Heat Issues

[DSR]

Yesterday the outside temp in Tulsa got to 88 degrees. When I got home the water temp of my aquapod was nearly 86 degrees. With the lights on for only a 8 hours. I am going to do some mods this evening such as installing a second fan and opening up in the intake vents (as well as redirecting the flow of air). But wanted to know what any other nano reefers have done to resolve this issue.

Also, when adding a second fan do you recommend that it blow in or out? The nanotuner folks recommend one in and one out... another webpage suggests both of them blowing out (I guess to pull more cooler air in from the front vents).

So let me know what you think and what you all have done.

 

[Ace25]

Quickest way to bring heat down without a chiller is to have a fan blowing directly across the surface of the water. Think of the surface of the water like your skin. On a hot day with no wind your skin gets hot and sweaty, but put a fan blowing across and it suddenly feels 20 degrees cooler due to evaporative cooling. Same thing happens when you have a fan blowing across the surface of the water. It will cool it pretty fast, but at the expense of additional evaporation so just make sure to keep the tank topped off daily during hot days.

Simply using small "canopy" type fans that are meant to just vent heat from lights is usually not sufficient to cool a tank, just keep the bulbs cool.

 

[fsn77]

Having one fan blow in and one blow out doesn't help increase air flow much at all. The one blowing out is only moving about the same amount of air the other is blowing in, which isn't much better than having one fan blowing in and there's a vent or other opening somewhere.

If you want to increase the air flow, both should be blowing in the same direction, preferably in. Setting up fans to blow out subjects them to some very humid air (and potentially salt spray). Fans set to do this will wear out much more quickly than fans set to blow in, as the humid air will ruin the fan bearings. It's better to have the fans blow inward.

 

[DSR]

Now that all makes perfect sense. The fan that is installed on the hood is blowing out. I found a place that carries the same size fan so I will get one today and install it as well and turn them so they are both pulling cooler air and pushing it into the hood as opposed to pulling the hot air out. See if that makes a difference.

 

[Arakkis]

Definitely get a cheap wallmart fan and use it to blow across the top of the water will greatly help

 

[GregAW]

Or try to find a chiller. In AZ you'll have a lot of evaporation do to low humidity. You'll have to really watch your water level and SG.

 

[DSR]

Will pick up a fan tonight to blow across the water during the day. I did purchase another fan for the hood and will install it this evening as well. There is a mod I found out there that says it will keep the temp down around 80. It involves channeling the air through the hood in a different direction/route. All it takes is some weather stripping and cutting certain parts of the hood away (can see it, it is all under the hood). I am considering giving this a shot. Should be interesting.