Help bringing down temperature?

[jamestank]

Hi,

I have posted with some of my beginner trials and tribulations before and received some helpful advice - I would appreciate some help again with bringing down the temperature in my tank.

I have a 75 gallon Tenecor "simplicity" plus. It started off simple, then I added a protein skimmer, UV sterilizer (both in a very overcrowded sump area) and a Seio pump in the main part of the tank to increase circulation.

I believe that as result of these add-ons has been increased temperature in the tank. It's now hovering between 84-86 degrees. I thought maybe something was wrong with the heater sensor so I unplugged the heater 5 days ago and no improvement.

Any suggestions on how to bring down the temperature? I really don't want to have to buy a chiller.

I've been thinking about putting the UV light on a timer and running it only 8 hours a day. I'm not sure how much that would reduce the benefits of the UV or how much that would bring down the temperature.

Any other thoughts.

Thanks again.

[marxsman]

i have seen many people run small fans under the cabinet to help reduce the heat issue.

[Reefland]

I think that's an excellent place to start. What kind of lights are you running and what kind of canopy? Do you have any type of circulation blowing on the lights and in the canopy? If you don't suspect the lights, a small desk fan clowing across the surface water in your sump will do a lot; it'll also increase evaporation so be prepared to add more top-off water.

[jamestank]

I have a wooden canopy and a 96 watt light (half blue/half white) that I only keep on about 8 hours a day (the tank gets some indirect light and I have no corals).

The problem with the fan over the sump is that with the Simplicity Plus system I have there really is no room for that (the sump is actually behind the main tank with a false back separating it from the main tank).

I unplugged the UV this morning, hopefully that will help.

The water temperature has been at about 86 degrees for over a week. Would that damage organisms living in the live rock? What temperature is the highest acceptable for my tank?

Thanks so much.

I think that's an excellent place to start. What kind of lights are you running and what kind of canopy? Do you have any type of circulation blowing on the lights and in the canopy? If you don't suspect the lights, a small desk fan clowing across the surface water in your sump will do a lot; it'll also increase evaporation so be prepared to add more top-off water.

[Reefland]

I think 86 would be the far outerband of the limit.

[jamestank]

I just decided to get rid of the UV sterilizer altogether. That has lowered to temperature to just below 82. This is FOWLR tank. Does that sound alright?

Anybody have thoughts on how valuable the UV sterilizer is? I have always been suspicious so it didn't trouble me to lose it - especially to drop the tank temperature by 4 degrees.

Thanks.

I think 86 would be the far outerband of the limit.

[Reefland]

81-82 is a good range to keep your temperature at. Glad you were able to get it reduced!

With proper quarantine, a UV sterilzer isn't needed in my opinion so I wouldn't worry about the loss.

[pavesi]

remember, a uv stearlizer is more or less another heater..