Causes of a Temperature Spike?

[Ari7667]

I have a 450-gallon freshwater tank in my living room. The temperature started to rise a bit as it got hotter outside causing the tank to go from around 76F to 80F. Enough to cause my Apex to notify me but not enough to worry me or threaten the life of my fish. But then last night it jumped up to 90 degrees out of nowhere around 4 in the afternoon. Keep in mind the tank is in our living room and we were home at the time, we keep the house around 76F. The heaters have been off for a while now (They turn off when the tank hits 80F) After examining the activity of the tank we find the air bubbler spiked in power usage and one of them was very hot. (There is two air pumps one is a deep water and the other is not.) Cabinets were installed that same day around the air pumps. My theory (Though it sounds even crazy to me) is that the heat was caught in the cabinets from the air pumps and heated up the tank. Is that possible? Has anyone else had a similar problem? Any other ideas as to what caused this? Is it because the supplies to run this thing is just so strong it is heating it up? Do I need a chiller?

I already lost a fish because of this and do not want to lose another one. Any help to stop this from happening again would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Hendre]

Do the airpumps pump air into the tank? If so the hot pump could pump warm air into the tank and pull the temperature up with it.

The cabinets have the potential to cut off cooling air to the pumps, but I doubt it'd transfer enough heat through surface area.

How powerful are the pumps?

 

[Cempa]

I have a 450-gallon freshwater tank in my living room. The temperature started to rise a bit as it got hotter outside causing the tank to go from around 76F to 80F. Enough to cause my Apex to notify me but not enough to worry me or threaten the life of my fish. But then last night it jumped up to 90 degrees out of nowhere around 4 in the afternoon. Keep in mind the tank is in our living room and we were home at the time, we keep the house around 76F. The heaters have been off for a while now (They turn off when the tank hits 80F) After examining the activity of the tank we find the air bubbler spiked in power usage and one of them was very hot. (There is two air pumps one is a deep water and the other is not.) Cabinets were installed that same day around the air pumps. My theory (Though it sounds even crazy to me) is that the heat was caught in the cabinets from the air pumps and heated up the tank. Is that possible? Has anyone else had a similar problem? Any other ideas as to what caused this? Is it because the supplies to run this thing is just so strong it is heating it up? Do I need a chiller?

I already lost a fish because of this and do not want to lose another one. Any help to stop this from happening again would be greatly appreciated.

Unlikely. Is the tank in direct contact with sunlight? Odds are you're getting sun directly on your thermometer getting an incorrect reading. Either that or your thermometer is broken. I find it unlikely that even your heaters could go array and get 450 gallons to 90 degrees, especially over such a short period of time.. If so, what kind of heaters do you have? I'll have to buy a set..

 

[Ari7667]

Do the airpumps pump air into the tank? If so the hot pump could pump warm air into the tank and pull the temperature up with it.

The cabinets have the potential to cut off cooling air to the pumps, but I doubt it'd transfer enough heat through surface area.

How powerful are the pumps?

Yes, they are pumping air into the tank. The pump that got really hot is the,
Uniclife 4 Outlet Aquarium Air Pump with Built-In Check Valve for Up to 300 Gallon Fish Tank, 12 L/Min, 6 W.

 

[Ari7667]

Unlikely. Is the tank in direct contact with sunlight? Odds are you're getting sun directly on your thermometer getting an incorrect reading. Either that or your thermometer is broken. I find it unlikely that even your heaters could go array and get 450 gallons to 90 degrees, especially over such a short period of time.. If so, what kind of heaters do you have? I'll have to buy a set..

The tank is not in direct sunlight, We have two finnixs heaters but they have not been on much. I have it hooked up to the Apex so when the temperature is too high it shuts them off, same for the lights. The temperature is being measured by the temperature probe that came with the apex and with a visual thermometer we have in the tank for the moment to be sure it wasn't the probe acting up. Also, you can tell the tank was hot just by sticking your hand in the tank. Feels like a nice bath. It raised from 80 to 90 in about 7 hours.

 

[twentyleagues]

Is it possible the temp probe was exposed to air for any length of time? At 76 degrees the heaters may have come back on. You can check a log on the apex right? Did you get a log of that time period? Is it possible the temp of your room got that high ac malfunction?

 

[duanes]

It is possible that the pilot light went out on a heater, but it failed on the "on" position. (the most common heater mishap)
First thing I'd do, is unplug both heaters, and see if anything changes.
With an average house temp of 76, I'd only have a heater on in the dead of winter.

 

[skjl47]

.) Cabinets were installed that same day around the air pumps. My theory (Though it sounds even crazy to me) is that the heat was caught in the cabinets from the air pumps and heated up the tank. Is that possible?

pump that got really hot is

hello; I think your theory is plausible for a couple of reasons.
One is that any device using electricity in the end changes electrical energy into heat. So closed up in a cabinet that heat would eventually build up and warm the air. That warm air would wind up being pumped into the tank.

Another is the cabinet may have restricted the air flow to the point that restriction was making the pump work harder and not drawing enough air. This theory will make more sense if the overheated air pump did cool down when the cabinet doors are open.

Another is that in effect any air pump is essentially an air compressor. You have a big tank and to get air down to the bottom of the water column the air pump must compress the air with more force psi than the weight of water at depth will create pressure resistance at some psi. The deeper the water the more work the pump must be able to do. The closed cabinet likely was a factor as I already speculated.

As other have correctly suggested be sure the heaters are off. I unplug my heaters during the warm season.

If you do not have live plants then the lights can be turned off for longer time. Light energy and the light fixtures can generate heat. Back in the incandescent days heat from those types was indeed a factor.

 

[Ari7667]

Is it possible the temp probe was exposed to air for any length of time? At 76 degrees the heaters may have come back on. You can check a log on the apex right? Did you get a log of that time period? Is it possible the temp of your room got that high ac malfunction?

I was not home when it happened but I believe the probe was unplugged at some point. The temperature is going down and I can see it. It is back down to 80F last I checked. Last I checked about the heaters power usage is that it has not been on in a week.