What is your summer tank cooling strategy?

[Leaellynasaura]

When I am at work I set the AC in my home to 82 to save some electricity. My tank is set to 78. If I just have ceiling fan on over the tank in the room at night the tank tops out at 79.5 before I lower the AC to 75 for the night. By adding a box fan over the sump in the basement the tank now tops out at 78.1 - 78.3 which is 4 degrees lower than ambient!

What do you guys do? The obvious method would be to keep AC cranked on all day. How many use chillers?

 

[lzrlvr]

No ac only fans on really hot days I live in south east ny state weather has been good so far. Forecast for my area is a high of 97 for Monday so I will see what happens,my last system was nuked by a 3 day power outage and cold temps.

 

[Justfebreezeit]

I'd imagine keeping the ac a little lower would be cheaper than a chiller on your electric bill in most scenarios.

 

[ca1ore]

79.5 is fine .....

 

[jimmyzhou]

U guys make me worry about my dam bill lolz

 

[fish farmer]

I only run fans. My tank seems to run cooler now that I have leds instead of PC. I have a small fan sucking out of my hood and recently purchased another fan for using in the sump cabinet. I also have ice available. It is expected to hit mid to upper 80's in Vermont this weekend. Another cheap trick I always do is close the window shades during the day and open them and the windows at night for cool air circulation. We genenerally get nights in the 50's and 60's up here.

I usually let my tank run around 80 during the summer.

 

[RichtheReefer21]

Air conditioners have been in for a month already. 72 room, 78.8 water

 

[cracker]

here I Florida, it;'s all ready hot. upper 80,low 90's. Ac been on for weeks. In the Morn I open up the house to let in some fresh air. By 10 am It's time to close up !

 

[ReefAddiction34]

Floridian here... AC all the way. Way too hot and humid to keep windows open for nearly 6-8 mo the out of the year lol.
Fans will be your friend. Chillers seem like a hassle, but I’ve never used one to know for sure.

 

[ReefAddiction34]

You could also link a fan to an apex if you have one, to turn on and off depending on the temperature range you set.

 

[braappn]

You could also link a fan to an apex if you have one, to turn on and off depending on the temperature range you set.

A dual stage ranco temp controller does this also for the lower tech folks. My house rarely gets hot but I have some small fans inside my cabinet rigged to the ranco just for piece of mind.

 

[Jet915]

I use a JBJ chiller and keep the tank temp between 80-82. I just got a fan for my canopy to help take out some heat from myretrofit T5, hopefully that will help as well.

 

[Erica-Renee]

My Giant sump is in the basement... Display in the Living room. My tank stays between 75 and 77 deg year long. We run the ac when temp in the house gets about 78 which seems to be most of may- aug lately. The winter time i have 4=500 w heaters and i wrap the sump with foam board .. that keeps the temp hanging onto 75 for the most part. If its gets super cold I will open a heat vent in the basement above the tank...
Looking into putting a hot water loop from my Water heater in to help with winter temps..

I have a generator and chiller in case of power outages as well.

 

[ZoWhat]

My tank tops out at 79.5 to 80.5 but I'm not sweating it (forgive the pun). If it got to 82 or above then that would grab my attn.

Soooooo. My plan is to put a big box fan and point it at the DT so my ambient AC air airfoils around the outside glass.....sorta like a wind tunnel pushing AC air around my tank....and have my Apex control when the box fan comes on/off.

I have no idea if this will have any effect but I will test it.

Problem is my box fans consume about 150watts while running....so not sure if cooling the tank by 1.5 degrees us worth my electric meter outside my house spinning faster (?) LOL

 

[DylanE]

Here in Sacramento it's been already been up into the 100s, but that hasn't been a problem so far. We run the AC at 78 during the day and open up the windows at night for some fresh air. I run my fuge light (which gives off some heat into the sump area) only at night when the house is the coolest. Temps been 78-80, which is consistent enough for me.

 

[ca1ore]

Fans can work quite well, but only if the ambient humidity is lower. That's essentially how swamp coolers work. I avoid running my AC, though I have one of those whole house fans (best $250 ever spent). I do use a chiller to keep the tank reliably at 80 degrees.

 

[fish farmer]

I just broke down and bought an A/C unit for the downstairs, schedualled for Wed. delivery. That last little heat wave(2 day) wasn't too bad in Vermont. My inside temps finally reached 83 when I went to bed, tank was 81+, left the window open and fan running. BUT now they are predicting a week of above 80 degree temps, with a couple of mid 90's!, nightime temps around 70. Looks like another endless summer is here.

 

[Tanggy]

Just got my JBJ chiller. It's been running for about 2 wks. I have my heater set at 76 and my chiller at 77...

 

[saltyhog]

It would be nice to live somewhere AC is optional. Fortunately, electricity rates here are so low its not really much of a factor financially.

 

[ThunderGoose]

I don't have central air so when we're having a run of high temperatures I put a window unit in the room with the reef tank.

I don't like to set the window AC up until we have to so If it's just one day I freeze some salt water in a ziplock and if the tank temp gets over 80 I'll float a bag in the sump.