March 2008 TOTM - 700g reef in the desert

KEEPERZ · Jul 15, 2009

So the heat in Las Vegas is no Joke and over the past 6 weeks the compressor that supports the A/C in my fishroom has been acting up and finally shut down for the most part 5 days ago(there was a delay in getting the replacement). I usually keep the room set at 73 degrees and water at 78-80 in the summer-we got to a 94 degree room temp last week and water got to 86!!-Along with a new 24" fan-I have an extra refer in the garage so I got about 40' of 1"1/4 plastic tubing, ran it from the tank to the refer back to the skimmer with about 15' coiled up inside to cool water. After a day the lowest the water go to was 84.5 but it held steady-

The LPS look fine but my acros lost some color cus I was using the MH's sparingly to keep temps down-I did lose a couple smaller wild acro colonies which stinks but everything else seems fine. Out of my 3 clams-the large Gigas was the only one to spawn but he seems to have recovered from that, hopefully-

as of yesterday the A/C is back on track but I am only setting it to 81 degrees for now to slowly lower water temps- suppose to hit 111 degrees in Las Vegas the next couple days so things could have gotten real ugly-the added challenge of keeping a reef in the desert-

pics of clam spawn coming soon-=)- he was creating his own waves.

pookstreet · Jul 15, 2009

Ouch, 111??? So that's what a turkey feels like during Thanksgiving

Just curious. It gets into the low 100's here from time to time during the summer but my garage never got above 90. What do you think is the difference? You've seen my garage so you may have an idea.

KEEPERZ · Jul 15, 2009

those afternoon winds you get prolly help alot, out there, but when it's 105 during the day and 87 at night like it's been consistently plus I have to run a dehumidifier,for the water volume, which adds heat-that might be the difference Kenny-do you know how high the humidity gets in your garage by chance?-

pookstreet · Jul 15, 2009

I forgot about the humidity factor. The wind and the cooler nights also help. Nights still dip into the 70's even if the day is 100+. Right now, the humidity inside the garage is 41% and it's 16% outside. That's about the norm for here unless it's one of those rare days when there is a storm, then the humidity outside gets higher. That's about the norm. It usually doesn't get above 50%, regardless of the time of year.

KEEPERZ · Jul 15, 2009

I set the dehumidifier to 60%-lol-otherwise it will rise to 80% real fast even with the A/C running- the good thing is, we have really low humidity outside and I can compensate as long as the A/C is working should the dehumidifier go down-I wish those cool breezes would reach us up here =)

SaraB · Jul 15, 2009

Sorry to hear about your issues with the A/C Joe! Hopefully most everything will recover and you'll be back on track soon!

KEEPERZ · Jul 15, 2009

Thank you Sara-we'll be good, and if not, I know where to track down my replacements =)

-I think the warmer water made the fish even more hungry, they have been eating like pigs the last week-lol-

KEEPERZ · Jul 19, 2009

The Gigas spawn-

KEEPERZ · Jul 19, 2009

KEEPERZ · Jul 19, 2009

Sikryd · Jul 19, 2009

Sweet pictures! How did you know it was going to spawn? Or was it just good timing with a camera around?
I've never seen pictures like that - thanks for sharing them!

Edit - just read back a few pages, from where the temp caused the spawn. Yeah Vegas can get a little nasty in the summer!

KEEPERZ · Jul 19, 2009

KEEPERZ · Jul 19, 2009

Sikryd said:
Sweet pictures! How did you know it was going to spawn? Or was it just good timing with a camera around?
I've never seen pictures like that - thanks for sharing them!

Hey thanks-yeah the tank was sitting at 86 degrees and he spawned for a good 30 minutes in 5 min intervals so it was pretty easy to catch-the good thing is we are back down to 77 and he is doing well, I didn't like seeing him stressed but it made for a good photography session-

Sikryd · Jul 19, 2009

KEEPERZ said:
Hey thanks-yeah the tank was sitting at 86 degrees and he spawned for a good 30 minutes in 5 min intervals so it was pretty easy to catch-the good thing is we are back down to 77 and he is doing well, I didn't like seeing him stressed but it made for a good photography session-

Yeah no doubt - I hate emergencies like that. Thats cool as can be that you got those pics though! Those things are priceless.
Looks like I will be having late night checking out your thread! :nerd:

That Chevron picture makes me want another tang. I only have a purple and foxface (as far as grazers go) - so I could do a Ctenochaetus

KEEPERZ · Jul 19, 2009

Sikryd said:
Yeah no doubt - I hate emergencies like that. Thats cool as can be that you got those pics though! Those things are priceless.
Looks like I will be having late night checking out your thread! :nerd:

That Chevron picture makes me want another tang. I only have a purple and foxface (as far as grazers go) - so I could do a Ctenochaetus

thanks for checking out the thread, yeah I have always been a Chevy guy =) and he's in there with 3 tomini's and they could care less which really surprised me-I thought I was gonna have a cage match for sure-