HEAT Disaster About to Strike!

[Chu'Wuti]

Our AC has gone out. Technician just left. System has to be OFF for 24 hours. I have turned off all lights and heaters for all animals and fish. However, it is highly probable that temps inside the house will rise above 90 degrees F, possibly even above 95 (above 32-35 degrees C), as outside temperature predictions for today and tomorrow are 97-102 degrees F (33-39 degrees C).

We currently have 3 young pearl gouramis and 10 blue shrimp in a 75-gallon tank. Ideas for keeping the temps down enough?

 

[Colin_T]

Open the house at night (assuming it's safe) and let the house cool down overnight. In the morning close the house up and close the curtains to help keep the heat out.

Turn off all electrical appliances in the room except the filter/ air pump on the tank.

If you have a fan, you can point it at the tank to help cool it down a bit. You can put a tea towel over the front cage of the fan and spray water on the towel. As the air passes thru the wet towel it will cool the room down.

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The gouramis will be fine with warmer water, the shrimp might be ok but might kick the bucket.

 

[Chu'Wuti]

Thanks for the ideas, Colin_T!

I've already turned off everything except the filter (canister filter). I'm thinking we may need to add aeration to help maintain oxygenation of the water, as O2 sat will decrease as temps rise. That might not harm the gouramis, but it certainly won't help the shrimp.

We have a heat advisory until 9 p.m. tonight. For the past several nights, temps have not dropped below 80 F until around 3 a.m. We can monitor outside temps and when they get below the house temp, we can open the windows as long as it doesn't get too cool for the ball pythons . . . I turned off their heat & lights, too, but the aquarium and the python and bearded dragon habitats are all in the same open area. So I have to find a happy medium between their needs and the fishes' needs. *sigh*

There's a ceiling fan in the room, and we have it on. Adding a damp tea towel is certainly possible.

I kinda thought about taping ice packs to the outside of the tank . . .

Well, we shall do the best we can and see what happens. Thanks again!

 

[PheonixKingZ]

I agree. Point a fan at the tank. (Turn a ceiling fan on, if its above it)

Or, get a small desk fan.

 

[JuiceBox52]

I agree. Point a fan at the tank. (Turn a ceiling fan on, if its above it)

Or, get a small desk lamp.

What will a desk lamp do?

 

[PheonixKingZ]

What will a desk lamp do?

Fan, no light. Typo...

 

[Chu'Wuti]

I just placed an order for a pedestal fan at Home Depot and am headed out to pick it up. We have the ceiling fan on already.

Life is never dull.

Thanks for the suggestions!

Sandy

 

[PheonixKingZ]

I just placed an order for a pedestal fan at Home Depot and am headed out to pick it up. We have the ceiling fan on already.

Life is never dull.

Thanks for the suggestions!

Sandy

Sounds good. Hope your AC gets fixed soon.

 

[Fishmanic]

I have a window fan in a window at end of house. At night I put the fan on high on exhaust mode and then open other windows in the house to bring in cool night area and exhaust the hot room air. . Turn off fan during daylight hours. Works for me.

You should put the python and bearded dragon in a different room than the fish tank and then at night, if you are running the window fan as mentioned above, just don't open the window in the room with the BD and python. But open the window in the room with the fish tank.

 

[Colin_T]

The reptiles will tolerate cooler conditions much better than the fish will tolerate being cooked.

 

[Chu'Wuti]

So many great suggestions--if we lived somewhere it gets down to a reasonable temperature at night, LOL! Even our night temps are just fine for the reptiles.

The way our house is designed, there are few good locations for the aquarium, and there are reptiles in every room. Yeah, I'm a crazy snake and lizard lady!

So, the current house temps--85 F--are fine for all the reptiles; hence, we've turned off all their lights and heat to reduce the amount of heat inside the house. Moving the reptiles near the aquarium would take at least a week; they are in large natural habitats that would have to be broken down, taken downstairs, and rebuilt. Not an easy task due to their size. And with all their lights and heat off and nighttime temps as high as they are, moving the reptiles wouldn't be any additional help.

We have the pedestal fan set up to blow across the aquarium, and the water temps in the aquarium are staying at 81 degrees.

Last night, we were able to open the windows and increase air cooling starting at about 2 a.m. (that's when the outside temps finally dropped down to the house temps). We had to close all windows again by 9 a.m. when the outside temp hit 82 F. Fortunately (!!!), the heat wave anticipated today is delayed yet again, and the National Weather Service and Mesonet dropped the predicted high from 102 to 95!! YAY! Now they are not predicting any triple digit temps for the rest of the week, which is quite a relief!

The gouramis seem to be doing fine. The shrimp are hiding (I hope); my husband saw two of them early this morning, though, so they survived the first day!

The technician is supposed to be returning very soon to work on the system again. We have a geothermal system, so many AC techs can't work on it. We are definitely looking forward to seeing him!

I am reminding myself that patience is a virtue . . .

 

[Chu'Wuti]

WE HAVE COOL AIR COMING OUT OF OUR VENTS!

Aquarium never went over 82 degrees F.

As soon as the room temp is back down to 81, we'll put the glass covers back on and put the lights back on and feed the fish and shrimp.

Thanks to all of you who kept me from utter panic!

 

[Chu'Wuti]

Sorry I failed to update for awhile. We have continued having air conditioning issues; fortunately, the early fix helped enough that we never got so hot again after the first problems. Turns out--after 4 trips to diagnose and try different parts--a pump is going out (we have a Water Furnace geothermal system, for those familiar with them). So next week, the pump will be replaced to the tune of $1200 USD. *sigh*

One of the things DH did when the house temps got so high was add an airstone to the tank, as the gouramis were spending ALL their time at the top gulping air, and all the shrimp hid. We have noticed that now that temps are back to their normal (81 deg F), everyone seems even happier than they were prior to the heat wave. We're seeing a lot more of the shrimp (only never more than five at once, so we don't know whether we still have the 10 we put in, LOL!).

We're supposed to have a heat wave Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday (though so far, every time they've made a prediction of triple-digit temps, we've ended up below those!). Hopefully, the AC system will continue to keep our house at 76-77 F (system seems able to maintain that despite the malfunctioning pump).

Thanks for all the suggestions--you helped our aquatic animals survive!

 

[Shiverz]

Thats excellent to hear! Well everything apart from the bill you've received!

I'm glad all your pets got through the process alright, and that yourselves are also okay. I'm sure your AC will keep going, and if it doesn't (which I hope doesn't happen) at least you have the know-how on how to combat it all!

Thank you for keeping us updated, and again I'm glad all is well

 

[Retired Viking]

We had to replace our furnace and AC last year, both were from 1982 when our house was built and were no longer reliably working-big bucks, know the feeling. Happy to hear you are able to cope with the heat, here we have had mid 80 degree heat and lots of rain, very muggy. I am putting one of these in my 55 gallon tank to help aerate it. I picked it up off of Ebay.