A Community and Forum For Aquaponic Gardeners

Need help cooling my water

I just got my system up and runnig and cycled with out fish. I am about to add my fish, but am concerned about the water temp. Late in the day yesterday the water hit 97. It's been in full sun and I am working on shading it today, but was wondering if anyone has any other idea's.

I have a 250 gallon fish tank and a 50 gallon sump tank that if half underground.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Gary Collins on July 25, 2011 at 9:51am

My 250g tank is 2/3 shaded under my grow bed and maintains 85°
A shade should be all u need.

Permalink Reply by Danny Morchat on July 25, 2011 at 10:30am

Jon,

Do a google search for cooling towers or I have some pictures on my blog of something I put together. I run the tower at night and it drops my temp almost a full 10 degrees. Shade is the key!

www.morchatfarm.wordpress.com

Permalink Reply by Rick Op on August 6, 2011 at 1:41pm

Prevention is the first thing you can do. Block sides of beds from direct sun.

Anything that promotes evaporation will remove heat to the air (and add humidity). To do this, spread the water out to more surface and blow air across/thru it.

But then you've got to replace that evaporated water...

Permalink Reply by RW on August 7, 2011 at 6:08am

I'm at 85 degrees in the shade too.

I like to top off with very cool water once or twice a week. this drops it about half a degree for a little while.

Permalink Reply by Carey Ma on August 7, 2011 at 6:50am

There are several ways to cool things down. As mentioned before shade is your first priority then insulation. Insulation isn't only for the cold. For your veggies, you can have a misting system to cool the temp of the air. The most efficient way to cool water is with block-ice. Another way is to run your hose underground at least six feet (two meters) and use geo-thermal exchange. The last resort I suggest is using a chiller unit.

Permalink Reply by Sara Ahlers on April 27, 2013 at 8:33pm

This may sound dumb, and if it is, just chalk it up to me being an aquaponics newborn, but why couldn't you get some of those things in the ice-chest aisle that you freeze to use in your cooler instead of ice. After they thaw, you can just re-freeze them and use them indefinitely.

Permalink Reply by Chris Stratton on May 12, 2013 at 4:03pm

Has anyone used a bong cooler? People use them for cpu overclocking but I think they would work well on a larger scale.

Permalink Reply by Mark Hall on August 12, 2013 at 5:10am

The cooling tower concept is great. Thanks for the link.

Danny Morchat said:

Jon,

Do a google search for cooling towers or I have some pictures on my blog of something I put together. I run the tower at night and it drops my temp almost a full 10 degrees. Shade is the key!

www.morchatfarm.wordpress.com