Texas Heat! To Chill or Not to Chill (1 Viewer)

[MrJoe]

With the Crazy heat we get in Houston who all has a Chiller or Doesn't use one for the tank?



My tanks are hitting the 60 day mark soon, and am ready to put my QT fish, zoas, frags in the DT. I find my self researching things to stop me from putting them in sooner.



FYI: We keep the house around 75'f.

 

[chris85]

What kind of lights and equipment are you using? You should be fine. I have mine in the garage with no chiller just evaporation and it only gets to just under 90 usually stays at 85.

 

[chris85]

What kind of livestock?

 

[MrJoe]

Livestock, : Reef stuff, Utter Chaos, some Flavias, some other Zoas i forgot he name of, a lawnmower Goby, and 2 clown. for now. i'll buy more and place each in their respective tanks. 1 QT for fish 1 qt for Plants.
Chris would 85'f Burn or stress out the live stock?

 

[Cody]

Why would the summer time be any different than the winter time here? Don't y'all keep the temperature of your home relatively similar year round?

 

[MrJoe]

The wife has Temperature swings and figured out how to reset the Thermostat when i lock her out. Plus i've seen people with Chillers and figured they were important. The tank is in the center of the home with No windows or Vents close to it.

 

[chris85]

85 is not the best but if they are acclimated to it slowly there shouldn't be a problem. You have fairly forgiving stuff so you would be fine.

Maybe think about it later on when you get some fuzzy sticks(sps) just to keep it as stable as you can.

What kind of lights and pumps, how many?

 

[MrJoe]

Currently have a 36" Dual T5 HO on the 2 QT tanks, and a 36"-48" Current USA LOOP LED running the default dawn,day,dusk, night setting. I have the lights lowered because they were plenty bright! I've been thinking about maybe placing them both on the Main tank to increase par when i start stocking it. Both came with the tank.

Pumps i have a Quite one 3000 pushing everything, pinched back because Durso drain is loud. i'm going to quite it when i get back in town. But I do have a Reef Octopus HY-5000W that turns my returns in to Water jets from a jacuzzi LOL . that one isn't being used. maybe for the mix tanks?

and a sicce PSK 600(661gph) on a Diablo Skimmer,

This all came with the tank. along with some old wave makers i have in the tank.

 

[chris85]

You will be fine you may need a heater though.

 

[steveb]

I have a chiller but it will be to keep the tank at around 77°F when to mini split A/C isn't running and the room is shut.

 

[steveb]

Why would the summer time be any different than the winter time here? Don't y'all keep the temperature of your home relatively similar year round?

We don't..

Summer 77°F goes down to 74° from 10pm to 6am.

Winter 69-70°F all the time.

 

[Tenny]

I keep the house cooled enough to the point that during the summer it fluctuates with the house ( but it typically stays a few degrees hire around 77-79). During the winter (this is my first) I've dropped the temp in the house to 68 and the tank heaters come on a lot more, but that's easier than dealing with a chiller.

You may also want to look at running fans over the water. It'll increase the evaporation and keep the house cooler. When I lived in CA I didn't have a house A/C and I had to rely on a chiller. By adding two 80mm computer fans pointed at the water (45 deg angle or something) to turn on at a certain temp. It reduced how much the chiller ran by a surprising amount. I don't have the data handy but it was something like on a average 100 degree day the chiller would come on about 12 times during the day, but with the fans it was reduced to like 8.

 

[MrJoe]

Cool so Computer fans at most( frys electronics here i come). i'll get some and figure out a way to control them from the Apex i need to buy. Wheres everyone get their APEX? from your favorite LFS. i should of gotten one during black friday.

 

[oguzman]

Hiya, during the summer I keep the house at around 80deg while we aren't in the house and 75 when we arrive. I didn't need to run anything until I added T5s to my setup (the tank would fluctuate up to 81 during the day), I used to keep the tank at about 78deg. I recently lowered the tank temp and added a fan to chill the tank below 76 because I plumbed my main to my nano with seahorses.

Unless you're keeping seahorses or have the tank in the garage with no AC I wouldn't sweat it.

 

[Cody]

Cool so Computer fans at most( frys electronics here i come). i'll get some and figure out a way to control them from the Apex i need to buy. Wheres everyone get their APEX? from your favorite LFS. i should of gotten one during black friday.

Apex goes by MAP pricing so the price at an LFS is the same as online. I'd go local.

 

[MrJoe]

Support Local got it.

 

[Desertio]

I have never used a proper chiller. They heat up the room too much causing the aquarium to heat up causing the chiller to come on causing the room to hear up etc. etc.. I use the Icecap 3" or 4" fans mounted above my fuge in a bracket made by melevsreef and that works perfectly. I use an inkbird controller for the automation.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A6013 using Tapatalk

 

[TooSalty]

Chiller in the summer? Hell, I still have to use heaters to keep my aquarium at 78.

 

[RobertP]

Planning on no chiller and just using fans.

With the house build we are planning to have the main tank in the "fish room" which is what other people call their dining room. Then the sump and refugium will be on the other side of the wall in the garage. The house and the garage are foam insulated so hoping the AC will keep the main tank cool enough not to have to use a chiller. Ask me next year.

 

[Bigfishy]

I run a chiller on my tank. Without the chiller the temp gets to 85 during the summer. There are many variables that affect this. Lights, pumps, open or closed tank(ie canopy), temp of house and tank location.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk