titanium cooling coil

JG · Joined: 16 Aug 2007 Posts: 4

I have a new 125 gallon tank that I'm just getting set up and it's
running a little hotter than I'd like - 81F
I'd like the temp to be about 77F, so I only need to cool down 4
degrees.
I have a clip-on fan blowing on the sump, and two 3" Radio Shack fans
blowing on the lights.

I thought about buying a piece of titanium tubing (can buy a 3' length
for $40 or so) and bending it into a coil.
Then pump water through it and blow a fan across the coil.

Would this have any affect, or is the coil too small?

The other thing I haven't tried yet, is replacing the solid glass
cover on the top of the tank (that the lights sit on) with eggcrate.
The eggcrate will allow for more evaporation, but now the water is
more directly exposed to the heat from the lights so I don't know if
that will make it better or worse.

Jeff

Archived from group: rec>aquaria>tech

Chief Ephor · Joined: 16 Aug 2007 Posts: 25

> > I thought about buying a piece of titanium tubing (can buy a 3' length
> > for $40 or so) and bending it into a coil.
> > Then pump water through it and blow a fan across the coil.

hi.
Two points.
1, titanium tubing is a real PITA to bent, even if you get the softiest
grade.
2, the fact that the fan cools your sump is because of accelerated
evaporation. The evaporative cooling is what take the heat out of the tank.
With the fan blowing on a titanium coil with warm tank water, you might try
to cool the tank by blowing air on the front of the tank. It won't work
since it does not promote evaporation. You need to put the coil in some
cold water bath or something.
bye -ck-

Jim Brown · Joined: 16 Aug 2007 Posts: 177

JG wrote in message@posting.google.com...
> I have a new 125 gallon tank that I'm just getting set up and it's
> running a little hotter than I'd like - 81F
> I'd like the temp to be about 77F, so I only need to cool down 4
> degrees.
> I have a clip-on fan blowing on the sump, and two 3" Radio Shack fans
> blowing on the lights.
>
> I thought about buying a piece of titanium tubing (can buy a 3' length
> for $40 or so) and bending it into a coil.
> Then pump water through it and blow a fan across the coil.
>
> Would this have any affect, or is the coil too small?
>
> The other thing I haven't tried yet, is replacing the solid glass
> cover on the top of the tank (that the lights sit on) with eggcrate.
> The eggcrate will allow for more evaporation, but now the water is
> more directly exposed to the heat from the lights so I don't know if
> that will make it better or worse.
>
> Jeff

If the tank is set up in an place without air-conditioning, the water will
rise and fall with the room temperature. As a new aquarium, the extra heat
above what you are aiming for will promote quicker plant growth, and faster
cycling. That 4ºF isn't much of a spread.
A fan blowing on a coil won't do much for that volume of water. The
powerhead in the tank will add more heat. Eggcrate will allow better
evaporation and cooling, but means more water for top-ups. I have no heat
problems with my fluorescent lights and wonder what types of lighting you
use.
Personally, I wouldn't worry about it for now. Summer's half gone so the
ambient temperature should come down a bit, unless you are in an extreme and
constant weather area.

Jim

Benjamin · Joined: 16 Aug 2007 Posts: 33

JG,

Why exactly is 81 degrees 4 degrees hotter than you want? Personally I
wouldn't go so far as to remove or replace the glass tops unless your
"forced" to. How about just remove the rubber or plastic trim at the rear
and possibly the front panels of glass as well? That should open the tanks
top well enough to allow evaporation yet not so much as to allow splatter on
your lights, massive evaporation, etc.
Course I'm just guessing as we do not have your light specs, other hardware,
nor the style of your current tank top.

benjamin1@netins.net
Personal Website: http://showcase.netins.net/web/reefpage/

"Jim Brown" wrote in message$_a4.616852@news20.bellglobal.com...
>
> JG wrote in message
> @posting.google.com...
> > I have a new 125 gallon tank that I'm just getting set up and it's
> > running a little hotter than I'd like - 81F
> > I'd like the temp to be about 77F, so I only need to cool down 4
> > degrees.
> > I have a clip-on fan blowing on the sump, and two 3" Radio Shack fans
> > blowing on the lights.
> >
> > I thought about buying a piece of titanium tubing (can buy a 3' length
> > for $40 or so) and bending it into a coil.
> > Then pump water through it and blow a fan across the coil.
> >
> > Would this have any affect, or is the coil too small?
> >
> > The other thing I haven't tried yet, is replacing the solid glass
> > cover on the top of the tank (that the lights sit on) with eggcrate.
> > The eggcrate will allow for more evaporation, but now the water is
> > more directly exposed to the heat from the lights so I don't know if
> > that will make it better or worse.
> >
> > Jeff
>
> If the tank is set up in an place without air-conditioning, the water will
> rise and fall with the room temperature. As a new aquarium, the extra
heat
> above what you are aiming for will promote quicker plant growth, and
faster
> cycling. That 4ºF isn't much of a spread.
> A fan blowing on a coil won't do much for that volume of water. The
> powerhead in the tank will add more heat. Eggcrate will allow better
> evaporation and cooling, but means more water for top-ups. I have no heat
> problems with my fluorescent lights and wonder what types of lighting you
> use.
> Personally, I wouldn't worry about it for now. Summer's half gone so the
> ambient temperature should come down a bit, unless you are in an extreme
and
> constant weather area.
>
> Jim
>
>

richard reynolds · Joined: 16 Aug 2007 Posts: 113

> I have a new 125 gallon tank that I'm just getting set up and it's
> running a little hotter than I'd like - 81F
> I'd like the temp to be about 77F, so I only need to cool down 4
> degrees.
> I have a clip-on fan blowing on the sump, and two 3" Radio Shack fans
> blowing on the lights.
>
> I thought about buying a piece of titanium tubing (can buy a 3' length
> for $40 or so) and bending it into a coil.
> Then pump water through it and blow a fan across the coil.
>
> Would this have any affect, or is the coil too small?
>
> The other thing I haven't tried yet, is replacing the solid glass
> cover on the top of the tank (that the lights sit on) with eggcrate.
> The eggcrate will allow for more evaporation, but now the water is
> more directly exposed to the heat from the lights so I don't know if
> that will make it better or worse.
>
> Jeff

remove the glass it holds in more heat than it keeps out, as for a 3' coil and air alone
probibly not, if you can get something colder running through that coil then definately
also larger fans will do better at heat removal than smaller fans (kinda duh Smile

)

--
--
richard reynolds
richard.reynolds@usa.net

PaulB · Joined: 16 Aug 2007 Posts: 30

81 is not excessive, unless you have some non tropical animals that need
colder water.

http://www.rshimek.com/reef/Default.htm

JG wrote:

> I have a new 125 gallon tank that I'm just getting set up and it's
> running a little hotter than I'd like - 81F
> I'd like the temp to be about 77F, so I only need to cool down 4
> degrees.
> I have a clip-on fan blowing on the sump, and two 3" Radio Shack fans
> blowing on the lights.
>
> I thought about buying a piece of titanium tubing (can buy a 3' length
> for $40 or so) and bending it into a coil.
> Then pump water through it and blow a fan across the coil.
>
> Would this have any affect, or is the coil too small?
>
> The other thing I haven't tried yet, is replacing the solid glass
> cover on the top of the tank (that the lights sit on) with eggcrate.
> The eggcrate will allow for more evaporation, but now the water is
> more directly exposed to the heat from the lights so I don't know if
> that will make it better or worse.
>
> Jeff

richard reynolds · Joined: 16 Aug 2007 Posts: 113

> 81 is not excessive, unless you have some non tropical animals that need
> colder water.
the only way I would disagree is in the part about "I have a new 125" if its going to be a
problem now when its *new* is the time to fix it, not next summer when all the sudden its
back up to 90F indoors, to many people complain about it down the road because they didnt
do something now.

--
richard reynolds
richard.reynolds@usa.net

Marc Levenson · Joined: 16 Aug 2007 Posts: 667

Hi JG,

I don't run any of my aquariums with glass tops. No problems with any of my
lighting, and I've not added any heat to the water that I'm aware of.

Marc

JG wrote:

> I have a new 125 gallon tank that I'm just getting set up and it's
> running a little hotter than I'd like - 81F
> I'd like the temp to be about 77F, so I only need to cool down 4
> degrees.
> I have a clip-on fan blowing on the sump, and two 3" Radio Shack fans
> blowing on the lights.
>
> I thought about buying a piece of titanium tubing (can buy a 3' length
> for $40 or so) and bending it into a coil.
> Then pump water through it and blow a fan across the coil.
>
> Would this have any affect, or is the coil too small?
>
> The other thing I haven't tried yet, is replacing the solid glass
> cover on the top of the tank (that the lights sit on) with eggcrate.
> The eggcrate will allow for more evaporation, but now the water is
> more directly exposed to the heat from the lights so I don't know if
> that will make it better or worse.
>
> Jeff

--
Personal Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com/oanda/index.html
Business Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com
Marine Hobbyist: http://www.melevsreef.com

JG · Joined: 16 Aug 2007 Posts: 4

"richard reynolds" wrote in message news:...
> > 81 is not excessive, unless you have some non tropical animals that need
> > colder water.
> the only way I would disagree is in the part about "I have a new 125" if its going to be a
> problem now when its *new* is the time to fix it, not next summer when all the sudden its
> back up to 90F indoors, to many people complain about it down the road because they didnt
> do something now.

I did leave out some important info in my original post.
I have a/c in my house and it is currently set at 75 (about 2 degrees
colder than before I had the tank), so the temperature of the room is
quite stable.
I have 4 power compact's of 96W each sitting on top.

I already removed the small plastic end pieces on the glass top
panels, so I do have a little exposure on top, but only about a 2 inch
wide strip.

I replaced the two large submerged pumps that were in my sump with one
external pump hoping that would reduce heat buildup a bit, it didn't
really seem to.

I'm not worried about replacing evaporated water because I'm
installing an automatic top-off system.

You are right, I would like to try as many different options now,
before there is any livestock in the tank.

Also, not sure if it's obvious or not, but this is a SW tank.

Pszemol · Joined: 16 Aug 2007 Posts: 643

"JG" wrote in message @posting.google.com...
> I thought about buying a piece of titanium tubing (can buy a 3' length
> for $40 or so) and bending it into a coil.
> Then pump water through it and blow a fan across the coil.

What tubing diameter you are thinking about?
If you never worked with titanium before
you should be aware, that bending thick pipes
made of it is not an easy task to do...

> Would this have any affect, or is the coil too small?

I have similar problem with my 30gallons reef - need to lower
down the temp only a couple degrees - I run a coil of compression
tubing (polypropylene or something similar, milky colour) and
use cold tap water to drip through it. Make some experiments
with it, if the tap water is not expensive in your area and using
it for cooling is not forbidden you could achieve this 4 degree
target doing the same.

Ric Seyler · Joined: 16 Aug 2007 Posts: 40

Like Marc, I don't run any tops on my tanks.
MH and PC bulbs about 5in off water. Never had a problem.
Just clean the mist off bulbs and reflectors from time to time.

81F isn't a bad temp.

Evaporation is your friend. That is what takes heat from the tank.
Angle the sump fan down toward the water and take off the tank cover
and I'll bet you will drop another degree or two.

Don't put eggcrate on top of tank. It will block some of the lighting.
Some light comes in at an angle, and the egg crate will block that.

JG wrote:

>I have a new 125 gallon tank that I'm just getting set up and it's
>running a little hotter than I'd like - 81F
>I'd like the temp to be about 77F, so I only need to cool down 4
>degrees.
>I have a clip-on fan blowing on the sump, and two 3" Radio Shack fans
>blowing on the lights.
>
>I thought about buying a piece of titanium tubing (can buy a 3' length
>for $40 or so) and bending it into a coil.
>Then pump water through it and blow a fan across the coil.
>
>Would this have any affect, or is the coil too small?
>
>The other thing I haven't tried yet, is replacing the solid glass
>cover on the top of the tank (that the lights sit on) with eggcrate.
>The eggcrate will allow for more evaporation, but now the water is
>more directly exposed to the heat from the lights so I don't know if
>that will make it better or worse.
>
>Jeff
>
>

--
Ric Seyler
Online Racing: RicSeyler
GPL Handicap 6.35
ricseyler@gulf.net
http://www.pcola.gulf.net/~ricseyler
--------------------------------------
"Homer no function beer well without."
- H.J. Simpson

Marc Levenson · Joined: 16 Aug 2007 Posts: 667

It better be, considering the newsgroup you are posting in! Smile

Marc

JG wrote:

> Also, not sure if it's obvious or not, but this is a SW tank.

--
Personal Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com/oanda/index.html
Business Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com
Marine Hobbyist: http://www.melevsreef.com

Marc Levenson · Joined: 16 Aug 2007 Posts: 667

Ric, what do you think about eggcrate around the outer 3" or so, basically
busting out all the center? It would keep the jumpers in the tank I'd guess.

Or perhaps it is simply better to stand the egg crate on end, at the rear of the
canopy to bounce the jumpers back into the water.

Marc

Ric Seyler wrote:

> Like Marc, I don't run any tops on my tanks.
> MH and PC bulbs about 5in off water. Never had a problem.
> Just clean the mist off bulbs and reflectors from time to time.
>
> 81F isn't a bad temp.
>
> Evaporation is your friend. That is what takes heat from the tank.
> Angle the sump fan down toward the water and take off the tank cover
> and I'll bet you will drop another degree or two.
>
> Don't put eggcrate on top of tank. It will block some of the lighting.
> Some light comes in at an angle, and the egg crate will block that.
>
> JG wrote:
>
> >I have a new 125 gallon tank that I'm just getting set up and it's
> >running a little hotter than I'd like - 81F
> >I'd like the temp to be about 77F, so I only need to cool down 4
> >degrees.
> >I have a clip-on fan blowing on the sump, and two 3" Radio Shack fans
> >blowing on the lights.
> >
> >I thought about buying a piece of titanium tubing (can buy a 3' length
> >for $40 or so) and bending it into a coil.
> >Then pump water through it and blow a fan across the coil.
> >
> >Would this have any affect, or is the coil too small?
> >
> >The other thing I haven't tried yet, is replacing the solid glass
> >cover on the top of the tank (that the lights sit on) with eggcrate.
> >The eggcrate will allow for more evaporation, but now the water is
> >more directly exposed to the heat from the lights so I don't know if
> >that will make it better or worse.
> >
> >Jeff
> >
> >
>
> --
> Ric Seyler
> Online Racing: RicSeyler
> GPL Handicap 6.35
> ricseyler@gulf.net
> http://www.pcola.gulf.net/~ricseyler
> --------------------------------------
> "Homer no function beer well without."
> - H.J. Simpson

--
Personal Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com/oanda/index.html
Business Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com
Marine Hobbyist: http://www.melevsreef.com

JG · Joined: 16 Aug 2007 Posts: 4

I will need something to set the lights on top of.
And I was also thinking that eggcrate would prevent fish jumping out.
How much light will actually be blocked by eggcrate?

Instead of covering the whole top, I guess I could just put a few
strips (of eggcrate or glass or acrylic) on to support the lights.
Still worried about jumping fish though...

Ric Seyler wrote in message news:...
> Like Marc, I don't run any tops on my tanks.
> MH and PC bulbs about 5in off water. Never had a problem.
> Just clean the mist off bulbs and reflectors from time to time.
>
> 81F isn't a bad temp.
>
> Evaporation is your friend. That is what takes heat from the tank.
> Angle the sump fan down toward the water and take off the tank cover
> and I'll bet you will drop another degree or two.
>
> Don't put eggcrate on top of tank. It will block some of the lighting.
> Some light comes in at an angle, and the egg crate will block that.
>
> JG wrote:
>
> >I have a new 125 gallon tank that I'm just getting set up and it's
> >running a little hotter than I'd like - 81F
> >I'd like the temp to be about 77F, so I only need to cool down 4
> >degrees.
> >I have a clip-on fan blowing on the sump, and two 3" Radio Shack fans
> >blowing on the lights.
> >
> >I thought about buying a piece of titanium tubing (can buy a 3' length
> >for $40 or so) and bending it into a coil.
> >Then pump water through it and blow a fan across the coil.
> >
> >Would this have any affect, or is the coil too small?
> >
> >The other thing I haven't tried yet, is replacing the solid glass
> >cover on the top of the tank (that the lights sit on) with eggcrate.
> >The eggcrate will allow for more evaporation, but now the water is
> >more directly exposed to the heat from the lights so I don't know if
> >that will make it better or worse.
> >
> >Jeff
> >
> >
>
> --
> Ric Seyler
> Online Racing: RicSeyler
> GPL Handicap 6.35
> ricseyler@gulf.net
> http://www.pcola.gulf.net/~ricseyler
> --------------------------------------
> "Homer no function beer well without."
> - H.J. Simpson

richard reynolds · Joined: 16 Aug 2007 Posts: 113

> I will need something to set the lights on top of.
> And I was also thinking that eggcrate would prevent fish jumping out.
> How much light will actually be blocked by eggcrate?
>
> Instead of covering the whole top, I guess I could just put a few
> strips (of eggcrate or glass or acrylic) on to support the lights.
> Still worried about jumping fish though...

cover the open areas with eggcrate/acrylic/glass leave the part under the lights open,
also most fish wont jump if everything is to there liking

--
richard reynolds
richard.reynolds@usa.net