Chillers, Fans and Air Conditioning: How will you keep the tank cool this summer?

How will you keep your tank cool this spring and summer?

  • Chiller

    Votes: 74 12.5%
  • Fan

    Votes: 111 18.8%
  • Home Air Conditioning

    Votes: 254 43.1%
  • All of the above

    Votes: 25 4.2%
  • I don't struggle with warmer tank temps

    Votes: 105 17.8%
  • Other (please explain)

    Votes: 21 3.6%

  • Total voters
    590

revhtree

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Chillers, Fans and Air Conditioning...OH MY!

It's just about time to start thinking about keeping your aquarium cool during the warmer spring and summer months! Maybe I shouldn't say cool, maybe I should use the word STABLE! Whether it's hot or cold it's always best to keep the temperature in your tank stable and when it warms up outside it can be challenging at times! So let's talk about it!

1. How do you keep your saltwater aquarium cool during the hot months?

2. Do you struggle to maintain a cooler temperature in your reef tank at times?



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Arabyps

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1. How do you keep your saltwater aquarium cool during the hot months? We have a chiller for our Waterbox 5526 peninsula.

2. Do you struggle to maintain a cooler temperature in your reef tank at times?
Not really. Living in Palm Springs we know how to deal with serious heat. The house is cooled with central AC but the chiller insures the tank is always at 77-78. Evaporation helps a lot since the dew point is often times much less than 50 degrees. We keep the house at 80 during the day and 76-78 at night.
 

UkiahTheTurtle

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1. How do you keep your saltwater aquarium cool during the hot months? Cool water bottle with RO in it But this summer I am using a fan

2. Do you struggle to maintain a cooler temperature in your reef tank at times?yes during summer
 

smoleral

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As reefer from Orlando ,FL, I can tell you that central A/C is non-negotiable here. However I selected “other” because anyone from here also knows that your home A/C is going to fail at least once per year, so contingency plans are also non-negotiable. This winter I invested in a small Black & Decker 10,000 BTU portable A/C from Amazon. While it’s not nearly enough to cool down my whole house, it’s definitely powerful and can cool down a large room to very nice temperatures, and definitely a tank-saver. You know you’re a hardcore reefer when you’d rather sleep in 90 degree weather and sweat than let your tank crash from the heat.
 

Crustaceon

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1. How do you keep your saltwater aquarium cool during the hot months?

I typically don’t do anything aside from add a few clip on fans to my canopy and set my reefkeeper to turn them on at 84 degrees.

2. Do you struggle to maintain a cooler temperature in your reef tank at times?

I try not to worry about it so much. I’ve ran my tanks at 78 and 84 degrees. Even acros didn’t seem to be bothered by the higher temperature.
 

driftin

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I chose "all of the above" but I only rely on staging of cooling fans and a chiller, not so much home A/C.
 

lpsouth1978

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I live in the heat of Phoenix, so summers are a bit of a concern. I am hoping that the home A/C will do the job, but am prepared to get a chiller if needed.
 

DDenny

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Hoping the AC set at 77 will keep it cool enough. If not then a fan. I have an inkbird 308S that controls the heater and the cooling plug right now is empty. Finished cycling but haven’t added livestock yet cause of work travel but maybe in two weeks when I am home for a while. Which fan not sure yet. It open too right now but once I get snails in there will get a mesh top to keep them in.
 

LRT

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Great question. Also being in the Phoenix Valley this is something I've been thinking about all winter.
Last summer was an eye opener with Ph, fresh air etc. Temps reaching 115 degrees during summer leaves not alot of options.
Last summer I ran Skimmer lines outside and got fresh air for skimmers under control.
This leaves me at well how am I going to keep fish room free of Co2. As well as humidity down. So im not counter productive?
What I figured im going to have to do is most likely seal fish room to best of my ability. Add a dual window intake/exhaust fan and figure out a way to keep my water cool at same time.
What I can tell you is surprisingly my simple ceiling fan kept my water temps pretty much in check with window open in 90-100 degrees.

I think for me its going to end up being a combination of both fans on water and most likely a chiller. Chillers run hot though so not to be counter productive again. Ill most likely have to set chiller in garage and plumb through wall. Luckily garage is adjacent to fish room.

How the wife is going to feel about all this I guess its just easier to ask for forgiveness sometimes hahahaha ;)
 

Vette67

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Half my water volume is in the basement sump system. Stays nice and cool down there. We also run central air.
Same here. Sump in the basement keeps things plenty cool, even with running halides. But I do have a 4" DC fan in my canopy just in case the temperature starts to creep up in the summer months.
 

LegendaryCG

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Same here. Sump in the basement keeps things plenty cool, even with running halides. But I do have a 4" DC fan in my canopy just in case the temperature starts to creep up in the summer months.
I haven’t had to worry too much being in Wisconsin. I target around 78 and I probably hit 81 max during summer. Nothing seems to be for the worse. If there‘s one thing I’ve learned reefing is the middle is the safety zone.
 
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kaylajoy

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Just starting my tank, but I live on a top floor apt in Texas and the temperature in my tank is already 82 degrees just from the ambient heat/equipment (and it's supposedly only 76 outside). So a chiller might be wise in the next couple months...
 

D4jack

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I'm in Ohio. I run the central air at 77. And have a dual channel inkbird to run 3 120mm cooling fans. 2 in my hood, 1 in the cabinet blowing through my turf scrubber. It almost never runs for more than 10 minutes at a time. Blows through my ato tank though.
 

LegendaryCG

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Just starting my tank, but I live on a top floor apt in Texas and the temperature in my tank is already 82 degrees just from the ambient heat (and it's supposedly only 76 outside). So a chiller might be wise in the next couple months...
Yea I wouldn’t want to get much higher than that. Besides the fish and coral some stuff like cyano can dominate when temp gets too high.
 

Eagle_Steve

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1. How do you keep your saltwater aquarium cool during the hot months?
A: wife that has the A/C down to 64 does it for most tanks lol. The ones in the fish barn have chillers. The garage macro grow outs have chillers also. (Fish barn and garage a both climate controlled, just not as cold as the wife keeps the house)

2. Do you struggle to maintain a cooler temperature in your reef tank at times?
A: nope. If for any reason a chiller was to go out, I have a few more older ones from tank buyouts on hand. 5 minutes to swap one out as they all take the same size hose and fittings.
 

Auquanut

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1. How do you keep your saltwater aquarium cool during the hot months?
My whole fishy world is in a walkout basement that maintains a cooler temp than upstairs through the warmer months. I leave a window fan running in the window to bring down cool air (no central air down there) and to keep humidity down and PH up. When it gets warmer than I'd like, I leave the cabinet doors open and run a circulating fan. I also have a window A/C unit just in case, but don't use it much.

2. Do you struggle to maintain a cooler temperature in your reef tank at times?

Not really. I do keep a closer eye on temp during the summer and make the above changes when necessary. I've never had my controller give me an over temp alert yet. It's set at 81.
 

sp1187

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tank is in the basement. summer time is a non issue for temps.
humidity in the fish room is a whole nother thing.
dueling dehumidifiers 24/7 usually june through late september.
 

Mastering the art of locking and unlocking water pathways: What type of valves do you have on your aquarium plumbing?

  • Ball valves.

    Votes: 58 49.6%
  • Gate valves.

    Votes: 64 54.7%
  • Check valves.

    Votes: 28 23.9%
  • None.

    Votes: 28 23.9%
  • Other.

    Votes: 9 7.7%

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