I want a reef tank - worried about the heat

[Steezy B]

Hey everyone - I've been wanting a reef tank for about a year but I'm worried about it cooking. I live in southern california (orange county), and it's been getting pretty hot the last few years. We only run the a/c when it's 90+ so I'm concerned with keeping the tank at 82 degrees year round.

Will evaporation + fans in sump/display be able to keep my tank cool?


I think a chiller would be out of the question because I would have no where to have it but in the stand, which from what I've read can lead to heat issues.

This is my last hurdle before ordering equipment

 

[MSB123]

Im in Santa Barbara, I know it isn't as bad here as it is in orange, but I have no problem keeping the tank below 82. I don't run a heater, and I run t5/led mix. Lights are 12" of the water, and my water temp never gets above 81. It never gets lower than 76 either.

 

[Legal Reefer]

I'm new here but can give some input that may be a little help to you finding an answer to this. People with a lot more experience can better answer you if they have some information, such as, what the temperature is in the room you will place your tank in at the hottest part of the day. I guess other things would come in to play after that, such as water volume, equipment and lighting. What your interested in keeping in your tank can be impacted by temperature also. I believe live rock and corals can handle a little higher temperature than some fish and invertebrates. I keep my nano at 78° to 79° but I also keep my house at 75° which makes it easy for me. I also run led lighting with two cooling fans and no powered equipment except for a heater inside my small tank.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

How do you live without AC? I'm in South Carolina and I keep my AC set to 72 from April to just about mid November. Right now it's a flip flop game of AC in the day and heat at night.

I know water just sitting will be a few degrees lower than room temp. Lights and pumps will heat it some, but I'd say you habe a pretty good chance to keep it cool enough with cooling fans on the sump and an open top tank.

Also, welcome to R2R!

 

[PatW]

I live in Central Florida. The AC is set at 78 degrees and in the dry season, the house can get to 68 degrees. My controller turns on two cheap clip on desk fans located on the sump when the tank hits 77.8 degrees. The tank never hits 79 degrees. My lighting is LED so I don’t have a huge heat input. I would think that low humidity CA, fans should be adequate.

 

[rayn]

If a chiller is a MUST but there is nowhere to place it inside the house, could one be placed outside the house?

What I've seen and considered in the past is building a small covered hut for a chiller. Then just plumb it through the wall to the tank. It could be made really decorated and blend in with the current landscaping.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

I'm in San Diego. And a nut with time in my hands from time to time.

Get an instant read thermometer and look at your houses ambient tempraure and get an average. If it's not too high you're probably fine. T5. And MH lights may not be good in your situation, but leds might.
(My mh are in the basement )

My tanks gain about 3 degrees or so from the pumps over ambient temperatures. I have fans that will bring the temps down about four to five degrees. My ac is set to 81 when I'm gone. In weather like today, my tank may go from 77 to 82. 81.5 the fans come on.

Here's the set up I use. With more fans you will need a larger power supply. This is for my small cube. I have larger CFM fans on the bigger tank.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/diy-cooling-fan-temp-controller-easy.254168/

 

[Steezy B]

No one here runs a/c unless it gets pretty hot. We usually have a breeze and it's always a dry heat.

I'll definitely record the ambient temp in our den this week . And yea a chiller is out of the question I can't plumb through the outside wall of my house lol.

 

[RyanCSGO]

i live in Orange we only run the AC at 78 degrees, 76 at night when its really hot so we can sleep.
i have the inkbird temp controller hooked up to my heater and a fan. I also run LED lighting right now.
tank temp stays between 77.8 and 78.8
house got to 83 the other day tank still stayed at 79.6

 

[WarEaglesReef]

Going along with what others have said, I think a lot of it has to do with the tank and the lighting choice. I've got an open top tank with LED lighting that never needs a chiller even when my AC is off and the house temp climbs to the upper 70's, but my closed top Red Sea that runs T5s ran at 87 degrees even with my AC on full blast, so that needed a chiller before I could add livestock.

 

[theMeat]

If you keep heat from lights and pumps to a minimum that will help your efforts. With that said think if your room gets hotter than around 76-77 degrees, the tank will start to rise where you’ll do damage to the tank

Welcome to the site and the hobby