Heatwave!!! How are your tanks doing?

Grins

Girl Reefer...we do exist
May 1, 2007
10,449
0
0
60
Charlotte, NC
It has been 102 here this week and that is before counting our legendary humidity in the southeast. I'm fighting it with cooler FW top offs, leaving the canopy open, running fans, and allowing my central ac to stay on 24:7. Today I had to float some ice and if the weather continues I'm going to reduce my light cycle.

How are you guys faring with similiar temps?
 
I feel your pain Grins, I live just south of you. Its so hot even with the AC running 24/7 its been in the low to mid 80s in the house. I keep my tanks tops open, lower the water a bit for more splash and my tank temps have sat pretty steady at 80 which is only a few degrees higher then normal. Except I have FW.
 
Hi neighbor. Tikidude that posts here in close to you as well..over in Ft. Mill. My FW tank is handling the heat but the lights I have on the SW tank are 500 watts so they are not very forgiving in these temps.

Glad your tank is doing well. How are YOU doing? I'm about to melt each time I go outside.
 
last week we had a heat & humidity wave. really hot down here.
my tank peaked at 82. but now it's back at 78...no harm done consideringt it's still cycling
 
last thursday, with the humidity, it was something like 37 degrees...a very hot wind wasn't helping as well.
 
I maxed out at 85!! got a fan and have been in the 80-81 range. So far so good. Heat sucks in the Boro. I cant even go to the car w/out breaking a sweat AND I have to go play army this weekend at brag!! MAN stupid NC weather!!
 
I know the heat wave grins is talking about, it have been just the same around the last 2 days around here. 100+ degrees.

This I've done:
1-Well we do have an ac in the house but upstairs (in my room) it's pretty weak, even if the ac is on, doesn't help much
2- I have reduced light time
3- Put some ice in zip lock bags and floated it in the tank
4- the fan blowing across the tank is on 24hrs

still temps have risen to close to 81 degrees
 
I always had my lighting on timers set to go on at 6:00am and off at 6:00pm. In the late spring I would shift this to a reverse cycle so the tank lighting would come on during the cooler part of the 24 hour cycle (at night). It's a simple fix and even helps with human livability. I never used a cover over my tank to help with gas exchange and seldom lost a fish from flying lessons. Most reef fish have a tendency to dive down into the reef when startled so this arrangement can work well.It also helps increase evaporation so calcium addition is easier. Changing the positioning of 1 or 2 powerheads to increase surface turbulence can assist as well.

Charlie
 
I feel your pain, Grins. It's been 104 - 106 down here in Cola. Our house A/C has been running much more than normal (just to keep the house at 80 instead of 77 where we'd like it to be), but the tank is holding around 83 instead of the more normal 80 - 81. I have a 20" box fan sitting in front of our sump that's been running 24/7, which keeps our tank from getting any warmer. Fortunately, we bought an auto top-off in Feb, so I'm not fighting to keep the water level right. I've had to fill the reservoir a couple days earlier than regularly scheduled, but that's not a problem.
 
AquariaCentral.com