Temperatures / Swamp Coolers

[Tien]

Due to a slight issue of not seeing eye to eye with my wife in regards to my fish hobby, my hobby and I may be exiled to the garage. The problem is that in Vegas, the summer is very hot and my garage can get over 100 degrees. I am thinking of using a swamp cooler (which works great in Vegas's dry environment) to cool the garage. I'm just curious to know if that would be sufficient to also cool a 500 gallon aquarium along with any others in the garage. i think it may be easier than using a chiller on each aquarium. Does anyone have any experience with this in warm, dry climates? Do water temperatures usually match, stay warmer, or cooler than room temps? Any thoughts?

 

[Egon]

Yes! I have an opinion on this
I live in Phoenix. Best way to cool a tank in our dry climate is remove the hood, if possible (not recommended if you have jumpers), and have a fan blowing on the water surface. The dryer the air your blowing across the waters surface the cooler it will make the water.
Swamp coolers actually add or humidify the air reducing the effectiveness of the fan blowing across the tanks surface. Air conditioning takes water out of the air and cools it (best option) Some more tips: Keep the lights off, use external pumps, and the more surface agitation at the surface of the tank the better. Bubblers work great for this. I keep my house at 80 in the summer and my tank temps never get above 85. My Goonch tank, open top, bubblers, fan and so on, stays at 75. The fan works!

 

[Angler]

I'm not sure if your wife is a keeper.

 

[Tien]

Lol, yeah she doesn't understand the passion. She thinks its an obsession. I say so what. If it keeps me away from bars and hookers she should be happy lol. I will probably have jumpers so an open top won't work. I do have external pumps and an open sump. This will help but I imagine I will have excessive evaporation. In addition how much will this work at 100 plus degrees? So you think a swamp cooler won't work at all then? I am going it wil because it is so inexpensive.

 

[Egon]

Give the swamp cooler a shot. It will cool the room for sure and the water in the tank will be that temperature. Swamp coolers drop the temps about 15 degrees at the most in perfect conditions (very dry air)
The evaporation of the water in the fish tank will literally pull the heat out of the tank. Again, at the most, 15 degrees or so. The trick is keeping the fish alive through the summer.
I know guys that breed African Cichlids in there garage in Phoenix. 115 to 120 is normal hot days lol. We go over a month in the summer never dropping below 100 even at night. They keep the tanks cool with fans. It's like a wind tunnel inside the garage!