keeping your tank cool

HI I am thinking about getting a new 55 gallon tank, I have a 14g a for about 10 months and last summer I had to put 2-3 bottles of ice in (at a time) to keep it cool during the hot months, now I know there will be a lot more volume of water so I may not get the problem, also I wanted to add plants to one side, so will the light raise the temp??, I didnt have my heater on last year until Dec, has anyone living in a hotter climate run into this problem??? outside temp can get to 125 during the day and 85 at night.

 

Well, it all depend on where you keep your room temp at. Although it would take longer time for 55G to warm up but it would take loger time to cool on its own. There are also chillers avail but for F/w 55G?
I believe lights will definitely add on to temp rising, how much really depend on lighting system. You can raise the hood slightly thus can have minI fan blowing on top of the water surface w/ good agitations (have done it on reef tank, open top, resulting drop in temp but not sufficient enough when room was warm).

If want to DIY chiller using dorm refrigerator near the tank, can do so. Thus can can have chilled wine/beer when viewing fish tank,lol!

 

I did some experimenting myself since I am about to face the same issue with 110-120F outside temperatures. As stated inside air conditioning is a must but even so to save AC energy cost $200-250 a month we program our thermostat to 79 during the day and 82 at night. With a sterilizer and just florescent lights my temperature can sore 5F above ambient. I found that leaving the cover door cracked open 20 degrees and installing a computer 12 V heavy duty low profile fan in the aquarium cover or above any bio wheels can more then compensate and accelerate evaporation which in turn MUST drop water temperature by an amount relative to the surface area of the water coming in contact with the circulated air. In my case about 5F. However evaporation should be compensated with RO water otherwise unless you do 100% water changes "total dissolved minerals" will build up over time and diatom blooms will occur often.

 

cheers for the answers, think I will not plant it for the first year to see how it goes

 

I have 2 fans blowing on my tank water to keep it cool and they work very well also they are LE (Low Energy).

-Matt

 

If the fans don't work for some reason, maybe just not enough "kick", I found an excellent thermostat design to help you out (I actually made a double version of it, and it works!). It only costs a couple of dollars, then you can get a peltier cooler and a bit of plumbing and whip up an aquarium chiller for less than $75.

https://www.craig.copperleife.com/tech/thermo/

I can help you with the thermostat build, and help you with the theory on the chiller...but I've never made something like this so I can't give step by step instructions.

if you're interested I can lay out some more details to get you started