Summer is almost here! How do you keep your tank cool?

lbacha · May 29, 2019

roberthu526 said:
I run a chiller and my electricity bill is a little crazy. I am looking at $400 this month. I am installing a fan in the fish room and running an exhaust fan at the same time.

Yeah I have a chiller on the way and I’m hoping the bill won’t be too bad. I actually use my best to raise the temp when I’m gone in the apartment to save money and I got the chiller just in case that effects the tank

HB AL · May 29, 2019

Central AC and I'm only 3 miles from the beach here in SoCal, but my bedroom where my tank is gets blasted by the sun. A couple, 3 fan clip ons from Amazon do the job during the cooler months.

vetteguy53081 · May 30, 2019

Everyone says my tanks are cool ......LOL.
On a serious note, i have central air which has done the trick. I now own a monster acrylic and many say acrylic holds the temperature well. We will see as I will get a chiller unit if needed

stevieduk · May 30, 2019

just get a water cooler/chiller. best thing ive ever bought gives you temp readout on the front and keeps your water at the temp you set plus or minus a degree. save you colling the whole house

Tastee · May 30, 2019

I’m in Sydney Australia and it’s definitely a chiller for me. In summer we may get as high as 97 but as we are moving into winter today it was down to 47. That’s outside, inside the house isn’t as bad and the bodies of water in the tanks helps stabilise things (65g reef + 11g FW).

For both heating and cooling however my house has a 6.6 Kw Solar PV system so during the day when the sun is shining it costs me nothing. I will be fitting a battery in the next 12 months or so (as soon as the price drops to the point where it is economic), and when I do that I hope to cover all the night as well. If not that will at least break the back of the cost and I could always fit a second battery if I need to.

I’ve just been through the running costs of my tank and I pay more money for dosing solution than anything else (admittedly I do use expensive Aquaforest 3 part).

McPuff · May 30, 2019

I keep my tank in the basement where it's always cooler. And I run a dehumidifier which turns on whenever 50% is reached. Does a great job actually.

wowatracy · May 30, 2019

Depends on where you live, what the summer gets up to, what room your tank is in, and how big your living space is. When I was in a one bedroom apartment and even a two bedroom town home it was fine to just use the AC.

Now that I'm in a larger home and the tank is in a corner room it's not efficient to cool the entire house down when temps outside are 110-115.

I've had chillers on multiple different tanks in offices that don't run AC on the weekends. After losing two tanks to big heat waves it's worth investing in a chiller and keeps the temps more stable in the summer.