Reduce water temps

1034 Views 13 Replies 5 Participants Last post by randpost, Mar 15, 2014

Aquatechtoo

Discussion Starter · Mar 13, 2014

I'm not sure if this is the best section to post, but I'm exploring what pair of fish to add to my 46g planted tank and P. Pulcher seems to fit my requirements - except for one. Do you have any suggestions on keeping my water cooler in the summer without investing in a chiller? The room the tank is in doesn't get much direct sunlight, but I learned last year that it doesn't get as cool the rest of the house. Subsequently, the water gets up to 81/82 during the day from the end of June through August. I have LED lighting (had been using T5) and a glass canopy to keep the jumpers in the tank. I can't raise the lights or move the tank to another place in the house (and still stay married). I probably only need to lower the temps by 4-5 degrees.

Are there any novel solutions that you all have used to lower your water temps? Frozen water bottles? Use a fan to blow over the top of the water by removing part of the canopy? Give up and choose fish that can stand warmer temps?

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randpost

· #2 · Mar 13, 2014

Aquatechtoo said:
I'm not sure if this is the best section to post, but I'm exploring what pair of fish to add to my 46g planted tank and P. Pulcher seems to fit my requirements - except for one. Do you have any suggestions on keeping my water cooler in the summer without investing in a chiller? The room the tank is in doesn't get much direct sunlight, but I learned last year that it doesn't get as cool the rest of the house. Subsequently, the water gets up to 81/82 during the day from the end of June through August. I have LED lighting (had been using T5) and a glass canopy to keep the jumpers in the tank. I can't raise the lights or move the tank to another place in the house (and still stay married). I probably only need to lower the temps by 4-5 degrees.

Are there any novel solutions that you all have used to lower your water temps? Frozen water bottles? Use a fan to blow over the top of the water by removing part of the canopy? Give up and choose fish that can stand warmer temps?

A clip on fan or any fan that can push 60+ cfm will cool your water. My water normally gets to about 82 during the high point in the day. With a dual clip on fan my temperature ceiling is 78 degrees. I got mine on Ebay for 16.00. I opted for an unbranded Chinese version or you can pay 30% more and get a name brand like Zoomed or Aquatek. You can also spring for a Walmart clip on fan for 6.00, but those are fairly ugly, but it all depends on your needs.

Search for Cooling "Twin Fan (2 fans) Aquarium Chillers 80L" on Ebay if you want to see what I'm using.

I believe the temperature reduction is mostly due to the fan displacing the heat generated by my lights which would just sit there otherwise.

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Aquatechtoo

Discussion Starter · #3 · Mar 14, 2014

Awesome! Thanks for the detailed answer!

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randpost

· #4 · Mar 14, 2014

Aquatechtoo said:
Awesome! Thanks for the detailed answer!

I missed the part where you mentioned the glass canopy. Are you set on keeping it on? Fan wouldn't be much good with a glass canopy. My glass canopy is sitting in storage. My shrimp don't jump out

Sent from my Nexus 5

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Aquatechtoo

Discussion Starter · #5 · Mar 14, 2014

I'd probably take the back section off and direct the fans over that and hope for the best with my top level swimmers.

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randpost

· #6 · Mar 14, 2014

Aquatechtoo said:
I'd probably take the back section off and direct the fans over that and hope for the best with my top level swimmers.

I found a Rasbora the other day that went missing weeks ago. he made it 6 ft from my tank and under a bed. Not a big deal though. The fish made it's choice

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Aquatechtoo

Discussion Starter · #7 · Mar 14, 2014

Lol.

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tipsy mcstager

· #8 · Mar 14, 2014

last august AEP was working down the street, when one of the dump truck drivers drove away with his bed up. the shmuck took out about 8 blocks of the grid from one overhead line:icon_excl

about 92 deg out, 2nd day without elc, 75g creeping up to 84deg:help:
got the bright idea the make a "cool can" (a old raceing term).
got a glad lawn&leaf garbage bag, tossed in the magnum 350 external.
droped that into a cooler, filled the cooler with two bags of ice.
and had the tank temp down to 75deg in 90mins.
(good in a pinch)

long term? fans across the top, for a water evaporation type cooling is best:icon_smil

(i own 2 7500 watt generators, before you ask)

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randpost

· #9 · Mar 14, 2014

I was messing around this morning and made an aquarium fan from spare computer parts just to see how it would perform.

180 cfm fan 120mm
Spare 12v ac adapter

Dropped my water temp 5 degrees in an hour. Obviously the 180cfm fan is a bit too much pointed directly at the water, but it does perform far better than aquarium specific fans.

Just a cheaper option. Mounting the fan to a piece of wood, plastic or even a cell phone car mount would look better.

I have a CPU water cooling unit I've never used with a decent radiator I think I will try and rig with a on/off switch and no CPU block with the in and out hose directly in the water.

Much more attractive than a fan but I think my particular radiator would chill the water too quickly.

Sent from my Nexus 5

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anastasisariel

· #10 · Mar 15, 2014

randpost said:
I was messing around this morning and made an aquarium fan from spare computer parts just to see how it would perform.

180 cfm fan 120mm
Spare 12v ac adapter

Dropped my water temp 5 degrees in an hour. Obviously the 180cfm fan is a bit too much pointed directly at the water, but it does perform far better than aquarium specific fans.

Just a cheaper option. Mounting the fan to a piece of wood, plastic or even a cell phone car mount would look better.

I have a CPU water cooling unit I've never used with a decent radiator I think I will try and rig with a on/off switch and no CPU block with the in and out hose directly in the water.

Much more attractive than a fan but I think my particular radiator would chill the water too quickly.

Sent from my Nexus 5

Lol, good one!

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sleepswithdafishez

· #11 · Mar 15, 2014

randpost said:
I was messing around this morning and made an aquarium fan from spare computer parts just to see how it would perform.

180 cfm fan 120mm
Spare 12v ac adapter

Dropped my water temp 5 degrees in an hour. Obviously the 180cfm fan is a bit too much pointed directly at the water, but it does perform far better than aquarium specific fans.

Sent from my Nexus 5

how much water would that be in your tank?
Also ,what was the water temp before and after ,and also ,the room temp ,if you have it?

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randpost

· #12 · Mar 15, 2014

29g or 24-25g minus the substrate.

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sleepswithdafishez

· #13 · Mar 15, 2014

randpost said:
29g or 24-25g minus the substrate.

Cool! So I could obtain more or less the same result with a 60cfm fan across my 10 gallon ,assuming ambient room temps are close to yours.
Did you notice any difference when pointing it directly at water ,like in the pic ,versus blowing at an angle ,across the water?

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randpost

· #14 · Mar 15, 2014

sleepswithdafishez said:
Cool! So I could obtain more or less the same result with a 60cfm fan across my 10 gallon ,assuming ambient room temps are close to yours.
Did you notice any difference when pointing directly at water, like in the pic ,versus blowing at an angle ,across the water?

I had far better results when pointing directly at the water. Perhaps because the water is moved more. I believe the CFM has a lot to do with it, but I tried a 260 cfm fan which produced nearly the same results as the 180cfm. The 180 had a more concentrated flow of air and produced more water disturbance, while the 260 had a wider angle and less disturbance. The fans of the blade are engineered differently.

These are all guesses though. My choice of fan would be a 60cfm 120mm fan. It has a good blend of silence and cooling ability. Anything higher than 60cfm in 120mm size gets a little noisy. You could also move up to 180mm or even 220mm fans and produce more cfm while keeping noise to a minimum. That would be idea, but avoiding a purchase I think would be more ideal.

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