I was unable to attend the meeting but really wanted to hear the discussion about keeping temps down. So I’m extremely grateful for the meeting notes!
My reef is in a western facing room, and gets a fair amount of sun, the last few summers I saw tank temps in the low 80s, and was not very keen on it. I opted for the evaporative cooling option (with a cheap unit off amazon) and I’ve been very impressed with the results so far! The next few days will tell me if it’s sufficient.
I set my apex up to turn them on at 78.5 and off at 78. Mostly because I wasn’t sure if they would keep up, I wanted to start them early. My Red Sea 250 it pulls down a half a degree in about an hour, that was with room temps about 75-77.
I hope my anecdote is at least helpful enough for someone else to pursue the same route with success. I’m sure larger tanks, or less desirable environments require the chiller, but I think a lot of us can utilize the fans without making a huge investment!