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Room temperature affecting water temp (1 Viewer)

Screwtape

Screwtape

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I'm thinking of starting up a 75 gallon tank but would like to put it in what is currently a non-climate-controlled room. The temperatures in the room generally probably range from 60 in the winter, to maybe peaking around 90 sometimes in the summer. The total system volume would be around 130-140 gallons eventually as I'm hoping to plumb in a frag/prop tank.

I'm mostly worried about it getting too hot in the summer because it's easy to turn the heat on (in an apt and heat is free) in the winter.

I'm considering vortechs as my main circulation in the tank so I believe that should eliminate some heat from the tank. I also am planning on using T5's for both tanks so that should make keeping cool a little bit easier.

Does anyone see any potential problems with this? How hot do you think the water would get if you were forced to guess? :) I'm not entirely sure how the ambient room temperature affects a 100+ gallon system of water. I'd rather not have to get a chiller or open the door to allow air conditioning into the room if possible.

Thanks for any thoughts, in advance.
 
if the temp in the room is consistently 90 degrees eventually the tank will reach that temp.

You'll have some help due to evaporation, but not enough to keep the tank down at 80ish
 
I don't think it's ever consistently 90, it probably occasionally hits that temp on the hottest days during the afternoon, the room faces the west and gets full bore afternoon sun with no shade on that side of the building.

I guess the question should be, how long with the room temp at 90 would it take to raise a 140 gallon tank system's temp from 79 or so to dangerous levels, maybe 84+?
 
It all depends on the amount of air flow and how well the tank is ventalated etc. Impossible to predict how long it would last in a thread.

Tutmos/Kevin had a big commercial sized fan blowing across an open 210g tank when ambient temps in the 90-100during the weekends at his office where they turn off the a/c. It can work, although I would never recommend it.

At minimum though, you should be thinking of getting a controller if you don't already have one. Having a controller that will turn off equipment ( such as lights ) and turn on big fans when temps start to get high will be crucial. Paging/monitoring system would be very advisable as well since you can easily be teatering on destruction with ambient temps varying so greatly from day to day.
 
I do have a controller, just the ACJr however, so no notifications. I suppose there probably would be some risk in it though. I don't want to have to worry about getting pages on my phone in the middle of the work day in the summer every time it gets hot. Eliminating that worry is probably worth the cost of a chiller (although maybe I'll rethink that once I look into the price of chillers).

I guess I probably already knew this but was hoping someone would say something like "oh it would take 14 days at 90 degrees to raise 150 gallons of water 5 degrees" or something equally as comforting. :)

But I'm generally pretty risk-averse when it comes to these things and should probably figure out what to do about heat. I'll have to figure out if it's cheaper in the long run to just get a chiller rather than AC an entire room all summer, I'll have to look into that I guess.

Thanks
 
90-100 degree ambient in addition to your pumps, lights, your talking in just a few hours without agressive evaporation.

Remember the chiller is just transferring heat from one place to another. So a chiller closed up in a small room will be counterproductive becuase your just added more heat to the room. Chiller works best when it can be plumbed to the outside. Otherwise, running the A/C will probably be better.

Also, consider making window screens with the 80-90% sunblock blocking material. That makes a huge difference with the amount of heat from the sun during the day. Pretty much required for on all windows down south but it really helped during the peak of summer on our house here too.
 
REEFSTOCK said:
Install ac in the room
Click to expand...

This is a bigger problem than I realized. It's an apartment building and the windows slide horizontally and I'm not sure they would even let me install an AC in the window.

The only reason it's not AC'd right now is because I keep the door shut so the AC in the other room doesn't have to work as hard. I might be able to just open the door up and have the AC run more to cool that extra space on hot days.

I'll look into that window sun block stuff although if it needs to be installed on the outside of the screen or in place of the screen I might have trouble with the building manager.

It sounds like a chiller probably isn't even an option, I wasn't familiar with how those work, I suppose they don't just "magic up" coldness. Thanks for the details.
 
Might want to look into like a window tint. Jake at Discovery Aquatics has it on his windows at the shop.
 
Window tint is a good idea too.
When I lived in China all the units were in the house and the ducts would just go outside. I believe I have seen these type of single room units popping up in the US as well.

This looks like it would work... I think this would pump the air out that tube on the top (which you would vent outside one way or another.
 
Ideally, you would want the heat to get reflected BEFORE it reaches the window pane. I can't see why making and using a window screen would be an issue since your not defacing anything. Just take the old screen off, use the new screen and when you leave put the old one back on.

They don't sell the 80-90% stuff in MN but you can mailorder from HomeDepot. I just picked mine up while back home in Texas.
 
David Grigor said:
Ideally, you would want the heat to get reflected BEFORE it reaches the window pane. I can't see why making and using a window screen would be an issue since your not defacing anything. Just take the old screen off, use the new screen and when you leave put the old one back on.

They don't sell the 80-90% stuff in MN but you can mailorder from HomeDepot. I just picked mine up while back home in Texas.
Click to expand...

OK, so it's actually screening. I'll have to look for that then. As long as it looks like normal screen that's fine. I guess my initial thought would be that it would look like window tinting and might look different from the outside. I'm just not sure how picking the building management is about outward facing appearance changes.
But that film doesn't change the outward appearance, so maybe this screening doesn't either.
 
I have the same setup it seems as you do. AC in the living room with the two bedrooms with no AC. To put it bluntly this setup sucks when attempting to cool off the back rooms. If the door is closed to either bedroom they roast in the summer. I usually have to use large box fans to move the air around to make the back rooms tolerable... PITA but cheap rent...

The window tint is a good idea. Just an FYI you can get the stuff at WalMart that is static cling to the window so it isn't a permanent installation and can be taken down at anytime with no issues... I have never used the screen but that may work just as well.

The portable AC units that are on wheels do work pretty well. It doesn't take a large one to cool the room that size. Most of them come with an attachment to vent the hot air to the outside. It might be more productive for you (or at least have the dual benefit of a cooler apt and cooler tank) to go with the AC unit over a cooler. From what I have seen they are about the same cost but with the AC unit you can cool off the whole apartment better so you benefit along with your tank.

Also think about adding a high humidity level to the already high temps...
 
It does look different only in the it is darker than the typical window screening you see around here. You can get it in charcoal, brown, silver. In the south some color matching to the siding, charcoal is fine by me.

Should be able to find it in my smaller lengths if your only going to do a couple of windows.

Look 80-90%. Should be able to find it in like 96" or so rolls online too maybe not HomeDepot though. Window tinting will heat up the window pane. The screen will keep the window pane much cooler so less heat transfer.
 
You could always go Gheto chiller... Put water in empty 20 oz (or 2 liter) pop bottles until they're 3/4 full. Put on the cap and freeze them in your freezer. During the hot summer days, float the ice bottle in your sump to bring down the temp.

Definitely not an automated set up, but it'll work in a pinch.
 
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