[Kashi]

Hi,

I have a dilemma with my fairly new (5 months) 125gal Reef. The tank currently evaporates 25 gallons a week, which I replace via a 6.6gal Nurce. I have kept smaller reef tanks for more than 4 years now so I am familiar with the evaporation rate but 25gals is a lot!

The lighting consists of 3 - 250w Iwasakis and 2- 160w actinics run on icecap. There is 2 - 13w pc's over my sump/refugium in my stand (if anyone says 26 watts wont grow caulerpa, wow they're wrong).

I have 2 4" muffin fans in the hood which the back is open and a clip on fan blowing over the sump/lights.

My house temp the last 2 months has been around 70-72 and my tank is between 78 - 80 but will probably climb to 82 now that summer approaches and I will keep the house at 76-78.

I am now thinking of going strickly VHO using my 2 existing and adding 4 more of the 160w tubes. I have seen tanks run strickly on VHO and although I prefer Halides, you can keep almost anything and the colors look good also.

Any suggestions? Chiller? I need to bring the evap rate to 1/2 of what it is currently doing.

Thanks

[scubadude]

WOW 25 gallons per week is alot...that is No where near what mine is...and Im running 3 - 250w HQI bulbs on my 220g. Im curious as to what your photoperiod is? I dont think you should eliminate your MH's maybe just cut back on the photoperiod of them a bit....I think if you have one of the MH's in the middle then this bulb can be used to simulate mid day intense lighting but does not need to be on that long...maximum maybe 4 hrs and minimum maybe 1 hr. you may be able to decrease the photoperiod of the other two MH's as well.

[Kashi]

My photoperiod consists of my VHO coming on from 10-11pm and my Halides from 3pm to 10 pm, only 7 hours. I did leave out another detail. The sump fan and 1 of the hood fans is left on 24hrs a day. I tried leaving the hood fan off with the other one when the lights go out but the temp rises about 1 degree at night (go figure) then when the lights come on in the day go to 82 or higher. I have it this way to keep the water temp between 78-80.

So you are saying that i could run the tank on only 4 hours of Halide a day ? ?

[scubadude]

Well you have a pretty long photoperiod...Here is a couple of different ways you could do it that I think would help

Option A

VHO's come on at 10am and shut off at 10pm
Center MH comes on at 12noon turns off at 5pm
both other MH (one on L.side and one on R.side) on at 1:30 off at 3:30

I would differiantiate (sp?) the Left and Right side MH's by 15 mins though to simulate natural sunrise and sunset.

Option B

VHO's come on at 10am and shut off at 10pm
L. side MH comes on at 10:30am and off at 2:30pm
Middle MH comes on at 12:30pm and off at 4:30pm
R. side MH comes on at 1:30pm and off at 5:30pm

you can change this around a bit but I think you will understand the concept....one other thing...I would sacrifice that 1 degree temp on the sump fan and not run it as long....You sound like you have alot of air cooling, maybe overkill? HTH

[Ltspd]

My .02

Make a automated top off system hooked to your RO/DI. I have one and it works great.

Cutback on your photoperiod as Scuaba suggested.

Can you close the sump tank? So atleast you would not be losing any from there.

Do you not live in a dry area? I would think that in itself would cause the evap rate to be higher than some.

[Rin]

Like Ltspd said, you guys need to consider what parts of the country you live in, too. I'm assuming that Kashi lives in Arizona. I'll bet rel. hum. hits 20% on a very wet day in the winter. The upshot of living in a dry area is that evaporative cooling has more benefit than in Florida where an A/C'd home suffers around 50% - 60%.

I've notice that on dry days when I'm running the heat I loose almost twice the water on my tank than in the summer when I run the A/C.

Kashi, running a chiller will help, but your power bill will suffer. Look at this way, at least no one will suffer nose bleeds from being too dry.

[Kashi]

Thanks everyone!

I am going to shorten the photo period and also put the other fan in the hood on the same times as the other fan to go off when the lights do so it wont run 24hrs a day.
I did this because my tank temp would climb even after the lights went out and then it would make the overall temp go up to 82-83 when the lights are on but with the fan ON - the temp stays around 80-81 (go figure) but if 82-83 is acceptable during the spring/summer months (I live in AZ) then I will try and hopefully it slows the evap rate down - we'll see.

25gals a week is a lot. Right now it not really hot enough to put the aircon on so the house gets real muggy in the mornings from all the evap water - your right nose bleeds aren't currently a problem !

[golfish]

25 gal! is that all? I do 35 easy on my 150........I would do like Paul suggested. I don't have mine connected to the RO unit but I do have it connected to a 35 gal drum using two float switches and a Liter meter. The sump never fluctuates more then 1/8"

If you added a chiller and droped the fans that would help but your still going to see more evap then you would like. I plan to drop a few fans and add a chiller this summer.

[dattack]

Same here. I am losing about 4.5 gallons a day in CA. Kind of suck lugging a 5 gallon nurce everyday. No where to put a topoff system in the living room and the RO water from the faucet is BFE away.