seahorse temp cooling ideas?

[Cichlids]

Thinking about doing a seahorse tank. Sence the temp is best 68 to 74 what is a good way to cool the water? A chillier is expensive and makes alot of noise not to metion the energy cost. Any good ideas how to keep a the right temp? Thnaks

[rayjay]

When I just had one tank, I used a large floor fan plus a large table type fan both blowing on the tank but temps still got up too high in the peak heat periods.
Now, with a lot of tanks, I have a room air conditioner set up to control it at max. 74°.

[Peka]

Fans blowing on the tank surface help a lot but make sure you watch the salinity....

[JM68]

how big of a tank??

[Cichlids]

its a 50gal breader. Anybody use a frozen pop bottle in the sump?

[didimcginty]

i do, i rotate 3 bottles, one in the morning, one in the afternoon, and one at night, been doing this for about 2 weeks now, on hotter days it keeps my tank at 77, on nicer days i can keep it at 74. i use these in a 29 gallon tank

[ctenophors rule]

i do, i rotate 3 bottles, one in the morning, one in the afternoon, and one at night, been doing this for about 2 weeks now, on hotter days it keeps my tank at 77, on nicer days i can keep it at 74. i use these in a 29 gallon tank

for some reason i remember hearing somewhere that this is dangerous. can anyone confirm?

[JM68]

i have used the frozen bottle method before. it works for a small tank but i think a 50g is too big. the bottles will melt too quickly and the temp. reduction in the tank wont be enough to make it worth it. i would use a fan blowing over the sump or top of the tank if u dont have a sump. you can lower a tank several degrees with this method, just have to top off more. if you had the money u could get a drop in chiller which uses a coil in the actual water to cool the tank.

[pledosophy]

Switching the photoperiod to night time helps.

Feeding your ATO with water that is in an icechest (with Ice) helps.

If doing the frozen bottle method, big bottles filled with salt water are best IME.

Fans work well, especially combined with the auto top off idea.

Running your skimmers venturi intake line from inside an ice chest (again filled with ice) seems to help to constantly pull cold water.

Having vents on top of the canopy so the heat rises and does not get trapped is good.

FWIW nice chillers are still pretty quiet, quieter then my fans. ;)

[rayjay]

Also, based on MY past experiences over the last 4+ years, 77° caused me problems and losses.
I know there are tanks out there as warm and warmer, but I'm not prepared to take any more chances when I'm able to control that factor.