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Aquarium Overheating Problem



I'm currently having a problem with my Aquarium overheating, this is being cause
by the Aquarium lights when they are on during the day. I only managed to
discover this problem when I was testing out a new industrial digital
thermometer that I borrowed from my father, the tempertature it reported was
28deg celc. which is 3 degrees above my desired temperature. I was a little
annoyed that the thermometer I got from the LFS was not working properly  >-(

Anyway, my dilemma now is trying to get the water temperature back down to a
steady 25deg celc. with the lights turned on or off. Here are the details for my
setup:

Tank:          120cm (4ft) x 46cm (18in) x 46cm (18in)
Heating:  Dupla 500 Substrate Heating Cables set to 25deg celc via temperature
controller
Cover:         Full glass cover lids placed over the top of the tank
Lighting: 3 x Triton 36W Fluororescent bulbs mounted in two reflector hoods (x2
& x1) and seated on top of the glass lids.
Hood:          A nearly fully enclosed lamenated wooden Aquarium Hood that has
the rear panel missing to allow pipes and cables to be feed through and also
     to allow ventilation to dissipate heat.

The lights are on for 10hrs a day and when they are on, the glass tank lids get
rather warm from the heat given off by the tubes during the day. My tanks water
level is 1cm from the top edge of the tank, this might be a little too high for
the tank (not enough airspace between the water surface and the glass lids?). I
was monitoring the temperature of the tank over night when the lights were off,
it dropped by 1.2degs overnight. I have also reduce the temperature setting for
my heating coils down to 22deg celc. The whole aquarium back is about 4in away
from a wall.

What do people suggest I do to correct this problem? Do I need to lower the
water level in the tank? Should I be look at screwing the lighting reflector
hoods to the underside of the main Aquarium hood to allow more airspace between
the lights and the glass lids (allowing the air to circulate better)? I would
prefer not to do this as it will make it hard to remove the hood when I wish to
do a lot of maintenance inside the tank.

Thanks for the help,

Gordon

(Mmm..and I was wondering why my fish were acting a little skitterish)