For people that have a tank without a chiller or even people that have a tank without a heater. How are you all keeping your temperature stable? Also what is the most affordable heater and/or chiller that give you the best bang for your buck?
Keeping Temperature Stable in reef Tank
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bpbonds
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Currently I am using a Fan attached to a InkBird Itc-308 which seems to work just fine temp stays around 78, I live in Arizona Temp. is always a big issue here I keep the house at 77 which helps.
Gtinnel
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I keep my house close to 70 year round so chiller is not an issue. I am currently using two cheap Orlushy (I think that is the brand) heaters connected to an inkbird controller which is then also monitored by my apex. I would never run a tank with a dedicated temp controller again and the inkbird ITC-306A that I am currently using keeps my temp within a little less than a 1 degree range according to my apex.
ntableman
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My tank is in my kitchen/lr area and the sump is in my basement, which is pretty much always in the low 70s. Because my house is heated/ac it doesn't get too hot or too cold either. I do have a chiller from my prior setup in an apartment but it never runs, and I have power monitoring on everything, so I can tell. For the time when it does get cold I have 2 BRS ti heaters on an ink bird controller backed up with my own temp monitor. BTW I use these power controllers for everything and my temp probe uses MQTT to communicate with it. I stay rock steady around 79.5F all ready round. In my next setup I plan to put all the pumps outside of the sump and vent my lighting better to see what I can do to help offset those some more. Oh and I do pull in air from the outside to offset CO2 build up. I run the tubing for this air around my heating pipes to warm it in the winter. I know...kind of a hack, but it works and I have to heat my house anyway 
Gtinnel
10K Club member
IME they work pretty well and are relatively cheap.
Crafty thanks for this post. I look forward to seeing your build thread in the future I might use some of your ideas.My tank is in my kitchen/lr area and the sump is in my basement, which is pretty much always in the low 70s. Because my house is heated/ac it doesn't get too hot or too cold either. I do have a chiller from my prior setup in an apartment but it never runs, and I have power monitoring on everything, so I can tell. For the time when it does get cold I have 2 BRS ti heaters on an ink bird controller backed up with my own temp monitor. BTW I use these power controllers for everything and my temp probe uses MQTT to communicate with it. I stay rock steady around 79.5F all ready round. In my next setup I plan to put all the pumps outside of the sump and vent my lighting better to see what I can do to help offset those some more. Oh and I do pull in air from the outside to offset CO2 build up. I run the tubing for this air around my heating pipes to warm it in the winter. I know...kind of a hack, but it works and I have to heat my house anyway
MaxTremors
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I keep my house at 72° year round, so my tank overheating isn’t an issue (back in the metal halide days it was a constant struggle even when the ambient temp was below 70°). That said, I don’t think there is a problem with running your tank at 82 or 83° in the summer (or even year round), I also don’t think there is an issue with a tank’s temp fluctuating by a few degrees throughout the day. As I was mentioning in another thread, the salinity and temperature of wild reefs varies pretty wildly throughout the day (even minute to minute) and seasonally. If you’ve ever gone diving or even swimming in a tropical ocean, you can feel the currents or pockets of water that are several degrees higher or lower, and on shallow protected reefs, the sun alone can raise the average temp by 4-5° throughout the day. My point is, temp fluctuations shouldn’t be of too much concern and running your tank in the low to low-mid 80’s shouldn’t be an issue either.
Saltyreef
I'm not your dad...
3 undersized titanium heaters on seperate ranco temp controllers.
Central coast weather, 65 degrees year round with minimal hotstreaks.
Temp stays at a constant 77 unless it happens to be 90 degrees outside throughout night (happened once or twice in the last 10 years lol)
Central coast weather, 65 degrees year round with minimal hotstreaks.
Temp stays at a constant 77 unless it happens to be 90 degrees outside throughout night (happened once or twice in the last 10 years lol)
I understand I just think the issue is when I order coral. One coral in particular is my pink flame tip clove polyps get upset every time my tank hits 80 degrees and don’t really open back up until I get it below 80. My fish don’t seem to care what degree my tank is at because you can see in my build thread that my tank reach 90+ degrees due to a heater and they were just fine.
