Air condition today

[angiegreenwell]

Anyone else turn on the air conditioning to help with tank temps today? Both my tanks were running hot. If only the apex hooked into the thermostat!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using Tapatalk

[Rbredding]

seems like an expensive way to supplement your chiller...

[blakejohn]

Our ac has been on, set at 70. Sump and skimmer is in the garage and tank maintained 79

Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk

[Hnguyen]

Good thing I got a chiller about 2 weeks ago. Tank has been at 77 all day.

[angiegreenwell]

What percentage of people run chillers in ATL? I was hoping with LED's I would not have to purchase one. Today I came home and the tanks were at 80.

[PFCDeitz]

My tank is run with LEDS and a few blue bulbs and it does not move from 78. No ac or anything. We dont run the AC often. Its about 400 a month to run both Acs for this house

[Hnguyen]

I can't speak for everyone else but for me, even if I run LED's, I'd still need a chiller. My house is always at 77 to 78 degrees during the day (Seems the family likes the house HOT). I've never ran a chiller before because I wasn't willing to cough up the money, but with this new tank, I went all out on it with all highend equipment and so a chiller was called for.

Come to think of it, I do run LED's for half the day. I have 4 ecoxotic LED fixtures and they come on from 10am-1:30pm, then my MH kicks on until 7:30 then it's back to the LED's again. I can come home at 11 at night and my chiller still kicks on and off from time to time as my room temp still wants to raise my tank temp.

[Skriz]

Originally Posted by angiegreenwell

What percentage of people run chillers in ATL? I was hoping with LED's I would not have to purchase one. Today I came home and the tanks were at 80.

I have a chiller, but it's not one yet. A chiller is pretty much mandatory for my tank.

Do you use internal pumps or external?

One MAJOR mistake many people make when setting up their aquariums is pump selection. A popular, but poor, pump choice in this hobby is the Mag pump. I've seen some horrendous systems that used half a dozen Mag pumps! These pumps, although cheap, easy to get and easy to use are power hungry heat sources. I've used Mag pumps, but quickly learned that's not the best route to go; another rookie mistake (one of many over the years!). I had a Mag 9.5 that increased my tank temp by 10 degrees alone I'm picking on Mag pumps since they're pretty high on the suck list, but there are tons of internal pumps to stay away from (Rio being another one to never let near your tank!).

Anyway, long story short, if you're running internal pumps, you may be counteracting the heat benefits from your LED. Go external and reap the benefits.

[Corigan]

I run a chiller a well. Had a fuse blow out of it last week, waiting on my replacements to show up this week. I basically have to run the tank with a chiller with all the pumps, halides, and everything else. Right now why I am waiting for the fuses to show up I have kept the canopy open, fans on, and AC down..

[MvM]

Originally Posted by Skriz

I have a chiller, but it's not one yet. A chiller is pretty much mandatory for my tank.

Do you use internal pumps or external?

One MAJOR mistake many people make when setting up their aquariums is pump selection. A popular, but poor, pump choice in this hobby is the Mag pump. I've seen some horrendous systems that used half a dozen Mag pumps! These pumps, although cheap, easy to get and easy to use are power hungry heat sources. I've used Mag pumps, but quickly learned that's not the best route to go; another rookie mistake (one of many over the years!). I had a Mag 9.5 that increased my tank temp by 10 degrees alone I'm picking on Mag pumps since they're pretty high on the suck list, but there are tons of internal pumps to stay away from (Rio being another one to never let near your tank!).

Anyway, long story short, if you're running internal pumps, you may be counteracting the heat benefits from your LED. Go external and reap the benefits.

HA! I agree. I run a mag 5 in my mixing tank in the garage and don't need a heater in the middle of winter. It acts as a heater!

[TChristman]

No chiller here but the AC was on today because I was hot. My tank never gets above 82. That is still a safe range. I run a fan on the sump and two in the canopy. When the new tank gets finished I think I will only need a fan on the sump.

[ichthyoid]

Originally Posted by Corigan

I run a chiller a well. Had a fuse blow out of it last week, waiting on my replacements to show up this week. I basically have to run the tank with a chiller with all the pumps, halides, and everything else. Right now why I am waiting for the fuses to show up I have kept the canopy open, fans on, and AC down..

There are reasons that fuses blow. Usually not a random event.

If it happens again, then not due to a 'weak' fuse. Look for a more serious problem. -JMHO

[Corigan]

Originally Posted by ichthyoid

There are reasons that fuses blow. Usually not a random event.

If it happens again, then not due to a 'weak' fuse. Look for a more serious problem. -JMHO

You sir are correct. I think it was my heaters that were tripping it. I had my heaters running off the chiller. Got a replacement fuse, saw the heaters kick on, and it blew the replacement. Then when I plugged the heaters into a different strip it tripped one of my halide ballasts and my powerheads went crazy. I have since ditched those heaters and bought replacements. I will know when the new set of replacement fuses shows up this week. Great advice icthyoid, spot on.

[Hnguyen]

+1 with the Mag. drives as well. I've notice that my temp will raise when I turn off the return pump (mag.7) but still have a mag.5 running my media reactor and chiller. The temp would increase by .5 degree within less then 10 min. and my chiller would kick on and run for about 5 min. before it shuts off. But space is soo limited within my tank that I don't know of any other pumps to run. I can't run external either.

P.S. I've also notice the mag. drives would be really hot when it pull it out the water right after I shut it off. It would be warm to the touch.

[BASSCYN]

Originally Posted by angiegreenwell

What percentage of people run chillers in ATL? I was hoping with LED's I would not have to purchase one. Today I came home and the tanks were at 80.

Nothing wrong with 80. Stability is more the issue. If you can maintain 80...I wouldnt worry about it.
Unless of course you have livestock that requires a cooler temp.

[Rbredding]

the tank is going to try and equalize temperature with the room around it (obvious, right?!)..

if you historically keep your house in the high 70s then it will be nearly impossible to keep your tank at 77-78 without a heater..

water will hold radiant and thermal energy longer than air will (ever go swimming at 10pm on a cool summer evening?) . So where you can cool the inside of your house in 20 mins by running your AC, your water temp wont drop anywhere near that quickly using airflow as it's main cooling method. (so we have chillers)

as Skriz said above, it's more efficient to keep those heat generating devices outside of the tank.. (yet another reason why Vortechs are popular).. anything you can do to cut down on added heat will help your system maintain a stable temperature.. (in a perfect world, you'd like to only have a heater come on at night)

ok.. now...

everyone go home and replace your mag pumps.. (I hate them too)

[gnashty]

Originally Posted by Skriz

I have a chiller, but it's not one yet. A chiller is pretty much mandatory for my tank.

Do you use internal pumps or external?

One MAJOR mistake many people make when setting up their aquariums is pump selection. A popular, but poor, pump choice in this hobby is the Mag pump. I've seen some horrendous systems that used half a dozen Mag pumps! These pumps, although cheap, easy to get and easy to use are power hungry heat sources. I've used Mag pumps, but quickly learned that's not the best route to go; another rookie mistake (one of many over the years!). I had a Mag 9.5 that increased my tank temp by 10 degrees alone I'm picking on Mag pumps since they're pretty high on the suck list, but there are tons of internal pumps to stay away from (Rio being another one to never let near your tank!).

Anyway, long story short, if you're running internal pumps, you may be counteracting the heat benefits from your LED. Go external and reap the benefits.

I concurr - I run 3 Mag pumps in my sump (24, 18, 7) and run a chiller (fed by a Mag 7 lol) and have just started noticing a small spike when I put the mag 7 in. I still maintain the 80 Im looking for but I imagine the chiller comes on more then it probably should. I plan to replace my pumps one by one when I get the cash. Cant do external at this point but can make a better submersible choice in the future..

[JJ Ocean]

I broke down and got a chiller. I have all external pumps (reeflo & vortechs), but the 1,000 watts of lighting on my system is just too much. I was using fans to keep it in check, but I would run up to 81 on a hot day and didn't care for the temp bounces. I also evaporated a lot of water with the fans.

Now, I don't leave 77 - 78 regardless of the weather/season.

BTW - I too use a mag12 to mix water and yes, it doubles as the heater.

[mysterybox]

Originally Posted by Skriz

I have a chiller, but it's not one yet. A chiller is pretty much mandatory for my tank.

Do you use internal pumps or external?

One MAJOR mistake many people make when setting up their aquariums is pump selection. A popular, but poor, pump choice in this hobby is the Mag pump. I've seen some horrendous systems that used half a dozen Mag pumps! These pumps, although cheap, easy to get and easy to use are power hungry heat sources. I've used Mag pumps, but quickly learned that's not the best route to go; another rookie mistake (one of many over the years!). I had a Mag 9.5 that increased my tank temp by 10 degrees alone I'm picking on Mag pumps since they're pretty high on the suck list, but there are tons of internal pumps to stay away from (Rio being another one to never let near your tank!).

Anyway, long story short, if you're running internal pumps, you may be counteracting the heat benefits from your LED. Go external and reap the benefits.

while you are correct, some of us never learn, d'oh! I use a mag 7 & a fan with no chiller (no problem), however, is there an internal pump that would be more efficient and less hot?

[Skriz]

Originally Posted by mysterybox

while you are correct, some of us never learn, d'oh! I use a mag 7 & a fan with no chiller (no problem), however, is there an internal pump that would be more efficient and less hot?

Before I went completely external, I switched the Mag 9.5 to a Quiet One. It ran more efficiently and cooler. Still, if you design your system correctly, there's no reason you can't use an external pump. Time to stop being such an amatuer