The effect of lights and pumps

[seangee]

On temperature.
Its been a while since I have troubled my heaters to come on. Some months ago I set the controllers to only come on if the temp dropped below 20C - you never know
I have also noticed that every week when I do my water change the temp in the tank drops by 2-3C. In theory this should not happen because I fill my water containers immediately after the WC so they are ready for next week and store them in the same room as the tanks. Last weekend I decided to rule out temp variations within the room by putting all the containers next to the tanks where they would be used. Still the same result. Its actually been a bit cooler in the past week and although my tanks were all sitting at around 27-28, I would normally have the heaters come on now as the normal setting is 25 and all dropped below that. I have left the contollers at 20 though - everything will be back to normal by tomorrow

 

[Back in the fold]

Are your containers sitting on the floor ? Do you keep a thermometer in them ?

 

[Naughts]

IMO a water change drop of 2-3 degrees is not a concern.
But if you’re asking are the tank pumps and lights increasing the temperature I would say yes in respect of the lights.
I think @Colin_T advises leaving the lights off during heatwaves and I have found it beneficial.

 

[GaryE]

My set up is a little unusual, because most of my filtration is air driven via two linear piston pumps and drilled and air valved pvc pipes in a loop around the room. Still, this post made me wonder and I just checked the heat in the air pipes.

Coming directly out of the pumps, the air is at 45c/113f. That's mighty toasty air. Farther down the line, 15 feet and numerous tanks away from the pumps, it's at 26.4/80f. This is for tanks I like to keep no higher than 22c.

It explains why when I leave the window open at this time of year, when nights are quite cool, the tank water stays where I want it. I'm guessing some of that heat dissipates in the water column as bubbles rise through filters. I'm not an engineer to back that up.

In past houses with extreme heatwave conditions I would turn all lights off, and that would cool the room a touch. I credit/or blame the high degree of insulation in the construction of my little fish palace, but last winter, the room heating never came on, even with a few days in a row at minus twenty celsius outside. The room holds heat well, but I think that says a lot about how much heat comes from LEDs and from filters. Yes, lots of water also conserves heat, and I have a toasty little dehumidifier running in the sealed up months.

I notice the one diaphragm air pump I have is also hot to the touch, so I'm guess even small pumps can add warmth to water.

I have 60 tanks in there, but only heat a couple, for breeding projects mainly. I look for fish that thrive in cooler tropical temperatures.

 

[seangee]

IMO a water change drop of 2-3 degrees is not a concern.

In the context of my fish this doesn't bother me.
Its also completely expected - what happens to the temperature in a perfectly insulted room that contains nothing but a fridge with an open door? Of course it goes up - you are adding energy into the system. But those tanks are now all at 27.5C after only 24 hours in which the room temp has never gone over 25. Its only a couple of LEDs and a small electric motor (per tank).
Now extrapolate that globally taking into account our ever increasing rate of energy consumption and it becomes a major concern. Google's published figures show its carbon footprint is growing by 11% per year, unpublished figures for 2025 are much higher than that with the exponential acceleration of AI. Google, Amazon and Microsoft combined account for 100M metric tonnes per year, with Amazon (the biggest) and Microsoft (the fastest growing) being a lot less transparent about their true consumption.

 

[Naughts]

In the context of my fish this doesn't bother me.
Its also completely expected - what happens to the temperature in a perfectly insulted room that contains nothing but a fridge with an open door? Of course it goes up - you are adding energy into the system. But those tanks are now all at 27.5C after only 24 hours in which the room temp has never gone over 25. Its only a couple of LEDs and a small electric motor (per tank).
Now extrapolate that globally taking into account our ever increasing rate of energy consumption and it becomes a major concern. Google's published figures show its carbon footprint is growing by 11% per year, unpublished figures for 2025 are much higher than that with the exponential acceleration of AI. Google, Amazon and Microsoft combined account for 100M metric tonnes per year, with Amazon (the biggest) and Microsoft (the fastest growing) being a lot less transparent about their true consumption.

I'm not sure if this point was the reason for the thread?

 

[gwand]

I'm not sure if this point was the reason for the thread?

lol. That’s life on the TFF!

 

[Back in the fold]

lol. That’s life on the TFF!

We do take side trips down unintended roads on the odd occasion .

 

[Alice B]

my 2 cents worth. I take care of a 100 gallon tank in the cafeteria of an office building with glass tops, a dual T5 flourescent fixture on top of the glass, and a wooden canopy that hides the fixture. tank is more deep than wide, only 5 ft long I think. I gave up and removed the heater years ago. even during weekends and vacation breaks in the winter the building is heated to probably 65 to70 degrees F and the lights run 12 hours a day and that tank stays about 75 to 80 F just from lights. I removed the air pump to increase CO2 levels to kill off some cyanobacteria a couple of years ago, it has 2 small powerheads driving an undergravel filter and a canister down in cabinet, I think an eheim. Lights and electric pumps most definitely warm a tank.

At home my tanks are almost all air driven, and those I use heaters on, but I unplug in spring and plug in when temp drops in the house to 60 at night. My house holds heat pretty well, reasonably well insulated for a 1955 that got blown in cellulose in walls and attic in the 80s. I added owens corning pink to the attic when I bought in 2001. my lights are on every day and off every night. Now that the central air is fixed there is not a heating problem. Avoid portable ac units - the hose gave off enough heat next to my hex tank to take its temp up to 95 in 2023 and kill my old Bristlenose. window units don't have a house heating hose.

and that is the Texas take on keeping things cool

 

[Colin_T]

A temperature of 27C is not a problem for most tropical fish as long as it goes up slowly and comes down slowly, and there's plenty of aeration.

All water pumps (powerheads, internal power filters, external power filters) produce heat and use the water to cool the motors so they will help warm the water when they are running.