Fans cooling too much!! Help...

[Shroom King]

Now that the "hot" weather is gone and my apt temp is down to 68-70F, I'm finding my nano temp is dropping too much during the day. During the night when the halide and fans are off, the temp is 78-80F (where I want it). During the day with halide and fans on it drops to 74F. I have 2 - 6" fans blowing across the water, and the halide bulb in the pendant is 8" above water surface. Both fans have been on "low", and I turned one fan off today but the temp still dropped to 76F. My heater is a Rena Cal 150W (supposedly for 30-45 gal). I don't dare run without the fans, so what's the proper solution??? Do I buy a higher wattage heater, or different brand? Or, do I lower the halide pendant more? Or, something else?

P.S. I'm not running the Iceprobe Chiller listed in my sig at the moment, so that isn't an issue.

What's your opinions??? Thanks!!

 

[dedfish]

Any way to direct the fans across the bulb only and not at the water?

 

[Shroom King]

Yes, I can point the fans more up at the light rather than at the water (at present they are oriented more towards the water surface)...

 

[reefnroll]

You could try putting the fan(s) on it's own timer that it will only turn on for a very short period of the day, preferably the hottest portion of the day for the tank. That way the water temp stays cool during the time when it needs the temp drop most... but doesn't overcool later on in the day just before the lights go off. It may take a few days to figure out how long and when the fan time period should be - but it should work.

b

 

[Shroom King]

I'm going to try pointing the fan I currently have running more towards the light (rather than the water) tomorrow. I hesitate putting the fan(s) on a timer, because the halide is on for a solid 10 hours, and I am more concerned with the halide heating things up than the heat of the day. I'm actually quite surprised at the cooling efficiency of the fans so that the heater doesn't even keep up. This certainly validates the effectiveness of fans on cooling the heating effects of halides. As always, thanks folks for the responses!

 

[Clam Man]

i had the same problem i just pointed the fans more to the back wall to suck the heat out but not all of it .but this will only work of course if you have adjustable fans side to side.I also herd of someone using ice cap temp probe that goes in the water and connects to the fan and will adjust the speed of the fan to maintain tank at 80 deg
im using a 12 inch house fan for now but this set up sound good to me but i also herd it wasnt cheep but what is in this hobby. pm or e mail me if you want more info on fan /probe set up

 

[Shroom King]

Pointing the fan up towards the light apparently worked today. When I came home from work the temp was between 78-80. Thanks!

 

[dedfish]

Awesome. Glad to hear it. Now make sure youor heater doesn't heat the tank too much now that it doesn't have to compete with the fans.

 

[Tstone]

For what its worth I had a 250 MH on my 13 g and when the weather turned like this I just shut off the fan. Temp remained stable no prob.

 

[Shroom King]

Interesting...thanks T!