Very nice! I was actually planning an very similar build. How well does the air conditioner work for keeping the nighttime temps down? Also, how do you prevent overheating during the day?
It does very well for keeping the temps down during the night. The lowest temps I seem to be able to get on this AC is around 55 F. I'm not sure if others can go lower since I didn't go shopping for one, just picked this one out of the trash
but this seems low enough for what I'm using it for. And I'm all for free whenever possible! lol
The real key to my tank's success is
this temperature controller. Its awesome! It allows for four different time settings and you can pick any temperature for each time. So I have it set to 78 F and during the night its set to 58 F.
Since the controller is on all the time it only kicks on the AC when its too hot. Once it reaches the temperature you've set it turns off the AC. So during the day the AC will only turn on/work if it goes above 78 F. This makes it so they never cook in there during the day. Also since I used an AC designed for a much larger space (a room) it takes only a couple of minutes for the tank to cool down and then it turns off. So the AC really doesn't run that much which is nice since thats a HUGE expense otherwise.
Another thing thats helpful is I have the tank on the north side of the house. It really doesn't get hit directly by the sun which helps to keep temps down, but it still gets lots of bright light. Oh and using a lot of insulation helps a lot. The temps stay where you want them for much longer so the AC works less.
The only thing I would change about my design (other than being bigger hahaha) is to get a double paned window. The one I bought was the cheapest since it was only single paned. They don't really sell the double paned here in Hawaii too often (at least the size I was looking for) but you can special order them. The window is the most expensive part of the tank by far.
I'm currently working on my humidity problem but haven't come up with anything in particular yet. The humidity seems to stay around 70-80% (mostly 70%) and it just seems too low for them for some reason. Nothing major I guess, they'll still do fine in this humidity, but eventually I'd like to get it up higher.
Heres a pic of the temperature controller….
The thing sticking out the back is the sensor