Anyone live in a country with outrageously hot summers?

[DGJ]

Hey Everyone,

So I live in Dubai and temp her at the moment outside is 40C or 104F, My tank seems to stay around 29/84 to 30/86 which I understand isn't ideal for the one tank that has guppies, tetras, corys and a pleco in. The 2nd tank that is cycling is for african cichlids but even for them it will be a bit high I think.

For people that have to cope with 5/6 months of silly temperature, how do you deal with the issue of temperature, I just can't seem to cool the aquariums down, especially as the water comes out of the tap at over 30 degrees.

 

[Salt]

Where I live it will be 103f/39c today, Phoenix area, USA. Right now I have my tank set up fairly close to a window air conditioner. I don't know how that's going to work through the summer, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I'm hoping some of the more experienced folks here can give us some tips for when it gets hotter, because it will... ?️

 

[Avel1896]

I live in French Riviera, not hot as Dubaï, but all the same hot, so I'm air conditioned (of course).
Living in Dubai I cannot believe you're not air conditioned !

 

[StevenF]

Living in Dubai I cannot believe you're not air conditioned !

The french riviera is nothing like Dubai. The riviera is warm and humid with average summer temperature of about 24C with occasional days the get up to 30C. Dubai is a lot like PHeonix Arixona. According to google in Dubia The average temperature is about 35C from may though october with 40C temperatures occurring frequently. But unlike Arizona humidity is about 50%. With these temperatures most AC systems will be typically set to a higher temperature probably about 30C. Once you get use to a temp of 30C or higher you won't feal much temperature shock.shock when walking outside and then going back in.

You can get water chillers. They are the aquarium equivalent of AC. There aren't that many people that use them(including myself). keep in mind the chiller removes heat from the tank and the dumps it in the air. So You probably want to have a chiller outside with insulated water pipes through the wall to the tank. For big tanks this can get quite expensive.

Most people just put the aquarium in a air conditioned room
A well insulated room with properly installed air conditioner would keep the room and aquarium cool enough.

 

[Lajos_Detari]

Yes, get a chiller to cool down your tank water as Steven mentioned if you don't have air-conditioning.
Make sure the chiller has enough power and not too noisy.

I heard from some people that some chiller sounds like a washing machine when it's turned on.
And they have to turn it off at night as it's too noisy.

You can also buy a portable air-con though they are not that effective and will take up some space.

 

[Colin_T]

I spent most of my life in Perth in Western Australia. In summer the temperature sits around 30C+ every day and when the easterlies blow towards the end of summer (January to March) it regularly sits on 40C+. During the last 20 years the easterly winds have started earlier and the weather is hotter sooner. Last year they started in August and we had hot dry winds blowing right through until April. The temperatures were a few degrees higher than normal last summer.

For most of my life we didn't have air-conditioning but in the last 20 years we had an evaporative air-conditioner on the roof, which helped cool things down when it's really hot.

My tanks sat on 30-32C for most of summer and came down to 18C in winter for the tropical tanks. I had the heaters set on (18C). The coldwater tanks were allowed to drop lower and sat on 10C over winter. My fish were fine at those temperatures because the water temp went up slowly over the course of months and came down slowly over a course of months. I had all sorts of fish ranging from Rift Lake cichlids, Corydoras, rainbowfish, livebearers, tetras, barbs, loaches, goldfish, Galaxias and related fishes. The fish were all fine with the warmer water.

Most aquarium fishes come from Indonesia where it is pretty warm all year round and the fish do fine there. Give them a cooling off period over winter (or when it's cold outside) and they will be fine.

 

[Lajos_Detari]

I spent most of my life in Perth in Western Australia. In summer the temperature sits around 30C+ every day and when the easterlies blow towards the end of summer (January to March) it regularly sits on 40C+. During the last 20 years the easterly winds have started earlier and the weather is hotter sooner. Last year they started in August and we had hot dry winds blowing right through until April. The temperatures were a few degrees higher than normal last summer.

For most of my life we didn't have air-conditioning but in the last 20 years we had an evaporative air-conditioner on the roof, which helped cool things down when it's really hot.

My tanks sat on 30-32C for most of summer and came down to 18C in winter for the tropical tanks. I had the heaters set on (18C). The coldwater tanks were allowed to drop lower and sat on 10C over winter. My fish were fine at those temperatures because the water temp went up slowly over the course of months and came down slowly over a course of months. I had all sorts of fish ranging from Rift Lake cichlids, Corydoras, rainbowfish, livebearers, tetras, barbs, loaches, goldfish, Galaxias and related fishes. The fish were all fine with the warmer water.

Most aquarium fishes come from Indonesia where it is pretty warm all year round and the fish do fine there. Give them a cooling off period over winter (or when it's cold outside) and they will be fine.

Hi Colin,

You mentioned in the past that you're also keeping marine fish.
Can the marine fish withstand the summer heat at your place?

Some people mentioned that you need chiller for marine fish.
Is it really require?

 

[Colin_T]

The marine fish were fine at 30C, as were some of the corals. Soft corals didn't seem too worried about the heat but Acropora and brain corals (hard stone corals) didn't like the heat and melted. Sea anemones and shrimp were all fine too.

 

[DGJ]

Thanks everyone for the replies.

We do have AC and have it on a lot and although the temp in the house is kept 22-24 degrees, the tank seems to stay around 29 and doesn't really drop any lower.

It seems I may be worrying too much about the ideal temp for the fish being met constantly and I should focus more on there not being any large swings in temp?

 

[Avel1896]

The french riviera is nothing like Dubai. The riviera is warm and humid with average summer temperature of about 24C with occasional days the get up to 30C. Dubai is a lot like PHeonix Arixona.

So, you know better than me ?

 

[Avel1896]

We do have AC and have it on a lot and although the temp in the house is kept 22-24 degrees, the tank seems to stay around 29 and doesn't really drop any lower.

As soon as water temp. reaches 23°C i put heater on 20°C so temp. doesn't go ver 26°C with a/c.

 

[StevenF]

We do have AC and have it on a lot and although the temp in the house is kept 22-24 degrees, the tank seems to stay around 29 and doesn't really drop any lower.

Keep in mind there are other sources of heat. Lights, filters and heater all use electrical power and creat heat. So you might be able to drop the tank temperature by reducing power consumption.

If you light is close to the surface of the water with little to no air circulation between the light and water, raising up the lamp to create more of an air gap would would help. Dimming the light might also help.

Also check the wattage of the filter pump. If it is a big one and you are throttling down the flow, you might be able to get by with a smaller one that uses less power.

 

[Slaphppy7]

Wher I live, air conditioning is a must during the summertime....hot & humid outside