Hot weather has arrived in many states- How are you keeping your tank cool?

[HomebroodExotics]

I'm in Louisiana and half in my area had/has no power since last Thursday night, including me still. Over a million in the Dallas area had no power. This storm stretched from Texas/Oklahoma to Florida?

Yea good luck thats terrible. Im in south louisiana as well. Weve been really lucky with the weather for the most part. Just a little hot. But my AC is currently broken and needs to be replaced. Hoping along with a window unit for the house. The tanks have reached 87 degrees for a few days now. Normally kept around 78 so been a little stressed about that but so far so good.

 

[Azael]

I have 120mm fans on top of the sump.

 

[gfox]

Since i went to a basement sump it solve my problem.Water stays at 78 and heater even runs in the summer months.

 

[TaylorPilot]

15? That's a lot. 3600W!
Edit: you're running at 120V... so half that.

Our (geothermal) heat pump uses about 3 kWh per day to cool the house (300m2/3200 sq feet) on a 30c (86f) day. And 10 kWh to heat it during a winters day around freezing. Of course you can't directly compare any of this. In our case we're heating/cooling a newly constructed, heavily insulated, brick/concrete house with in floor heating/cooling.

When it comes to heating, a regular air/air heat pump is not very efficient when the temperature outside is below 5c. But above that they absolutely are. In cooling as well. A simple portable room AC unit draws more power than the system for the entire house.

The compressor is 240v. It pulls about 64kWh a day during the peak of summer.

 

[woodyarmadillo]

In Texas, it’s getting up to 100+ right now. Tank cooling is not something I’ve ever had to think about. We run AC year round pretty much. Temp stays at 70 in the house. Tank doesn’t budge off 78. We have a good energy provider and relatively small house, electricity bills stay under $200 even in the heat of summer.

 

[OutColdCRNA]

I'm in Louisiana and half in my area had/has no power since last Thursday night, including me still. Over a million in the Dallas area had no power. This storm stretched from Texas/Oklahoma to Florida?

I’m one of those! Just got power back Sunday evening. 60+ hours of no power was a big stress for me with my tank. Where are you located? I’m in Shreveport.

 

[Stephen8169301]

I use inkbird with a duel fan set up

 

[Cell]

Central Air

 

[jkcoral]

The cold shoulder my tomini tang gives me is usually more than enough to keep the tank cool.

Jokes aside, I live in central FL and it gets pretty hot here. My system runs a little cooler, around 76 degrees, so with the AC running it never really goes ever 78F in the summer time.

If the power is out during a hurricane I’ll use some bags of ice in the return chamber if needed.

 

[A_Blind_Reefer]

As I haven’t been working for awhile it’s not just keeping things cool but managing limited funds. I’m on one of those time of use electricity plans where pricing goes up quite a bit during peak on demand hours in the afternoon/evening. This summer I decided to adjust my tanks normal schedule so that it’s now lit from three am to three pm. I run a chiller for cooling. My system draws about sixteen amps running with lights and chiller on, eleven amps running with lights on and chiller off, and less than three amps running lights off chiller off. The chiller rarely if ever kicks on lights out. The chiller has kept temps down perfectly for a few years. I ran my skimmer line outdoors a couple summers ago to even out ph but noticed my chiller running a lot more than usual when outside temps of 110 plus were being drawn into the skimmer. I switched to a co2 scrubber last year and the hassle and cost of replacing media got to me so this year I switched back to running the skimmer line outside. We’ll see what the electricity costs are with the new schedule this summer…. Fingers crossed not too horrible

 

[Jason_MrFrags]

everything is actually in the basement. when I was running t5 I actually kept a chiller. Since switching over to Cob's and a multi chip leds a couple years ago, chiller hasn't ran once and I'm finally selling it. Actually heat loops has to run year round now.

 

[DIYreefer]

I live in south Tx, it's always hot. My thermostat stays at 74* year round and my tanks typically don't require much effort on my part to maintain acceptable, stable temps. My frag tank has a lot of surface area, so I do use a heater on that system. My 125g display tank utilizes 4 computer fans that blow cool air across the surface of the water with venting up near the top off the canopy for the hot air to escape. This tank doesn't require a heater, ever. Temp fluctuates from 77.5 to 79 in both tanks over a 24 hour period. None of my inhabitants have ever seemed to mind.

 

[LPS Bum]

Central A/C only. Main floor unit is set to 73 during the day, so my tank temps never get above 77 (I have my Inkbird set to 76-77 because it's a majority LPS system).

 

[A_Blind_Reefer]

I'm in SoCal and have solar power my latest electric bill -10 dollars. Gotta love it

I often see these super low monthly bill flexes, but rarely hear about the twenty plus grand after incentives that was spent to get there. Don’t get me wrong I’m all for solar it’s just a hard pill to swallow for me when you pencil out how many years it takes to just break even

 

[zoomonster]

It used to be my AC just couldn't keep up with the worst of the summer heat. Now that it and ducts are replaced it works really good but still have some temp swings as several pumps contribute to tank temps. In the past temps could easily get 83-84f with stand open and blowing fans which usually led to diatoms and brown algae on glass. I decided I wanted to work on temp stability and finally broke down and bought a decent chiller. At least during power outages (hurricanes) my generator can also run the chiller. I've gone back and forth with "ideal" temps and currently running 77.5-78.5f and a heater that kicks on at 76 for any night swings. Some will say big swings are normal but I prefer consistency.

 

[LPS Bum]

I often see these super low monthly bill flexes, but rarely hear about the twenty plus grand after incentives that was spent to get there. Don’t get me wrong I’m all for solar it’s just a hard pill to swallow for me when you pencil out how many years it takes to just break even

Spot on. My neighbor just spent $30K on new solar panels. Even here in sunny Colorado he's estimating he'll need to stay in his house for upwards of 20 years to make up for the initial cost. Until the set-up price comes down significantly, it just doesn't seem worth it.

 

[zoomonster]

Spot on. My neighbor just spent $30K on new solar panels. Even here in sunny Colorado he's estimating he'll need to stay in his house for upwards of 20 years to make up for the initial cost. Until the set-up price comes down significantly, it just doesn't seem worth it.

LOL yes I looked into that several years ago and the solar panels would have been about 30k (to cover my usage) + 30k+ for installation. Not to mention you really need to start with a new roof that insurance companies here in FL have decided are only good for 10 years lol. Actually, just got a new roof and prices have shot up and cost me $24k. A contractor told me its more expensive now in FL because of EVerify and not being able to hire illegals anymore. The panels have a lifespan of about 30 years and it would not have paid for itself.

 

[SaracensRugby]

So I have a 315 gallon, in my basement, with AC set around 75. But, I am finding that my Giessman Spectra light fixture really heats up the tank, even with a fan blowing across the top of the tank the entire time the Spectra is on (dang MH). Winter its ok, but summer my temps are increasing too much day over day, so adding a chiller for stability.

 

[Opus]

15? That's a lot. 3600W!
Edit: you're running at 120V... so half that.

Our (geothermal) heat pump uses about 3 kWh per day to cool the house (300m2/3200 sq feet) on a 30c (86f) day. And 10 kWh to heat it during a winters day around freezing. Of course you can't directly compare any of this. In our case we're heating/cooling a newly constructed, heavily insulated, brick/concrete house with in floor heating/cooling.

When it comes to heating, a regular air/air heat pump is not very efficient when the temperature outside is below 5c. But above that they absolutely are. In cooling as well. A simple portable room AC unit draws more power than the system for the entire house.

Unless like you said it gets really cold and you have to turn on the emergency heat. From what I've read it pulls 12 to 15k watts. I had to use mine for a couple of days a few years back because the outside heat pump was a solid piece of ice.

 

[Opus]

What the heck? Where at? We’re fine here in SELA.

It was in the Shreveport area. My mom came over to our house in DFW because hers had been out for a couple of days. She said there were reports of 140mph winds. SWEPCO said of the approximately 500k homes they serviced, almost 250k were without power after the storm. Not sure where the poster was getting Dallas without power. I live in DFW and have not heard anything about major power outages. There was some damage from storms but there was a 4 or 5 day period where bad storms passed thru the area with large hail. I sure don't want hail. I just got thru with insurance paying to fix $38k in damages from the last hail storm.