DrewBR
Community Member
Hey R2R!
I expect most of you will be gearing up for the winter months worrying about the cold, but here in Brasil we are coming to our summer, and we got hit with a "delightful" heat wave. With temperatures going over 38°C (100°F) in some places and air conditioning being too expensive for a lot of people, that got me thinking about how I and other hobbyists deal with this extreme heat.
I've compiled here some things that seem to have worked in our favor and the methods most people have had success with. Please feel free to contribute with any insights.
The obvious best solutions
1 - Have actual air conditioning. For anyone who can afford it, controlling the environment around the tank is the obvious and best solution.
2 - Have an aquarium chiller. Expensive piece of equipment, but it works.
The underdogs
1 - Fans blowing across the water surface. Cheap, reasonably effective as long as the humidity isn't too high, and also very easy to set up and improvise with anything you already have. Does make the ATO water go down a lot faster. Great for nano and pico tanks.
2 - Peltier cells. In the realm of DIY chillers, it seems there is always someone with this idea in their mind. Effective for small tanks, but really unpractical for anything over 100-ish liters (25G).
3 - Water fountain DIY adaptations Some have managed to adapt the chilling mechanisms of water fountains to cool their tanks. Like the peltier cells, good on small tanks but very unpractical at any scale, plus, you gotta have a functioning water fountain just laying around.
4 - Good ol' frozen water bottle. As cheap as can be, very easy for anyone to apply to their tank. Bigger tanks will obviously require more bottles, and the returns are very diminishing. It does require replacing the bottles, so there is some labor involved.
Passive things that seem to help
Flow - With a lot of people losing coral, there seems to be a pattern that tanks with higher flow seem to take on the heat better than those with lower flow. It's my understanding that lower-temperature water does hold more oxygen, but it seems that is not the only thing at play here. Among the people I talked to, it seems the more flow your tank has, the better it takes to the heat, with some being completely fine even at 30°C (86°F) for extended periods of time.
Ideas that require testing
I've thought about running some water through perforated ceramic media that is exposed to a fan and the air, like a trickle filter but with air flow. The idea is that the increased surface area from the droplets on the ceramic media will help cool down the water, much like a fan blowing over the water surface.
I expect most of you will be gearing up for the winter months worrying about the cold, but here in Brasil we are coming to our summer, and we got hit with a "delightful" heat wave. With temperatures going over 38°C (100°F) in some places and air conditioning being too expensive for a lot of people, that got me thinking about how I and other hobbyists deal with this extreme heat.
I've compiled here some things that seem to have worked in our favor and the methods most people have had success with. Please feel free to contribute with any insights.
The obvious best solutions
1 - Have actual air conditioning. For anyone who can afford it, controlling the environment around the tank is the obvious and best solution.
2 - Have an aquarium chiller. Expensive piece of equipment, but it works.
The underdogs
1 - Fans blowing across the water surface. Cheap, reasonably effective as long as the humidity isn't too high, and also very easy to set up and improvise with anything you already have. Does make the ATO water go down a lot faster. Great for nano and pico tanks.
2 - Peltier cells. In the realm of DIY chillers, it seems there is always someone with this idea in their mind. Effective for small tanks, but really unpractical for anything over 100-ish liters (25G).
3 - Water fountain DIY adaptations Some have managed to adapt the chilling mechanisms of water fountains to cool their tanks. Like the peltier cells, good on small tanks but very unpractical at any scale, plus, you gotta have a functioning water fountain just laying around.
4 - Good ol' frozen water bottle. As cheap as can be, very easy for anyone to apply to their tank. Bigger tanks will obviously require more bottles, and the returns are very diminishing. It does require replacing the bottles, so there is some labor involved.
Passive things that seem to help
Flow - With a lot of people losing coral, there seems to be a pattern that tanks with higher flow seem to take on the heat better than those with lower flow. It's my understanding that lower-temperature water does hold more oxygen, but it seems that is not the only thing at play here. Among the people I talked to, it seems the more flow your tank has, the better it takes to the heat, with some being completely fine even at 30°C (86°F) for extended periods of time.
Ideas that require testing
I've thought about running some water through perforated ceramic media that is exposed to a fan and the air, like a trickle filter but with air flow. The idea is that the increased surface area from the droplets on the ceramic media will help cool down the water, much like a fan blowing over the water surface.
