TANK TEMPERATURE RISING

Medic3170 · May 23, 2021

So my central air is under repair (moving it due to new deck install) and of course we get hit with the fist days in the high 80's. So my house is hot and so Is my tank. It's sitting at 80? A/C will be repaired Tuesday. And now it's 81.1... My usual is 75, give or take a degree or two... So my questions are 1, how bad is this, and 2, how to fix this if it needs to be fixed.
Tank has 1 Green Chromis 2 clowns, 1 Hippo tang, 1 royal gramma, 1 yellow watchman 1 CC Star 1 cleaner shrimp and a bunch of cranes and snails.
Thanks for all your help/ suggestions!

fishguy242 · May 23, 2021

hi ,fans,2 frozen 3/4 full bottles of ro water ,swap as needed..

Jekyl · May 23, 2021

fishguy242 said:
hi ,fans,2 frozen 3/4 full bottles of ro water ,swap as needed..

This. Fans and some frozen water bottles.

fachatga · May 23, 2021

I’ve heard of people even bagging ice really well so it doesn’t leak and just floating the ice bag in the water. If freezing rodi isn’t an option.

davidcalgary29 · May 23, 2021

I have a RSM 250, and it runs hot at a constant 26-28C (83 or 84F at its upper limit). I've had no problems with fish or coral, although I can see why you'd be worried about added stress to your livestock.

Jedi1199 · May 24, 2021

+1 to frozen water bottles. Drop them into the return chamber of the sump, not directly into the DT. I wouldn't bother with RODI water for this.. plain tap water will be fine.

T-J · May 24, 2021

Jedi1199 said:
+1 to frozen water bottles. Drop them into the return chamber of the sump, not directly into the DT. I wouldn't bother with RODI water for this.. plain tap water will be fine.

Adding a +1 to the frozen bottles in sump. RODI is suggested in case they leak.

WVNed · May 24, 2021

Ice cubes in a ziplock bag.

TeamTurtle · May 24, 2021

Cross flow my good sir...open a window on opposite sides of your house, leave interior doors open...place a fan in one pointing outside..it will create a tunnel effect through your place and you get the benefit of cooling off as well as your tank..floating ice in a well sealed bag and 1/2 -3/4 full water bottles as well..80 not that bad...you start hitting 84 85 I'd worry a little.

ZoWhat · May 24, 2021

All hands on deck. Get your dog blowing tank bubbles

jarviz · May 24, 2021

My tank got up to 86 today in NYC. I typically run it around 80... I only have softies and LPSs but every coral was fully open. Even my candy cane who never likes to open up was opened more than usual. Go figure lol. I did throw in some bagged ice to bring it down, but based on how the corals were looking and how active my fish were. i wasn't too worried.

Jedi1199 · May 24, 2021

T-J said:
Adding a +1 to the frozen bottles in sump. RODI is suggested in case they leak.

If the bottles are 3/4 full and they don't lay on their side, which would require a pretty large return chamber, they won't leak.

Micro-Reefs Aquarium · Jun 7, 2021

I want to piggy back on your thread. I have two 12 gallon AIO acrylic tanks with cover tops. Both run COOLWORKS CHILLERS they are thermo electric and their efficacy is based on how cool the room stays.

I have both in my dinning room and Central Air is set for 78F, tanks run at 77F degrees. (NEVER BEEN AN ISSUE/CONCERN).

HOWEVER, tonight at about 7pm my AC unit kills and now the house is at 83F in the night and I live in Florida and it is getting to be 97F tomorrow outside.

Called the repair AC man and have an order for him to come out tomorrow to fix or replace the unit. But my tanks are are both hovering right now at 80.4F and climbing slowly. Remember these are thermo-electric chillers not compressor based.

I do have a 30 gallon setup in the living room that has a compressor chiller, it is just water in there waiting for other tank I was going to start, I have to go to work tomorrow while the repair man comes.

What temp is too high for my SPS and LPS corals? Should I just pull out the rocks and place them in the 30 gallon until my AC get back on line or will my tank be okay up to 83-84F degrees just a couple days before it is fixed?

Thanks,

Worried Reefer!

n2585722 · Jun 7, 2021

I have one of those portable AC units that has a large exhaust hose that hooks to a window. I used it when our AC was out for the weekend. It would probable cool down a room without a issue. I think we got it a either Lowes or Home Depot.

MaxTremors · Jun 7, 2021

81° or even 83° won’t hurt anything in your tank. The inconsistency might make some corals angry, but it won’t hurt them, you can run your tank that warm full time if you wanted to (the only real reason not to is that it doesn’t leave a lot of room to go higher should your heater malfunction). There’s actually some evidence that higher temps can help beat dinos. Reefs in nature (depending on the area) can get upwards of the high 80s, we keep our tanks around 78° because its sort of a common denominator temp that can accommodate fish and corals from different locales around the world, plus it allows some breathing room either way should your heater/chiller malfunction or stop working.

Micro-Reefs Aquarium · Jun 8, 2021

MaxTremors said:
81° or even 83° won’t hurt anything in your tank. The inconsistency might make some corals angry, but it won’t hurt them, you can run your tank that warm full time if you wanted to (the only real reason not to is that it doesn’t leave a lot of room to go higher should your heater malfunction). There’s actually some evidence that higher temps can help beat dinos. Reefs in nature (depending on the area) can get upwards of the high 80s, we keep our tanks around 78° because its sort of a common denominator temp that can accommodate fish and corals from different locales around the world, plus it allows some breathing room either way should your heater/chiller malfunction or stop working.

Thanks for the data, it was appreciated. I was able to keep the tank at 79F with 3/4 full water bottles. The tech came in and fixed the Central AC and my tank was back online 77F once again.

What I did do, since I have online control of all my devices, I shut off my Nero3, HD 16 prime, UV light. Just the chiller and return pump were left on to help bring down the heat.

With that and frozen water bottle I was in control since it is only 12 gallons tank.

Thanks to all the helped....

Medic3170 · Jun 9, 2021

MaxTremors said:
81° or even 83° won’t hurt anything in your tank. The inconsistency might make some corals angry, but it won’t hurt them, you can run your tank that warm full time if you wanted to (the only real reason not to is that it doesn’t leave a lot of room to go higher should your heater malfunction). There’s actually some evidence that higher temps can help beat dinos. Reefs in nature (depending on the area) can get upwards of the high 80s, we keep our tanks around 78° because its sort of a common denominator temp that can accommodate fish and corals from different locales around the world, plus it allows some breathing room either way should your heater/chiller malfunction or stop working.

This was extremely helpful! Thanks! Happy Reefing

PAreefer710 · Jun 9, 2021

My ac went out for some unknown reason yesterday morning. Got up an the tank was at 86. Quite a few corals are goin! Few high end torches hanging on. Montis lost color, acans nearly melted, trumpet corals melted about. Cyphastrea just about a goner. Chalice gone. I’m about ready to off the rest and call it quits. This hurt

Micro-Reefs Aquarium · Jun 9, 2021

PAreefer710 said:
My ac went out for some unknown reason yesterday morning. Got up an the tank was at 86. Quite a few corals are goin! Few high end torches hanging on. Montis lost color, acans nearly melted, trumpet corals melted about. Cyphastrea just about a goner. Chalice gone. I’m about ready to off the rest and call it quits. This hurt

I have had similar loses when my heater went out and stayed locked on, which caused my tank to enter the 90+ F zone. Defective cheap heaters not on controllers can spell disaster.

I am just happy I was able to get my A/C back online in one day, but it was nerve wrecking to see the numbers start to climb and hit 80F degrees.

I have SPS corals in such a small volume of water 10 gallons to be exact so, I was very worried just having a thermo/electric chiller to keep temps down with a broken A/C unit in the home.

When you have a compressor based chiller, this problem would not be an issue, but who places compressor based chillers on such small aquariums? That is why I use the thermo electric chillers. They are really good when you have the AC unit working at 78F degrees ambient that I keep it at.