If you are having trouble keeping your reef aquarium tank at down at the correct temperature, you don't necessarily need to fork out the significant amount of money to get a chiller. There is one very simple and efficient way to help keep the temprature down, fans.

Fans work by increasing the rate of evaporation of water from the tank and sump water surfaces. Evaporation will already be happening, but by continually blowing air away from the water surface to be replaced with "new" air, significantly increases the rate. And when water evaporates, it absorbs heat, therefore removing heat from the water.

For this to work correctly, then the air that is being blown over the water surface has to have a low humidity. If the room is already humid (due to poor air exchange with outside air), you live in a tropical region, or the day is simply humid, then this sort of cool will not work. The first problem, of humid room air, can simply be fixed by ventilating the room that the tank is located in. Other two, well you can't do anything about those, which is when you have to revert to other techniques.

The set up required can be very simple, a desk top or pedastal fan pointed at the surface of the water. Or it can get more complex, with variable speed fans mounted into the stand or hood, or exhaust fans taking air from over the water and venting it directly outside the house. The more common technique is to use a 12VDC computer fan. Since you are dealing with 12VDC, very easy to connect up, not as dangerous as playing about with mains electricity, and can be made variable speed by simply changing the voltage being delivered. Another favourite here in Austraila is now bathroom and kitchen exhaust fans. Very quite models can be purchased for very little money from any hardware store, and they move a serious amount of air.

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