Overheating Cube

[smoothie7]

Just set up a biocube 29 gallon tank. I have 20 lbs of live rock in it. Stock hood and lighting. Having a hard time keeping the temperature right. It started this morning at 78.5 and now it is at 82 degrees and stays there throughout the day. I have the heater set at 77 and its not on. Lights have been on for 8 hours. Air conditioning in our house is set at 76 degrees. Any suggestions?

[kellyj]

Smoothie,
Try unplugging the heater and watch temp. with lights on and lights off.  What type lights are they?
Kelly

[chromiumlux]

Smoothie,
Try unplugging the heater and watch temp. with lights on and lights off.  What type lights are they?
Kelly

Good call on the lights. You can also crack the hood open to allow air flow.

[smoothie7]

It is a completely stock cube. I run the white t5 for about 5 hours and then those go out and I have the blue led light come on for 3 hours. It doesn't seem to make a difference what light is on. I opened up the back portion of the hood last night to see if that made a difference and it maybe dropped half a degree but that's it. The heater is not on. I recalibrated it last week and it is working properly. This cube has been set up for 10 days now.

[kellyj]

Have you checked your thermometer?  I'm using 2 Coralife digitals and they differ from each other by 6 or 7 degrees.  Not very happy with them.  Check the room temperature with the thermometer.
Kelly

[smoothie7]

I will double check but I would assume it is accurate as I am using the another one just like it less than 10 feet away in my 90 and it works properly. The 90 is running at 79.5 or so. I will try to find another thermometer that I can test it with.

[Twizted1]

I have a chiller for sale. If you can't get the temp to level out.

[H2Ohio]

Having the same problem with a 28g nano.  Ended up blowing two 80 mm pc fans across the back chambers to keep a "stable" 82 but evaporation is excessive, still looking for a better solution.  House AC is set to 75, aquarium running between 80-82 overnight with only an LED fuge light on the back chamber.  Main lights are LED and temp doesn't rise over 82 with lights on during the day.  Heater is unplugged.

I run both stock pumps continuously so I'm guessing they are the heat source.  I have 2 new maxi jets ordered, hoping I can run them alternating or see some improvement with heat gain.

Anyone have any experience with the CoolWorks Ice Probe?

[smoothie7]

Has anyone used the stock hood using only LED lights and not the PC bulbs? There are 5 total slots for the LED strips. Do you think that would cool the system down any?

[Twizted1]

There are tons of LEDs for these cubes. Many have done it. It will "help" with the temp. Maybe a degree or two.

[smoothie7]

All I need is a degree or two
Has anyone used the stock Biocube LED's? Those are the ones I am referring to. The ones that just snap it to the supplied ballast. I would prefer to not do a lot of modifications and keep the original hood and not spend a bunch of money on it.

[H2Ohio]

Sorry I can't help with your exact question.  It may help somewhat to know with my nano, it is all LED, a total of 27 watts and even with the cooling fan RPM diailed down for noise it does not increase my temp at all during the day with lights on for 9 hrs in the winter or summer.

[Viggen]

what pump-s are used in the tank?  Possiible the circulation pump that came with the setup isnt effecient and is dumping a lot of heat into the tank.  Might be worthwhile to upgrade to something more effecient

otherwise like mentioned sticking fans to blow air across the top of the tank will help.  Not sure hot these are setup but raising the lights farther from the tank should help....LED's do get quite warm and if they are really close to the tank it might help. 

[Mussin]

My 28G jbj nano always ran hot.  (79-82) I just quit worrying about it and everything did great.

[smoothie7]

I have left the back compartment open for about a week now and have been able to maintain the proper temperature that I want. Thanks for all the help and suggestions.