Fans Work

[ubiq]

Here in SoCal, where Summer temperatures regularly exceed 100 degrees, I took it as gospel that a cooler would be needed to keep my tank alive, absent running the A/C 24/7. After dropping a wad of cash, I've learned that a nine inch fan blowing across the surface is more than up to the task, and saves a bunch on the electric bill. Added to the Things I Wish I Had known list.

 

[VintageReefer]

Here in SoCal, where Summer temperatures regularly exceed 100 degrees, I took it as gospel that a cooler would be needed to keep my tank alive, absent running the A/C 24/7. After dropping a wad of cash, I've learned that a nine inch fan blowing across the surface is more than up to the task, and saves a bunch on the electric bill. Added to the Things I Wish I Had known list.

What temperature is the room the tank is in on a hot day?

 

[Nano_Man]

I found fans dropped temp 3 to 4 degrees no more . But maybe you have had better luck

 

[Reefering1]

All about humidity levels to force evaporation. Be aware that the evaporated water has to go somewhere..

 

[ubiq]

What temperature is the room the tank is in on a hot day?

Mid to high 80's (with no A/C).

 

[VintageReefer]

Mid to high 80's (with no A/C).

In that case fans and no lid would help but you will probably have large amounts of evaporation to factor for. Not a huge deal with an ATO on a large container. A chiller might still be a useful thing to have

 

[Formulator]

Fans are awesome and I really don’t understand why anyone forks out $500-1000+ for chillers. I have a bundle of 4 small computer fans that keep my tank within 0.2 F of my setpoint 78.5 F. I run metal halide lights and my summer tank temp before spending just $15 on fans was almost 82 F. I posted a thread with a nice poem in their honor a couple months ago

Thread 'An Ode to Cooling Fans'
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/an-ode-to-cooling-fans.1049281/

 

[Cell]

Tunze actually makes a cooling fan called the Aquawind.

 

[GARRIGA]

Added evaporation isn't causing room temp ATO to back fill? Never understood how evaporating water then replacing it with room temperature water actually dropped the tank temperature. Wouldn't it make sense to cool that replacement water first and perhaps increase the efficiency although at that point it's almost acting like a chiller and both have concerns. Chiller throwing hot air into the room and that evaporation could cause mold unless AC pulling it out.

 

[Formulator]

Added evaporation isn't causing room temp ATO to back fill? Never understood how evaporating water then replacing it with room temperature water actually dropped the tank temperature. Wouldn't it make sense to cool that replacement water first and perhaps increase the efficiency although at that point it's almost acting like a chiller and both have concerns. Chiller throwing hot air into the room and that evaporation could cause mold unless AC pulling it out.

The ATO water is not the cause for the temperature decrease. Evaporation itself removes heat from the water. Just like sweating cools your body.

 

[Reefering1]

I'm a firm believer of a dehumidifier(a big one) . Practically sucks the heat from the tank without making the house sticky like it would be with a couple gallons of evaporation per day

 

[GARRIGA]

The ATO water is not the cause for the temperature decrease. Evaporation itself removes heat from the water. Just like sweating cools your body.

I understand that part but then one adds back room temp water which was likely hotter than the tank. Doesn't that raise the tank temps and why perhaps cooling that would benefit. Can sweat all you want in a sauna yet doubt much of a cooling effect.

 

[Formulator]

I understand that part but then one adds back room temp water which was likely hotter than the tank. Doesn't that raise the tank temps and why perhaps cooling that would benefit. Can sweat all you want in a sauna yet doubt much of a cooling effect.

I don’t know about that. Typical ATO systems are only adding a few mL at a time. Maybe if you were manually topping off a larger amount daily then the top-off water temp could be impactful, but a few mL at a time is not going to have any impact on the tank temp. Also, I think most folks keep their homes at similar or lower temps than the tank, so the top-off water should already be the same or cooler than the tank. Mine just gets hot because of all the equipment, and my fans give me the 3-4 degrees of cooling I need to compensate. Evaporation is a lot more powerful than you think at cooling, and it does still help keep us from overheating in a sauna.

 

[GARRIGA]

I don’t know about that. Typical ATO systems are only adding a few mL at a time. Maybe if you were manually topping off a larger amount daily then the top-off water temp could be impactful, but a few mL at a time is not going to have any impact on the tank temp. Also, I think most folks keep their homes at similar or lower temps than the tank, so the top-off water should already be the same or cooler than the tank. Mine just gets hot because of all the equipment, and my fans give me the 3-4 degrees of cooling I need to compensate. Evaporation is a lot more powerful than you think at cooling, and it does still help keep us from overheating in a sauna.

Evaporation however would increase ATO demand. That gassed off needs replacing and it's going to likely be at room temperature or hotter due to the equipment surrounding it that you mentioned.

 

[Formulator]

Evaporation however would increase ATO demand. That gassed off needs replacing and it's going to likely be at room temperature or hotter due to the equipment surrounding it that you mentioned.

I dono man. I’m still not buying it lol

 

[Aaron Stone]

Evaporation however would increase ATO demand. That gassed off needs replacing and it's going to likely be at room temperature or hotter due to the equipment surrounding it that you mentioned.

Look up Latent Heat of Evaporation. The energy required to evaporate a mass of water is more than the heat required to raise that same mass of water by 1 degree.

 

[ubiq]

Riverside County is semi-arid with low humidity, so that's not much of a factor. My ATO is fed from an automatically refilled 40 gallon R/O reservoir in tiny increments. It hasn't hit 3 digits yet, but I have one of those dual 9 inch window fans in reserve. The chiller may become necessary in August but, so far so good. Between the chiller, lights, and pool pump my electricity bills were starting to look like car payments.

 

[felda001]

Im in Phoenix and we’ve been triple digits for the last few weeks I’ve got a small clip on vornado fan that’s attached to an inkbird temp controller. Tank gets to 82 the fan kicks on and brings it back to 80. The fan usually only runs 10 minutes or so to get it back to temp

 

[Reefering1]

Evaporation however would increase ATO demand. That gassed off needs replacing and it's going to likely be at room temperature or hotter due to the equipment surrounding it that you mentioned.

So you're telling me, with all your years experience, you never used a fan to cool a tank? Or understand how humidity levels play a role?

 

[GARRIGA]

So you're telling me, with all your years experience, you never used a fan to cool a tank? Or understand how humidity levels play a role?

You didn't understand my point and no I've never used a fan to evaporate water but have used a fan to defrost fish and rodents. I understand how humidity works. I understand how fans work on evaporation. My point being that it might be advantageous to cool the ATO and therefore reduce the evaporation needed. Plus excess evaporation can cause mold and those in high humidity will have less evaporation than those living in low humidity, for example.

Freeze a block of RODI and place it in the ATO. Food for thought.