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Temp is too high for some reason

Keetchy

Member
Joined
8 Nov 2019
Messages
439
Location
Milton Keynes
So I'm not sure what's going on here. The room temp is just over 22°C but in the tank is 25°C.

Heater isn't locked on because its wired into a controller which is not sending a signal for the heater to come on. Controller is set to 24°C.

I have a 4" gap on each side of the glass sliders to air it out a bit. The tank is not by a heater. I know the tank will produce a bit of humidity but surely not 3°C with open gaps at the top.

Room temp and tank temp was taken with the same thermometer at 06:30 in the morning so the lights had been off for 9 hours and there was no daylight/sunlight coming in through the window.

I've heard that external filters can produce a bit of heat from the pump but surely not 3°C.

I've never had the tank cooler than 24°C even though it has been colder in the room.

Any ideas???
 
If possible, monitor tank vs room though the day ... eg, perhaps the tank is heating to 27/28C with lighting and then cooling to 25 (glass sliders will definitely trap heat, even with the (small) ventilation gaps)

Which filter?
I find an internal filter in a small tank, creates more added heat than my Eheim canister filters on larger tanks
 
Sorry, just spotted that you did use the same thermometer. Time to think again!
Haha. Yeah same one bud. Tomorrow I am going to test room and water temp with a digital food probe thermometer, the digital controller sensor and a normal in tank thermometer and see if all 3 are giving me the same reading
 
If possible, monitor tank vs room though the day ... eg, perhaps the tank is heating to 27/28C with lighting and then cooling to 25 (glass sliders will definitely trap heat, even with the (small) ventilation gaps)
Thanks dude. The next day I will be home all day will be Wednesday so will test water temp at every hour on Wednesday. I did have the glass sliders off a few weeks back but was annoyed at how much evaporated which then made the water line visible from where we sit. So I stuck the sliders back on but left a fair gap on both sides
 
The one thing i thought it might have been is I wrap a towel round round the FX5 to quieten the hum a little bit. Could this be warming up the water? But saying that I did remove the towel earlier but 7 hours later the temp was still on 25
 
Yes, the insulation (towel) could possibly explain a water temperature rise. If the FX5 is sitting directly on the base of a cabinet, for example, it may transmit vibration to the cabinet which can make noise more audible. Is there any way you could isolate the FX5 by sitting it on, say, a polystyrene tile?

JPC
 
Yes, the insulation (towel) could possibly explain a water temperature rise. If the FX5 is sitting directly on the base of a cabinet, for example, it may transmit vibration to the cabinet which can make noise more audible. Is there any way you could isolate the FX5 by sitting it on, say, a polystyrene tile?

JPC

So I have the filter sitting on 2 towels which softens the noise from it vibrating on the cabinet floor. Then I had a towel wrapped round it to soften the noise from it vibrating on the cabinet walls and door.

I've got a couple of things to try. Leave the towel off and see if the temp drops over the next couple of days........... and turn the heater controller completely off to eliminate it being a heater issue.
 
It could simply be the accuracy of your temperature probe vs the thermometer. Contollers can vary by a degree or so, as can normal thermometers, so you might be in a situation where your temperature Contollers thinks room temperature is still above what it is set to but your thermometer disagrees.
 
It could simply be the accuracy of your temperature probe vs the thermometer. Contollers can vary by a degree or so, as can normal thermometers, so you might be in a situation where your temperature Contollers thinks room temperature is still above what it is set to but your thermometer disagrees.

I used the same thermometer to measure both bud. The digital probe thermometer I used showed 25 in the tank and 22 outside the tank
 
So I'm not sure what's going on here. The room temp is just over 22°C but in the tank is 25°C.

Heater isn't locked on because its wired into a controller which is not sending a signal for the heater to come on. Controller is set to 24°C.

I have a 4" gap on each side of the glass sliders to air it out a bit. The tank is not by a heater. I know the tank will produce a bit of humidity but surely not 3°C with open gaps at the top.

Room temp and tank temp was taken with the same thermometer at 06:30 in the morning so the lights had been off for 9 hours and there was no daylight/sunlight coming in through the window.

I've heard that external filters can produce a bit of heat from the pump but surely not 3°C.

I've never had the tank cooler than 24°C even though it has been colder in the room.

Any ideas???

I think I'm missing the main question you are trying to ask Mark, what is the relevance of your room temperature? If you're controller is set to 24°C, does it not turn on your heater as needed, intermittently, to maintain 24°C? Or are you saying you have permanently turned off your controller/heater, and the temperature is being maintained at 25°C without the aid of a heater? (Which would be very odd)
 
Do you have a standard glass thermometer? I never trust the digital ones as we have to assume they are calibrated correctly.
Ok I have just stuck a stick on glass thermometer in the tank. I'll see what that reads in a bit

I think I'm missing the main question you are trying to ask Mark, what is the relevance of your room temperature? If you're controller is set to 24°C, does it not turn on your heater as needed, intermittently, to maintain 24°C? Or are you saying you have permanently turned off your controller/heater, and the temperature is being maintained at 25°C without the aid of a heater? (Which would be very odd)
2nd option. The controller is set to 24, heater hasnt come on for days now, but the water temp is 25 with the room temp being 22
 
2nd option. The controller is set to 24, heater hasnt come on for days now, but the water temp is 25 with the room temp being 22

How do you know the heater hasn't come on at all? It might only need to come on for a few minutes every hour or two to maintain a 2 degree differential. If you unplug the heater completely from the controller, and then see if the tank temperature comes down, it would answer that question. I'm not being pedantic here - it's just easier to eliminate variables if you exclude them from the equation completely. I have an inline heater with a controller - on the few times that I've forgot to turn the heater back on after tank maintenance, the temperature will gradually descend to room temps.
 
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How do you know the heater hasn't come on at all? It might only need to come on for a few minutes every hour or two to maintain a 2 degree differential. If you unplug the heater completely from the controller, and then see if the tank temperature comes down, it would answer that question. I'm not being pedantic here - it's just easier to eliminate variables if you exclude them from the equation completely. I have an inline heater with a controller - on the few times that I've forgot to turn the heater back on after tank maintenance, the temperature will gradually descend to room temps.

Ok yeah I see your point. But today I have had the power to the heater cut off and the tank is still sitting at 25

So......all 3 thermometers (2 digital and 1 mercury) read 25°C. This is after the heater has been unplugged and both glass sliders removed from the tank all day. And the towel is no longer wrapped round filter. Room temp is still 22°C
 
Ok yeah I see your point. But today I have had the power to the heater cut off and the tank is still sitting at 25

So......all 3 thermometers (2 digital and 1 mercury) read 25°C. This is after the heater has been unplugged and both glass sliders removed from the tank all day. And the towel is no longer wrapped round filter. Room temp is still 22°C

That is odd then - it must be the pump in your filter then. I assume it’s the only electrical device in contact with the tank water (assuming lights are off). There must be plenty of other people using that filter at lower temps though I would have thought.

. . . either that or you’ve created a perpetual energy generation machine and inadvertently solved the worlds green energy crisis! :lol:
 
That is odd then - it must be the pump in your filter then. I assume it’s the only electrical device in contact with the tank water (assuming lights are off). There must be plenty of other people using that filter at lower temps though I would have thought.

. . . either that or you’ve created a perpetual energy generation machine and inadvertently solved the worlds green energy crisis! :lol:

Its bloody annoying :mad: Just want the tank to run at 24. Lol. I suppose 25 wont cause too much issues with the plants will it? I'll see what the temp is in the morning after the heating has been on all night with glass sliders off and heater unplugged.

And funny you say that, my pal @Jason harris said the same thing :lol::lol:
 
So update...... using the mercury thermometer...... inside the tank is 25, room temp is just over 22 and the temp in between the light and the water surface is 26.

But this still doesnt explain why the tank water is still 25 first thing in the morning when the lights have been off for 9 hours
 
Hi @Mark Keetch

I've just scanned through this thread and I couldn't see what size tank you have. What volume is it? I also see that the FX5 has a (nominally) 50W power consumption. I do believe it has a bit of electronics in there but this will itself not consume much power. So, the pump itself will be taking most of this 50W. And that's 24/7. As previously mentioned, this is likely to be the culprit. There doesn't appear to be any other explanation. Do you have control over flow rate with the FX5? Have you considered contacting Fluval/Hagen about this problem? There must be other FX5 users out there with the same problem as the one you are seeing.

JPC
 
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