Should I get a Chiller??

[177ike]

That was the question I asked myself, and I decided to do this instead:

Thinking ahead, I went and mounted some fans in the canopy. I'm VERY pleased with the outcome and noise level of these fans. I went with the 120mm Antec Tricool (Double Ball Bearings) fans from Fry's Electronics. I've got a whopping four fans mounted over my 90 gallon, pushing a max of 78 CFM at 30 dba. I tried out the Silenx fans and they just weren't pushing enough air, so I returned them and went with the Antecs. Very happy. I did a test and under the current weather conditions, my temp dropped .2 degrees in about 10 minutes!! This is running the fans on 9 volts rather than the max 12 volts, so very happy with the cooling performance. During the summer months I can always up the volts to the max 12 and push more air (of course the fans will be a bit noisier as well). Although, I don't think I'll need to crank them even in the warmer months ahead. I'll probably do some more testing at lower fan speeds (lower volts), and try to see if I can quiet the fans down even further. The aim of my tank is to run the most efficient/stable tank that I can. Although, I do like the stability chillers offer.. Gonna run these fans and decide on a chiller at a later time. These fans are rated at 1.5 watts per fan, so a total of 6 watts running when cooling. Check out the pics:

Bring on the summertime!!

 

[xcaret]

Depends too where you live, some places shoot ~100 inland; fans work but a chiller is insurance; when the summer time comes you can see several posts of people kinda desperately looking for a chiller.
I'm doing something similar to your canopy, four Icecap fans, two shoot cool air from under the lighting and two exhaust hot air from top.
On the image you can see the fans just behind and beneath the T5 lamps, they are slightly angled to shoot air to the bulbs since they are powered by an Icecap 660; above the light shelf two extracting fans will be working.
I haven't had temp. issues beyond 85 and the RK unit shuts off the lights if the water surface reaches 85.
I'm prepared too, have a small chiller for peace of mind.

 

[yardartist]

Micro climate will make a big difference. If my tank was upstairs the tank would get too hot. The house is more shaded downstairs, and the climate in Berkeley is much less warm than places very close by. Do you cool the room the tank is in?

No AC here, and it has been good through two summers. On warm days we do not heat up the kitchen and run a small fan towards the tank.

 

[177ike]

It gets very hot out here in San Ramon during the summer. The house can get up to 80+ degrees. On my closed canopy biocube 29 gallon I just had a jbj blower style fan aimed into the rear chambers. This was enough to keep the tank cool, albeit at a high noise level.. I am pretty confident these fans will be up to the task come summer. I love the quietness of the fans as well. It helps that the room the tank is in has a high ceiling.

 

[177ike]

Depends too where you live, some places shoot ~100 inland; fans work but a chiller is insurance; when the summer time comes you can see several posts of people kinda desperately looking for a chiller.
I'm doing something similar to your canopy, four Icecap fans, two shoot cool air from under the lighting and two exhaust hot air from top.
On the image you can see the fans just behind and beneath the T5 lamps, they are slightly angled to shoot air to the bulbs since they are powered by an Icecap 660; above the light shelf two extracting fans will be working.
I haven't had temp. issues beyond 85 and the RK unit shuts off the lights if the water surface reaches 85.
I'm prepared too, have a small chiller for peace of mind.

Are those LEDs in your canopy along with the T5s?

I thought about aiming the fans from side to side but couldn't get them inside the canopy without blocking my light fixture. It seems the two vents on top along with the open back canopy design is enough for air exchange.

 

[xcaret]

Those are LED strips, regular blue LED's 24 on each strip; I'm powering them with a 10V 1A DC power supply, they come mounted on Aluminum.
Bought them on ebay back in May but they are not available anymore; seller was sureelectronics.
They are a bit bright for moon light so I'm switching power supply to a 5V if I can dig one out.
Canopy is peninsula style so the only way to vent it without drilling the top is from under/blow in and top/blow out. Still have to work on that, I might end up drilling it on top for the two Icecap fans.