Summer isn’t over yet so keep this tip in your…freezer
Summer is in full swing here in the Northern Hemisphere and that means the warm temperatures are here to stay. Before you have a tank temperature emergency, don’t forget about this quick tip.
Browse the Store! Questions?
Isn’t it Sunday?
Good tip and I’ve been using this for a couple
months now just in precaution. Came in handy one time so far, I found a cooling fan busted and not running so the temp spiked.
My AC went out and I used this tip, but as my tank is 245 gallons I used frozen gallon jugs. It made a slight difference in the temperature of the tank. Within 20 minutes, the gallon of frozen water melted and reached the same temperature as the tank but only reduced the tank water .2 degrees. Its better than nothing but not really too good for a large tank.
Instead what saved me was fans on the sump and fans on the tank which will cool the tank more than the frozen water method.
To make things worse the power then went out so luckily I had bought a 3700 watt portable generator which will run my entire tank and the fans (and the refrigerator – secondary importance).
So my advice is have a generator and fans.
Yes, it is Sunday today Roei Matan, Mark might have a sunstroke allready 🙂
Just had to do this in the UK of all places with our recent heatwave. Great tip, cools my 120 litre (30 US Gallon) tank by about .5 celcius with one 1 litre frozen bottle.
Here in Holland the temperaturs have been over 35 degrees (Celsius) for the last four weeks. Unbelievable…
Sunday Morning Quick Tip?
As with Jon (and wow Hans… still hot over there??) we’ve had some fun lately… This trick saved my bacon and I have stacks of Robinson’s (Jon will certainly recognise those) in the freezer… I also have a backup fan these days… There’s no space for a chiller here so that’s my option and it works…
So once again… thanks for the all new Sunday re-play tip… I hope it helps a few more folk out 😀
Glad to hear the tip helped Matt. Not everyone has seen every video I’ve done and I wanted to bring this one up again as it is very useful this time of year
This is a great thing to do. Even here in Oakland CA we get hot spells that nearly kill me let alone upset the tank. I have been using plastic half-gallon milk containers instead of small water bottles. They fit in the sump comfortably. I have two in the freezer at all times. One in the sump gently takes down the temp from about 80 to 78 +/- in a few hours and when it melts I swap with the other. Saved me about $800 for a chiller.
Oops..just to clarify: the containers are not frozen milk! RO/DI all the way.
its Monday here
but anyway its a great tip
temps usually get over 48 deg here in oz and the chiller sometimes just says no its to hot to work
I do this! I keep four frozen 1 liters in the freezer for just such an emergency. The shape of the bottles is perfect for floating one at a time or sometimes two. I rotate them out until the heat spell breaks. This is a great alternative to purchasing a chiller (a bit out of my budget).
I keep 10 bottles plus 3 gallon size containers
Ready just to stay ahead of this Texas
Heat. I have to use them daily
Great tip, especially when you live in AZ and have your RODI / Salt Mixing station in the garage.
To Jim in Aust. I’m in NSW on the coast but still in summer the heat in well over 35,celcius so I’ve had a chiller in use for years. Just recently I upgraded my lighting to LED, so next summer it should pay off. Last summer the combination of Metal Halides & T5’s created so much heat that even though the chiller was rated for the tank Volume it was over worked. So I got a new chiller ( Arctica 1/4 HP ) the next size up from the old one. My tank is 180,gal that’s 681,litres to us, this new unit does 1000lt. Having this extra grunt made a huge difference, but the biggest thing to check is the flow rate. I made sure that my main return pump was doing the job, even allowing for the Head loss from outlet into tank to pump height, and put a valve in line to regulate flow exactly, then timed each chill cycle making adjustments to the flow to get the best chill rate. I’ve seen units working at 27c when set for 24 ( this is a dead give away that the pump is wrong for the job rated). I’ve run a Tank maintenance business, so when you said your chiller won’t work in your post I had to say what I’ve done. good luck mate.