Today was the first day my tank got above 78. How do you keep your reef tanks cool during the summer?
Today was the first day my tank got above 78. How do you keep your reef tanks cool during the summer?
Plan B: You can dump $16,000.00 on central A/C to keep the wife happy and leave the door to the basement cracked. Careful wording here can make it seem like something "She's getting"
Wow! that puts a kink in the budget. My system is relatively simple. It doesn't have anything to do with the heat other than share the thermostats. It's completely separate and actually in the attic with a big trunk of ductwork. I saved a small fortune running all the wiring myself. Next is the standby generator for when the lights go out. Prolonged power outage is my biggest worry if I'm not home. As awesome as Honda generators are, they don't hook themselves up and run automatically....lolWow I wish my quote was $16K… was closer to $60K so we have thus far skipped it. (Old house, bad geometry so would need 2 blowers, etc.)
Look into mini split units. There is an additional mass save rebate if you live in Massachusetts. I have a Gree 5 zone 42,000 btu unit and it has been working great.Wow I wish my quote was $16K… was closer to $60K so we have thus far skipped it. (Old house, bad geometry so would need 2 blowers, etc.)
I install them, if anyone is trying to stay cool this summer, free estimatesLook into mini split units. There is an additional mass save rebate if you live in Massachusetts. I have a Gree 5 zone 42,000 btu unit and it has been working great.
Same here. Inkbird with fan. The difference is that my fan is a cheapo $10 USB fan. It’s quiet and seems to do the job. The central AC doesn’t directly service the room with the tank, so that fan helps a ton.I have a inkbird temperature controller hooked up to a pretty strong fan that blows across the surface of my tank. It's a cheap setup and it keeps the temperature in a safe zone. I do have central a/c though, so the temp in the house rarely gets above 80.
Don’t forget being in mass you get the rebate(which you might have factored in already) and a 0% interest 7 year heat loan. My house is all electric baseboards bought around the same time as you and we went the opposite route solar for my house is a bit of a gamble with where it’s facing.I’m not a master in the hobby so take my words with a grain of salt lol.
I just let it be. On Sunday my tank crept up to 82 and everything seems fine. Since then it has slowly gone down and is currently at 79. It also worth mentioning that I use my apex’s season table for temps which has it range from 75.5 in Jan to the hottest being 80.5 in august iirc. I mostly did that because I’m cheap and did not want to buy a chiller or install a fan in a crazy way.
In the future I do plan on getting central air though, just bought the house last summer and 15ishk after rebates is out of budget for me. Opted to do Solar first since it was around the same price
You plan on posting a build thread somewhere? That sounds like pc water cooling but for your tank and it seems like it’s already a tried and true method for people who want to heat their pools. Would love to see how it turns outI let my tank run up to 83 regularly in the summer. I have an AC unit in the wall of the downstairs sump room. I gave up on chillers - too expansive, and not reliable. Also, the chiller would just dump the heat into the room and it's better to get the heat and humidity directly to the outside.
I'm currently in the process of having a house build in the midwest. I will also have a downstairs sump room. In this house I have an essentially free, essentially limitless water supply at about 55 F (from a well on the property). For the tank in the future house I will use a titanium heat exchanger. They are not all that expensive. I will use the well water to cool the tank using the heat exchanger.
I'll likely use the same heat exchanger to heat the tank (if needed) in the winter using the hot water from the house. The house will be using an open-loop geothermal heat pump using the well water to heat and cool.