chilling a 5 gallon retrofit tank

[gurnie]

I designed / built a 5 gallon tank hood for my friend. Its a beautiful cherry wood top.

 

I also have the current retrofit lights ( 2x32 watt lights, one daylight, the other antic). Well my friend keeps her home warm and tank temps have been as high as 89f.

 

I have a few questions. First since she is cycling her live rock, will this heat be an issue with the cycle?

 

Second, I have been looking at chillers but not sure which setup to get since most chillers are for tanks 10 gallons and up. Any suggestions (I'm looking for a low cost solutions)

 

Thanks. I hope my typing is ok (cellphone)

[sur4die]

i'm still curing liverock for my 12g as well. i do not know if there is a temp limit on the LR curing process...

 

i just put a box fan next to the tank, facing away. works well, isn't pretty, but then again neither are bare rocks.

[lakshwadeep]

The heat is similar to "cooking" live rock in plastic trash cans, which leaves little else remaining but bacteria. You should try to slowly get temperatures down. A good chiller would be a thermoelectric model like the Iceprobe, which can easily be placed in a sump or external hang-on filter. A cheaper but less effective solution would be buying fans that blow across the water (evaporation will be increased). It will be difficult to get your fans to lower the temperature to natural levels. Try reading this article:

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-06/nftt/index.php

[gurnie]

So the bacteria will be fine but any copepods/critters are pretty much toast, correct?

 

i'm going to try to get my friend to get the iceprobe and mount it in her nano filter. i think its the best solution.

 

The heat is similar to "cooking" live rock in plastic trash cans, which leaves little else remaining but bacteria. You should try to slowly get temperatures down. A good chiller would be a thermoelectric model like the Iceprobe, which can easily be placed in a sump or external hang-on filter. A cheaper but less effective solution would be buying fans that blow across the water (evaporation will be increased). It will be difficult to get your fans to lower the temperature to natural levels. Try reading this article:

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-06/nftt/index.php

[reefdan]

an iceprobe would be an excellent choice for a 5g tank.

 

fans would also work but be sure to take note of salinity changes due to loss of water from evaporative cooling.

 

pods will likely survive 89 degree weather. i wouldn't worry about them. fish and corals more than likely will not. if they do, they wont survive for long...