Neptune Aquatics

Heat and more heat

found this little guy on R2R lol
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I bought some $20-isn clip on desk fans online and they see to do the job. One per tank (QT and display) and, although not ideal, keep the tank at least under 84 degrees.

V
 
tanks holding to under 82F in garage so far with just fans. Evaporative cooling for the win so far.

Outside
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Garage ambient air temp
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Tank temp (lights run at night now)

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Granted I don't have A/C, but is it really that horrible to keep the inside temp to 80F? Do people usually let the house get hot when not home then bring it down to reasonable (80F inside is not reasonable IMO..) levels? I mean I get not having the house in the low 70s, but 80 is bad?

I knew people in Texas who felt that anything over 72° was barbaric. When not working from home I completely turned off the A/C during the day, then turned it back on when I got home. I would have programmed it into the thermostat, but my return time would vary by several hours on any given day. It helps several ways. First, the house ends up a bit warmer so you lose a bit less heat, second, in some places the electricity costs more during the day. Finally, since the A/C system works based on dT, trying to pull that heat back out of the warmer house into the cooler evening air (I would get home 7-10 PM) is much more efficient than trying to pull it out of a cold house into hot afternoon air.

The house would float between ~75 °F in the morning and the high 80's when I got home. By the time I went to bed it would be all cooled off. My tank with the chiller and a box fan on the top would evaporate 5 gallons of water per day (which my A/C would then have to pull back out at night), but that would let me hold the tank in the low 80's with a very undersized chiller.

If I remember from when I actually did the math, a gallon of water per day work out to 107 W average. Think how much a 100W heater running all the time would warm your tank at, and that's what 1 GPD evaporation will cool you by.
 
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Just came back from aquatic collection. They’re tanks are at 84 degrees

I like that store, so hopefully nobody takes this wrong, but I never cease to be amazed by how businesses don't have contingency plans. I'm not saying add full A/C for the store (I'm assuming they don't have it, and I know what that would cost), but have enough fans that you can put a couple on each tank, or start running to the store for ice and double bag it. Sure it's loud and annoying, but for the three days a year you need to do it I would think the saved livestock stress would more than pay for it, even if you have to throw them away and get new ones each year.

My LFS of choice in DFW would get an overnight power outage every 2-3 years. The owner would bring in a little gasoline generator for one or two tanks, and lose a ton of livestock. While he was prone to exaggeration, he typically claimed that he would lose $50k in livestock each time this happened. Given how large that place was and the sort of stuff he keeps, I'm guessing it was wholesale in the $10k to $15k range each time. A couple thousand more lost in the frozen foods since they would melt in the freezer. Given that he was one of those rare highly financially successful stores, after the second or third time this happened when he still hadn't invested in backup power I stopped feeling bad for him.
 
I like that store, so hopefully nobody takes this wrong, but I never cease to be amazed by how businesses don't have contingency plans. I'm not saying add full A/C for the store (I'm assuming they don't have it, and I know what that would cost), but have enough fans that you can put a couple on each tank, or start running to the store for ice and double bag it. Sure it's loud and annoying, but for the three days a year you need to do it I would think the saved livestock stress would more than pay for it, even if you have to throw them away and get new ones each year.

My LFS of choice in DFW would get an overnight power outage every 2-3 years. The owner would bring in a little gasoline generator for one or two tanks, and lose a ton of livestock. While he was prone to exaggeration, he typically claimed that he would lose $50k in livestock each time this happened. Given how large that place was and the sort of stuff he keeps, I'm guessing it was wholesale in the $10k to $15k range each time. A couple thousand more lost in the frozen foods since they would melt in the freezer. Given that he was one of those rare highly financially successful stores, after the second or third time this happened when he still hadn't invested in backup power I stopped feeling bad for him.
They do have fans to cover their tanks. It was just extremely hot today in the area. They’ve dealt with this situation from time to time. I didn’t see the livestock stress or anything.
 
I don't have chiller. Wife not happy if I leave home A/C on for whole day to keep temp around the tank down. How everyone keep you tank temp down? The next few day will be over 100F, last time when it hot out side, my tank is 80F-81F.
Mine gets to 82 in the house on these days with the AC at 78. Coral doesn't seem to mind
 
Yeah...yoúve got a lot invested in those tanks...hopefully you can keep them cool.

it’s 10:30pm and this is what the thermometer reads.
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Tonight will be a little rough with the lights now on at night and the heat not going away (will likely still be 80F well past midnight). If tanks get to 83F, lights & UV will shut off. That should probably take care of the problem. If the air wasn’t so piss crappy, I have a screen door installed between the garage and the house which would be normally open in this case.

backup tank fan added too. ;)
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Yup the "if the air wasn't so crappy" caveat, 86° inside the house at 3am because the house holds onto all the heat from day(s), and can't even open a window to let some of it out at night. Luckily tank downstairs and sitting pretty at 79° tempted to sleep on a cot in the garage.
 
I bought 2 clip on fans off Amazon and went away this weekend. Had my step daughter watching the tanks. 2 fans kept it at 82ish and 100 degrees outside. Going to order a third fan and may even order one of these for my work truck
 
Had to break the fans out yesterday. yesterday I was a little late - tank already at 81.7, but the fans kept it below 83. Today ran both early, and 80.7 top.
 
Absolutely fan on the surface is the way to go, no question. You are looking for real air movement to stimulate evaporation by peeling off the thin layer of 100% humid air right above the water surface. Don’t bother with the tiny made-for-aquarium computer type fans in my opinion, they don’t move much air and are kinda noisy. A nice 6 inch clip on desk fan or the like at medium setting is perfect. Just watch the temp since it will cool very effectively. And watch the water level or ATO reservoir since it will evaporate a LOT of water.

I've been using this made for aquarium fan(s) and it's worked really well for me. Given, I've only been using it a few months so I'll see if it lasts.
 
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