry about anything in my water quality being jeopardized? Calcium, Strontium, etc?

 

[DalaiTom]

@Spar wrote:

This may be your problem. I assume you're saying the ballasts are under the tank in the stand. Is there any chance you would be able to mount them external to the stand?

 

[Spar]

@DalaiTom wrote:

This may be your problem. I assume you're saying the ballasts are under the tank in the stand. Is there any chance you would be able to mount them external to the stand?"]

No where that the cords could possibly reach. My stand is tucked away into a nook-type-area in my living area. the only close area is the kitchen (possibly could put them in a cabinet area... worth a try anyway). I could run a test, having the ballasts just outside the stand for a day and see how much that helps the heat, but may just be a lot of work for nothing since I really can't do anything about it later.

Just gotta hope the cords will reach. Thanks for the idea.