To chill or not to chill

[Swine]

I live in San Jose and the summer is just around the corner. Last summer was pretty mild at what seemed to be an average of 80F degrees. But there are such large fluctuations in temperature (night around 50-60 to day where it can hit 100).

At what point do people find they need a chiller and a fan wont cut it? My house does not have AC :/ and I've been keeping my tank around 78F.

Just have to figure out if I should start saving up.... These things arent cheap!

 

[szutj001]

I would say yes some kind of chiller do you have ceiling fans to keep the air circulating in the house? And What are you keeping can they handle 80 or 82? If so I would run the tank at 80ish and then if you know your area gets spikes then a chiller. You say you dont have AC is the tank where you could close everything off except the one area and set the AC for 78 or 79? How do you deal with it being that hot????

 

[Swine]

Thanks for the response!

I have a 55 gallon mixed reef, right now, fish, inverts, zoas/palys, and an anemone. According to live aquaria I haven't seen many things that will be ok in 80-82 temperatures that are in my tank. I was pretty sure most everything said 72-78.

I do have a fan in the room for circulation, the house gets warm but honestly I dont know if it ever really gets above 80-82 for that long at all. Unfortunately I cannot add an AC unit to the room, well I could it would just be very expensive with 12ft high ceilings and it being open to the majority of the house. The house will get warm but usually only in the afternoon for a while. I'm wondering if a 85 degree house for a couple hours would actually raise the tank temperature significantly.


It seems like I'm going to bite the bullet on this one. Better not wait for a huge heat wave then run around looking for all the duct tape and ice packs I can tape to the aquarium while i rush order a chiller...

So two questions:
1) Will a fan on top of the tank keep the temperature stable enough?
2) If I have to buy one is there such thing as too large of a chiller? I have a 55 gallon now but I know I want to upgrade to a 125 in the next year. I do NOT want to buy two $700-800 chillers. So I'd like to get one rated for a 125 or larger and use it on my 55.

Thanks!

 

[KJAG]

A 1/15 HP chiller would be fine on that tank, and with no AC in the house you'll prob need one. Another benefit to a chiller is in the event your heater sticks and you have no controller to shut it off.

 

[Swine]

Thats a good point about the heater. Those are rated for 10 degree changes for 40 gallons. so if my house was 90 I could get it close to 80 (probably a little higher).

What if I put a 1/4 HP chiller on my 55. would that be ok?

 

[szutj001]

Well Powerheads,Lights,Filterpumps be it canister be it a powerhead on a skimmer all add heat to the tank. I am in the same boat trying to figure out what I need to keep tank from getting way to hot in the summer. Since I only have fish I have an 80 to 83 limit I want to work in trying to figure out what will keep me there. In a pinch the chiller is your best bet on safe side. I am thinking of a Diy electronic cooler to house my canister filter they only cool not chill but maybe its enough to keep tank at temp. Thermoelectrically cooled it has a side thats cool and a side that throws off heat. Anyway that is this summers experiment.