Weird temp question

[bthomas04]

• 4 minutes ago

• 
  
• Add bookmark
• #1

Got a weird question regarding tank temperature. My LFS said that if the temperature of the room is 72 and if the tank is lets say 74. If the temperature of the room raises to 73 will the temperature of the tank raise to 75? Or won’t the tank temperature match whatever the room temperature is? Or maybe i misunderstood him.

 

[Rmckoy]

naturally ….
If there is a source of heat in a room that can radiate from such as a glass tank filled with water .
Either the tank will adjust to match the room or the room .
Depends which one is using energy to maintain the temp

 

[o2manyfish]

It all depends on what is adding the heat to your tank. If you are using a heater to keep the tank at 74 then the tank temp isn't going to go up till the room temp goes over 74.

If you tank temp is at 74 because of your pumps or your lights, then yes as the ambient room temp goes up, the tank will go up as well. Because the pump/lights are transferring heat to the water.

Dave B

 

[bthomas04]

It all depends on what is adding the heat to your tank. If you are using a heater to keep the tank at 74 then the tank temp isn't going to go up till the room temp goes over 74.

If you tank temp is at 74 because of your pumps or your lights, then yes as the ambient room temp goes up, the tank will go up as well. Because the pump/lights are transferring heat to the water.

Dave B

So if the tank temp is at 77 degrees because of the lights. If it gets down to 68 degrees in the house over the night and back up to 73 during the day. The temperature of the tank will also rise 5 degrees? Mind you this is only an innovative marine 15 gallon with a stock pump and will have a 15 watt kessil light

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

stion regarding tank temperature. My LFS said that if the temperature of the room is 72 and if the tank is lets say 74. If the temperature of the room raises to 73 will the temperature of the tank raise to 75? Or won’t the tank temperature match whatever the room temperature is? Or maybe i misunderstood him.

If you ignore the fact that heaters may be controlling the temp, higher room temp with everything else unchanged will likely result in higher tank temp, but to claim it will rise the same amount as the room air temp rise is way oversimplifying a complex scenario.

Just to give one of the complexities, for example, is evaporative cooling. Changes in the air temp can change the rate of evaporation (which itself is a very complex question to work through exactly: for example, is the dewpoint constant or the absolute amount of moisture in the air constant?; is the water turnover at the air/water interface such that the air temp has a significant or an insignificant impact on the temp in the thin surface layer of water thst is actually evaporating? etc.) which in turn impacts the amount of evaporative cooling to the tank.