I need emergency help please!, reef system is at 90f

G

GetITCdot

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Nov 19, 2008
55
0
0
Pittsburgh, PA
Well normal conditions my tank is right around 80-83 (due to running 800 watts of MH) My main tank is 150gallon

I bought a 90 gallon tank on craigs list and thought it would be cool to plumb the 90 downstairs and pump it upstairs for a full 240 gallon system.

I did all the plumbing and purchased this pump
http://www.harborfreight.com/1-hp-3000-gph-dirty-water-submersible-pump-with-float-93819.html

2 days later (today) i noticed my coral seemed to look fine but my large naso tang was darting back and forth obviously agitated (this is not like her).

I went down to the sump and low and behold the temp was 91 degrees!!!!!!

I cut the pump off and right now the tank is running on powerheads only. I drilled some holes in a leftover college dorm fridge I had and currently running 100 feet of 3/8 plastic pipe through it as a makeshift chiller. The only problem is the flow is way to slow to actually work if the pump was going.

Im running the makeshift chiller off this pump:
http://www.marinedepot.com/pumps_pentair_aquatics_rainbow_lifegard_quiet_one-ap.html

quite one 4000


what can i do for long term success short of buying a 400 dollar chiller?
 
C

CHOMPERS

Silver Tier VIP
MFK Member
Apr 28, 2006
6,439
63
1,205
Sunnyvale Trailer Park
Everything is wrong. I'll gladly help you with the heat issues if you can teach me to keep from killing corals. Ummm....just for your own sanity, we should quit right now. :grinno:

First off, the pump is the problem. That one in particular is horrible. Look inside the impeller housing and you'll be saying
There isn't a volute or diffuser of any kind. It's just an impeller spinning in water. The water churns in there like there is no tomorrow. The churning heats up the water. It is actually amazing that they actually work. On top of it all, they are incredibly inefficient. The high power draw translates to excessive motor heat, and it is water cooled. :headshake

Spend the bucks on an external pump. Better yet, set up a filtration system for the downstairs tank. Pumping the water upstairs adds to the water temperature.

And a dorm fridge cooler will never do the job if you do in fact need a chiller. The BTU rating on dorm fridges is the guarantee that they can't cool a tank at the rate that we can heat them. I use to be an advocate for dorm fridge chillers until I saw the math.
 
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