Is my tank to hot?

[Kial]

My tank is sitting at 28 degrees and I'm not even running a heater! Is this to hot?

I live in Queensland Australia and it's not even summer yet so I'm worried the tank temperature will only get worse.
Can't afford a chiller either.

Tank is aquareef 400

 

[andrew james]

Set up a fan to blow across the surface of the water. It will lower the temp by a couple degrees.

 

[Kial]

Can the fan be placed above the sump? As my tank has a hood.

 

[savetheocean]

Can the fan be placed above the sump? As my tank has a hood.

Yes, as long as theres enough water exchange throughout the sump. Is your aquarium next to a window or in direct light of a window?

 

[savetheocean]

Are your lights producing heat?

 

[Kial]

It's near to a window but that window does not get any sun, plus I keep the blinds closed. It's also against an interior wall so shouldn't be getting any extra heat.
My lights are led and I've tries keeping them off to see if there is any change to temperature but It doesn't seem to make a difference.

 

[savetheocean]

It's near to a window but that window does not get any sun, plus I keep the blinds closed. It's also against an interior wall so shouldn't be getting any extra heat.
My lights are led and I've tries keeping them off to see if there is any change to temperature but It doesn't seem to make a difference.

Okay, see if a fan works. If you can, try to save up for a chiller.

 

[skiergd011013]

On the hottest summer days here i would turn the lights off for the day, and blow a fan across the tank.

 

[DSC reef]

That's 82 degrees Fahrenheit just about. Are you noticing any negative effects in the tank? A fan across the the top of the tank would be best, maybe you can vent the hood.

 

[fredjr]

What is your room temp? If the room is cool the tank should also stay cool unless you got something in the tank generating heat like a bad heater.

 

[savetheocean]

IF its an emergency put ice in a bag and put it in the SUMP

 

[theMeat]

In general the bigger the pump, or the more pumps you have the hotter things get. But.....Some pumps, like mag drive and mj to name a few, are heat makers. Some pumps, like eheim, run much cooler.
Another thing to consider is gfo media, which are mostly iron based, can get stuck to pump magnets driving up heat. Two little fishes reactors are notorious for letting out media.

And yes, 28 degrees is boarder line too hot

 

[DSC reef]

Has your tank been running at this temp consistently? If it is I wouldn't take to drastic of measures unless your experiencing problems. Stable temps are better than swings. I prefer 77-78 so I run a chiller since I run halides. It's the large swings I try to avoid.

 

[Gablami]

If you're stable at 82 without doing much, I wouldn't worry too much. Set a fan to turn on above 83 if you have a controller. There are long threads if you search for it discussing temperature. People have successful tanks at all sorts of temps, and even though we say that stability is important, there are plenty of people who intentionally swing their temps and believe it makes their corals "hardier to temperature swings."

 

[DSC reef]

My mom's nano I set up runs at 74-75 and thriving, stability is key IMO

 

[PatW]

I have a couple of clip on fans in my sump. They are set to start at 77.8 degrees Fahrenheit. My tank never gets over 79 degrees. Fans are cheap. If it works for you, the problem is solved. If it is inadequate, you are not out much money.

 

[Kial]

Thanks for the replies.
It's going from 27-28 throughout the day, it's a new tank and all I have in there at the moment are 5 snails which seem to be doing ok.
I've just purchased a cooling fan so I will give that a go, hopefully drop the temperature a bit!

 

[laverda]

What is the ambient air temp in the room it is in? That is border line to hot and does not give you much room for thing to go higher. If the room it is in is not over 26 degrees, then something is adding a fair bit of heat to the tank. If the tank did not have lights or any pumps the temp should be the same as the room it is in.
I would vent your canopy. How warm is it inside your canopy? I had a 240 where it would get to 110f in the canopy, so the tank would get very hot. I added 2 large computer fans on each end blowing in and added exit vent in the top. It still go hot, but not as bad. The next thing I would look at is your pumps. Pumps can add a lot of heat to your tank. A 100 watt pump is in essence a 100 watt heater. If there is something wrong with a pump that number could be a lot higher. Using energy efficant pumps will cut the heat and save on your electric bill.

 

[Kial]

I'm not to sure what temperature my room is but it does get very warm so I'll have to try find out. The return pump I'm using is just the standard one that came with the tank but when I touch that it doesn't seem to be creating any heat.
I've opened up the canopy to give it some air also.
Was 35 degrees here today and the tank didn't go above 28