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To chill or not to chill

shannen74

Blue Ring
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Joined
Mar 17, 2003
Messages
41
Hi folks!

My husband and I are setting up an octo tank, and we have just finished cycling (took a month, but we're gonna wait another month or two to add the octo, just to be safe). We live in Houston, and our water temp is a pretty steady 77 degrees. I know colder temps are recommended for bimacs, but we really don't have the cash for a chiller. Is this water temp going to significantly impact the lifespan and/or quality of life of a bimac?

Also, I saw somewhere on here a while back about someone using a chilling unit from a water fountain to chill their tank water. Could I get some details about this? Most of the chillers I have seen (water cooler type) have copper tubing. I figured using anything with copper would be a bad idea.

Thanks in advance,
Shannen
 
hi shannen

you are right about the copper thing and this would be a problem if the copper is in direct contact with the water from your tank.. however, some water coolers pass the water through the chiller by a titanium or stainless steel type of hosing... just need to be visualant and shop about...

nancy, stays in texas and may be able to offer some other tips on cooling
 
Hi Shannen,

As Colin mentioned, I live in Texas (Dallas). Although we keep our home from 70-72 degrees, my tank was running 74-75 degrees. I found this was due to the heat from the pumps and the light. Using the skimer upped the temperature another degree.

I found that keeping the water in the sump topped up was important. Then I bought a small (10") plastic fan and mounted it on a wooden base that could be tilted. It's aimed right at the water in the sump. That helped a lot to lower the temperature a few degrees.

I run the skimmer only a few hours at a time and keep an eye on the temperature.

You can do a lot to lower the temperature by using simple methods like this.

Nancy
 

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