Lighting Causing Temperature Rise

[ThinIce]

Hi all

I have a tropiquairum 55 which now the warmer weather has arrived is going over my temperature of choice. This seems to be down to the lighting - the temperature climbs from 77 to 80 or thereabouts during the day. Switch off the light at night, and if its a cool evening the temperature soon begins to gradually drop.

The problem is I have a Rubbernose Plec in there who likes it fairly cool - therefore I want to get round this.

I have live plants so switching the light off when I'm not in the room isn't really an option, also given that the plec seems fairly disinterested in anything but Algae, switching the light on for say four hour periods isn't an option either as this would kill off his food supply.

The hood of the case is simply not a great design when it comes to letting the light's heat out, plus there is very little air space between the tube and the water surface. It is plastic so I don't think I can easily cut / drill holes in it, and the only other thing I can think of is getting an external canister filter that would sit out in the cooler air (don't think that would make hardly any difference though)

Any ideas are greatly appreciated as I can only see this getting worse as the weather gets hotter.

TIA

Thin

 

[Bloo]

I found that (the high heat) a problem too on mine. That's why I did this. A bit extreme and you might not fancy it, but it certainly made a huge difference. Even with more light now, it's a *lot* cooler.

 

[tjw]

I had EXACTLY THE SAME PROBLEM.

I couldn't afford to buy a Chiller.... the cheapest was over $200. So, I bought an Aquatek Aquarium Cooling Fan from aqua_eworld on eBay. This fan REALLY REALLY WORKS!! Even though i have a canope, the air flow from the fan drives out the hot air accumulated inside. The little clips on the fan snaps onto the aquarium wall very easily.

It dropped the temperature of my tank in hours and saved me $200!!! (and energy efficient, too!)

you can give it a try. Good Luck!

 

[save_nemo]

What type of lights...and HOW close to the water are we talking?

Can you prop up the lid a little and maybe put a fan near it to controll the temp, even put the fan on the same time that lights are on?