to chill or not to chill

[purge43]

I recently changed to MH lights and they have increased my temps, to no supprise, but its just slightly to 80 degrees.. My normal temps. have been steady 77 for a fowlr. the change to mh was because im considering stepping into the coral community. My ambient room temps are always 72, i could perhaps increase water flow, add a couple external canister filters to have the water resonate in them for some time at ambient temps. i could point a fan directly at the tank etc etc, Id like to ask someone with more experience then me about this ... is the 80 degrees going to give me problems down the road when i have expensive corals at risk? Is the intial start up cost and the cost to keep it running going to give me that much more advantage at keeping life healthy? I had originally planned on adding a chiller(with controls), but now Im not sure 3 degrees increase is all that bad ....thanks in advance.

[Reefer08]

80 degree's will not give you problems at all. SPS live up too 86 degree temps in the wild. A higher temp. also helps sps grow faster since their metabolism is speed up.

Lps prefer a colder temp. though but will live fine in warmer waters.

[james3370]

try a 6" clip-on fan in the sump area.....you'll be amazed at how much it cools the water. i had one on an open-top nano that had a 150w halide. w/out it, temps were 82ish.....with it they were around 78-80.

granted i did have considerably more evaporation

[BigJay]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14866391#post14866391 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by james3370
try a 6" clip-on fan in the sump area.....you'll be amazed at how much it cools the water. i had one on an open-top nano that had a 150w halide. w/out it, temps were 82ish.....with it they were around 78-80.

granted i did have considerably more evaporation

+1 on the fan, but get one that blows in between the halide lights and the water. Removing that super-hot air is more effective than blowing over the sump.

[james3370]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14868510#post14868510 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by BigJay
+1 on the fan, but get one that blows in between the halide lights and the water. Removing that super-hot air is more effective than blowing over the sump.

or a combination of the 2 would be ideal. if i had to choose, i'd do the sump for a few reasons......

* the water dropping down the overflow plumbing gives off a slight bit of it's heat to the plumbing, so couple that w/ the typically cooler ambient air from there not being the strong lighting, it can be a degree or 2 cooler than the display tank

* you don't have to overcome the aforementioned higher ambient air temps, so the fan typically is blowing cooler air around which means more cooling effect

to me, the best case scenario is to have a few fans keeping the air circulating in the canopy & place a few holes or a slot in the top. hot air naturally rises, so if you give it a spot at the top to escape, it will & this will naturally pull cooler air in from outside the canopy.

this coupled w/ cooling the water in the sump will probably negate the need for a chiller in the OP's situation