Placement of Fans

[supremo]

Hi people, I would really love to decom my chiller already so I bought

those 6" AC fans. I ended up buying 2 but it doesn't seem to help much cause

my water temp is just the same as my room temp (30.5). Was thinking, did I place them wrongly? Especially if some bros claim they could cool down to 27degrees.

Question: How do you place the fans? Does it point directly down? At an angle? Or straight up? If you have 2 fans and the air should strike the water at an angle, should the fans face each other?same direction? or away from each other?

Sorry to have too many questions, it's just that I don;t seem to get the same successes as some other bros here and could be because of how I have set it up.

Please feel free to post your opinions here.

Cheers!

[tineng]

for me i position the fan to blow across the surface at a very very slight angle down....but aim at the area where there is the most surface movement...for example the returns....

[Acanthurus sohal]

I have a indoor 3 feet tank, running on 2 PC fan alone! running only in the day , when lights are on; average temp day is 26- 28, at nite w/o fans is 24-26) I place one on each end, with one inverted, so air goes in and gets carried out other end. Place nearer your lights source, as the heat is the main problem.Evaporation rate is very high, 1.5 litres a day!

[rockfish]

i point my fan at a slight angle across the surface of the tank ..

The bigger the surface area the fan blows at the better ..

i think if place the 2 fan opp each other is not good .. as they will meet and cancel each other out in the middle where the wind meet ..

put them side by side .. so that can cover a bigger area ..

[shaohui75]

Hello bro, attached picture is what i did. See the slight angle? Placed on top of main tank and blowing across the surface of water.

[FuEl]

Leave it on 24/7. It helps. Sometimes it's not only the lights which heat up your water.

[leonang]

I started using fan too. Temp is around 28deg. by using 1 unit.

Not sure if add another unit can cool down the temp more or not!

If temp goes up, I put ice into tank (using emty bottle 1.5L type).

It cool down temp fast and fan help to keep constance temp.

[supremo]

hi people, thanks for all the advise. will try them one by one or in combination and see which gets the best result.

Thankee sai

[supremo]

my evaporation rate now around 5liters per day but the temp still within 29-30degrees.

[Eric]

my evaporation rate now around 5liters per day but the temp still within 29-30degrees.

You need a chiller if after 5L evaporation & still getting 29C. Or go for FOWLR.

Having too high a evaporation rate might bring you other problems like Ionic Imbalance, PH fluatuation, salinity fluatuation which will stress the corals easily.

Eric

[tineng]

bro, i think you can achieve at more 2-3 degree your room temperature using fan alone....given that you are already evaporing 5 litre, you might just have reach the limit on what you can achieve using fan (understand that your room temp is about 30.5)...

one other thing you can look at is the equipments that a submerge in the water and the lights you are using....you will be surprise how much heat a submerged pump generate.....

[leonang]

I used to have 3 power head in my tank, and temp always go up to 30 deg even using fan. Now I reduce to 1 PH and 1 external pump. temp can control at 28 deg.

But another problem is whenever I add water into tank, my coral or anemone will

be affected........

I think of getting a chiller to solve this temp problem........

[supremo]

actually i used to keep corals (mostly LPS) and running chiller and MH. I have sold all my corals and is gfoing FOWLR. I have removed my MH and only using 4 T5 39W Ho (2 actinic + 2 10k). I have a RIO32HF pump driving my return and a M820 to add flow inside the tank. Another pump, a SICCE Extrema which is used for my Skimmer. Any idea what is the main suspect? I would really like to completely decomm my chiller to save electricity a bit which was the whole point of going FOWLR.

Any ideas bros?

[tineng]

Rio32 if submerge can generate quite a lot of heat....also i've tried M820 in a 2 footer without fan before, able to drive my temp up by 2 degree above room temp!!!!....for the Extrema, not sure the heat load....but at 50w i don't think its going to be low.....

in short, all 3 pumps could give you the problem...

[supremo]

i see, no wonder

i guess time to hunt for a replacement pump then.

thi thing is i don;t have a space inside the cabinet for an external pump, unless I change my last sump partition as a dry partition so there is no direct contact with the water

i also have a spare Hailea 6540, wonder if it's any better than the RIO in terms of heat?

[Eric]

i see, no wonder

i guess time to hunt for a replacement pump then.

thi thing is i don;t have a space inside the cabinet for an external pump, unless I change my last sump partition as a dry partition so there is no direct contact with the water

i also have a spare Hailea 6540, wonder if it's any better than the RIO in terms of heat?

Do an eggcrate box and place the external pumps on top & extend your suction pipe downwards..........save a bit of heat from the pump.

OR.............shift your tank to a cooler location.

Eric

[Alvin Tan]

place ur fans at the place with the highest water flow...

my 2 cents...

[supremo]

Do an eggcrate box and place the external pumps on top & extend your suction pipe downwards..........save a bit of heat from the pump.

OR.............shift your tank to a cooler location.

Eric

bro, wouldn't i have problems with priming the pump in terms of power failure if I do that? is there a way around that?

moving to a new corner may not be so feasible at this point