Help...Tank Temp on the Rise

[fishyreefy]

Looking for some suggestions from the group on what could be causing my tank water temperature to rise. I’ve kept it at 77 consistently with just a heater, and last week I noticed a gradual warming, up to 80 in a few days. I removed the heater, did a water change and it was right back up to 80. I came home from work today and it was 83! I ran out and got a small fan and put it on the lid and it seems to be slowly falling.
Room temp is 70. Tried turning off the light for a day with no affect. Tank is a Red Sea Max e170-50 gallon. Original led light, 2 hydro power heads. Original al skimmer. It’s run for a year at 77 with no issues. Any thoughts would be appreciated! Thanks-Don’t want to cook my fish and corals!!

 

[Billldg]

It's one of two things, either the temp probe is wrong or going bad, the other is the tank temp is in fact rising. If it's the later then you can point a power head towards the top causing more water turbulence and thus promote evaporation and drop the tank temp. What r you keeping your house temp at, depending on what part of the country u are, your Hvac unit could be in a static situation right now, not cold enough to run heat and not warm enough to run the ac and tank temps will be effected by this, you may need to drop the temp on your t-stat to bring your ac on to drop the ambient temp in the house.

Edit: Sorry, I didnt see where u said your room temp is at 70 degrees, sounds like your hvac is in a static state, so u can drop your t-stat down to 69 to bring on your hvac or aim a power head up towards to the top to promote evaporation. I had to do this starting today do to same issue.

 

[Dimmy007]

Looking for some suggestions from the group on what could be causing my tank water temperature to rise. I’ve kept it at 77 consistently with just a heater, and last week I noticed a gradual warming, up to 80 in a few days. I removed the heater, did a water change and it was right back up to 80. I came home from work today and it was 83! I ran out and got a small fan and put it on the lid and it seems to be slowly falling.
Room temp is 70. Tried turning off the light for a day with no affect. Tank is a Red Sea Max e170-50 gallon. Original led light, 2 hydro power heads. Original al skimmer. It’s run for a year at 77 with no issues. Any thoughts would be appreciated! Thanks-Don’t want to cook my fish and corals!!

So you removed the heater. Did a water change assuming with cold water. Temp went up to 80 by itself with no heater in the tank? And then it went up to 83 with no heater in the tank?

 

[Ditto]

Did you check your return pump? Maybe it running warm? But should not be raising it that much, just normal circulation, with your room temp should keep tank pretty constant. This was my biggest heat add on one of my tanks with everything off. But again should not be raising the tank that much.

How old is the tank setup? Is his your first spring soon to be summer running of the tank.

 

[Daniel Waters]

First step is to double check your tank temperature with a second thermometer. This will rule out if you have a faulty probe. If your temperature is indeed correct, then I imagine it is your return pump and any other pumps adding additional heat to the water (since you said you had the issue even with the heater removed). It would be very odd for your pumps to move your tank temperature 3 degrees, though. Any amount of evaporative cooling with a 70 degree ambient room temperature using led lights should keep your tank temperature pretty close to your set point.

 

[vetteguy53081]

As the days are longer, this will occur. I too at 80 deg but no effect on corals.

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

I had a similar issue with an old Mag 9.5 pump I was using. The pump was just old and not efficient anymore and getting warm. I swapped it out and now use that to mix saltwater because it warms it up for my WC

 

[Dragon52]

New thermometer & possibly heater. I had a heater go bad on me & replaced it with one of these. 800 Watt
https://www.marinedepot.com/JBJ_Tru...MI4NP7iezL4QIVy4uzCh0z1wuxEAQYAyABEgKPpvD_BwE

 

[Sod Buster]

If not a faulty thermometer/heater, like everyone else said. The return pump.

 

[Daniel Waters]

@fishyreefy what did you determine was the issue? I'm just asking because I find it's best if posters who ask for help will follow back up with the thread and report back, so that others who search these threads can best diagnose similar issues they might be having.