What can I keep if can't afford chiller ?

[skthk]

What fishes, corals, etc can I keep with just "normal" water cos I can never afford to spent $1k on a chiller or pay the PUB bills after that ?

[ben]

I dont have a chiller and my tank temp is still at 24.8 to 25.5 degrees these days. wanna keep them in my tank? hehe

[skthk]

How come so cool ? Your air-con on 24 hours a day ?

[CalciumReef]

wrong place to post

[skthk]

Ok

How to remove ?

[ah^siao]

ask moderator move la..

hahhaa...

hmmm... either he on aircon or on fan... but fan high evaporation..

must top up fast..

[Achilles Tang]

Moving. Sigh, I am moving so many posts these days.

May I should do a fine system...

[Joe_P]

What can I keep if can't afford chiller ?

Saltwater ????

[FuEl]

Don't so mean lah....lolx

I'm running my tank without chiller also mah...just a clip on fan running 24/7...but top up water alot..but nvm..can dose alot of kalk..

Just don't let water temperatures go above 28 and you can keep most things. 1 or 2 days above 28 is no problem...just dun let it be a long term heat wave.

[Tanzy]

What's going to happen to the tank when heat wave strikes or around the middle of the year when it gets hotter and more humid?

[FuEl]

That's where my 2nd fan will come in...and the more frequent usage of icepacks...

[blacknails]

Hey don't worry, man... I'm sure lots of people in this forum cannot afford a chiller... I've had my marine tanks for over 2 years without chiller and they do just fine... I don't think its a must if you can afford it (of course its better if you can)... Just lotsa water movements on the surface will do, I believe..

[Cookiemunster]

Blacknails is right. Unfortunately, when you want to keep certain corals which require alot of light intensity, eg, clams, sps, you need MH. And when you use MH, heat from the lights becomes a major problem in addition to environmental heat.

But back to your question, without a chiller, you can still use fans to speed up evaporation to cool your tank.

Some corals I recommend for chillerless tank which are quite safe are:

1)All Fishes

2)All invertibrates

3)Clams

4)All mushrooms

5)All ricordias

6)All species of octo

7)All species of durain

8)All species of bubble

9)All pratas

However you have to make sure the tank temp never goes above 32 degrees otherwise corals 6 to 9 will start melting and clams will start closing and dying. You have to make sure with fans, temp can be maintained below 30 degrees even in the hottest months.

I forgot to add that fishes are much much more prone to disease such as ich at higher temps. Cos above 27degrees, metabolic rate of the tank inhabitants (corals, fishes and bacteria) increases. And at 30 degrees the rate is speeded up even more.

A common practice in cold climate countries is to lower temp to 20degrees to prevent RTN and major diseases as this slows down the metabolic rate (growth slows too). But locally thats not feasible....so majority of people maintain around 27degrees which is a safe temp.

Cheers

[Dazza]

My advice is that as long as below 30 degrees can already lah. Its more impt to avoid big fluctuations in temp. Just keep it at a constant below 30, can keep most stuff lah. Of course dont talk abt keeping those cold water inverts or fishes lah.

[FuEl]

Temperatures below 28 degrees celcius is normally recommended to slow down the metabolic rate of your livestock...this gives time for the protein skimmer to remove protein before it is broken down and thus reducing your resultant nitrates...

However, if you have a very efficient protein skimmer (Eg. H&S, AquaC etc) and you have a working DSB and probably a refugium to continually export nitrates then your tank can theorectically function at 28-29 degrees.

At a higher temperature it is also advisable not to stock too heavily as there will be less dissolved oxygen content in your water.