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cooling tanks



First of all I would like to agree with other posters that 81 degrees is
not much unless you are keeping trout.  To get the full story onheat
transfer I suggest you get the November issue of AFM (97).  I wrote an
aritcle on heat transfer that is too long to go into detail here. 
However, I would like to share that a loss of one gallon in one week
represents cooling of 15 watts.  So if you have a 30 watt power head and
are losing 2 gallons per week you are balancing the heat from the power
head.  To get more cooling, add a fan etc.

With heat transfer you have a complex system because so many things are
going on at once - radiation, conduction and convection.  The mystery is
if one tank in a room is very warm compared to the others.  In this case
I would look for radiant heat from the sun as the culprit.

Also be aware that tanks hold their heat and do not  cool rapidly,
especially large tanks.  
Earle Hamilton AGA