It’s in the upper 90’s in Atlanta right now so many parts of the country will be in the triple digits. With heat like that, your home HVAC unit may be struggling, which in turn affects your aquarium. As if that wasn’t bad enough, peak time power rates are the highest, so it costs more to keep our aquariums cool. So what can you do? Here are some best practices that I’ve found useful over the years.
Fans are cheap and easy to install. Evaporative cooling is a natural process to lower temperatures; it’s the same process we use when we sweat. The process works where the fan blows air across the water surface and causes the water to turn into a gas. When it does this, it absorbs heat, cooling the aquarium. This evaporated liquid (humidity) is then removed by your home HVAC unit. There are some great aquarium specific fans that are IP57 rated, but any fan will work; the quieter, the better (for sanity). Fans can lower your aquarium temperatures considerably, but with some caveats:
- The more you evaporate, the more top-off water you will need to add
- If you’re in a humid environment, the evaporation process will not work as well
- Your HVAC unit will need to run longer to remove the excess humidity from the air
- Not removing the humidity may cause mold issues
Chillers are modified refrigeration units for cooling water. For any large system, it’s almost mandatory to have unless your ambient temps and heat inputs are low. As chillers remove the heat from your aquarium water, it’ll release it into the air, so it’s best to locate the chiller away from the aquarium or filter room (or vent it accordingly). This heat will now either need to be removed from the air by your home HVAC unit or vented outside.
Off-peak lighting schedules: lights are a major source of heat in aquariums, so adjusting the timing so they’re at night when it’s cooler and when you have off-peak power rates can be quite helpful. Since I was at work during the day, I only had supplemental lighting on during that time and my main lighting would turn on until it was time for me to arrive home.
In addition to lighting, I also turned off other heat sources during the day. My UV would only run in the middle of the night during the summer. Thankfully, it was powerful enough to still be effective with a shorter cycle for a few months.
Check your heaters. Many hobbyists have their heater set incorrectly, causing them to run more than they ought to. I always set my heaters at the lowest temperature I want my tank to be. The heater is a safeguard against the tank getting too cold, just as the chiller is a safeguard against the tank getting too hot. I don’t prescribe to setting the heater to 78 degrees that I see far too many people doing. This doesn’t give you any room for error or temperature fluctuations. I set my heaters at 72 degrees and they’ll never turn on during the summer months.
Ice: in case of emergency, float ice in your sump. If you make ice in sealed bags, you don’t have to worry about contamination or affecting salinity. If you’re evaporating water, you can make some RODI ice and kill two birds with one stone (I hate that expression; we need a fish version).
What are hacks you’ve come up with to keep temperatures in check during the summer?
