Heatwave!
- Thread starter EllRog
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I can't imagine dealing with hurricanes, or regularly managing in this kind of heat either! I imagine as global warming keeps going, we'll see more and more people getting air conditioning over here. I'd love some, because while I hate to be one of those Brits who goes around saying "I like it hot, but this is just too hot!" I really am struggling in this heat with the humidity. I want to be cracking on with cleaning out tanks and moving them, but I'm just wilting in the humidity and want to sit here chatting on the forum instead...Glad I have central air/heat. It’s 84F in Texas at 9:30 A.M. and expected to be 90F high today which is actually low for this time of year in Texas. My fear is always hurricanes. We get one about every 10-15 years but you lose power for a couple of weeks. Always in September which is still hot in Texas. Best of luck to all of you experiencing this heat wave.
Do you use a backup generator for hurricanes and power cuts? Bad enough being without power for your own things, but terrifying when you have tanks.
I've just done water changes and checked the temp before I started. Main tank 24 deg C, shrimp tank 23 deg C. The only room with a thermometer is the kitchen and that's 23 deg C. Going outside to empty the old water was like walking into an oven.
We have cream coloured thermal linings on all our curtains and the ones facing the sun have been closed all day. Now the sun is moving round to the front of the house, we'll be drawing those and opening the back curtains.
We have cream coloured thermal linings on all our curtains and the ones facing the sun have been closed all day. Now the sun is moving round to the front of the house, we'll be drawing those and opening the back curtains.
I love it too. Tanks are stable at 25 . My advise is to close curtains doors internally also. Iv got a stand alone air con unit which gets rarely used but gets the place nice and chilly for sleeping. I hate going to bed and at top of stairs it's so hot that I sometimes sleep on sofa with door open .
Fish generally tolerate heat waves quite well. There are a couple of important things to remember, which others have mentioned, so I am just repeating/summarizing.
The water in the aquarium will be the temperature of the air in the room (unless you heat it higher, obviously). So unless you have a cooler room you are not going to get the tank water cooler. Do not do multiple water changes with cooler water, and do not use floating ice packs or similar. This is likely to cause shock to the fish. Ensure there is good surface disturbance from the filter. Open top can help, sometimes, but fish do jump, even some you would not expect to jump.
Before I had air conditioning my tanks were well over 90F/32C during the day and they cooled down about 10 degrees overnight. I never lost any fish. The slow fluctuation over 24 hours is not a problem. Keep the room as cool as you can under your circumstances.
The water in the aquarium will be the temperature of the air in the room (unless you heat it higher, obviously). So unless you have a cooler room you are not going to get the tank water cooler. Do not do multiple water changes with cooler water, and do not use floating ice packs or similar. This is likely to cause shock to the fish. Ensure there is good surface disturbance from the filter. Open top can help, sometimes, but fish do jump, even some you would not expect to jump.
Before I had air conditioning my tanks were well over 90F/32C during the day and they cooled down about 10 degrees overnight. I never lost any fish. The slow fluctuation over 24 hours is not a problem. Keep the room as cool as you can under your circumstances.
We keep one generator and one window unit in storage but it only cools one room. So far, no hurricanes since going back to hobby. I do have battery operated bubblers on hand.
It’s not that bad. All homes have A/C. I’ve only been through 5 hurricanes in my 60 years here. They have always been kind of exciting but not with fish.
You lot need to stop panicking over a slight temperature rise. Fish naturally occur in waterways that have wide variations in temperature. If the tank water temp goes up to 30C (86F) for a couple of days, the fish will be fine.
Even in the ocean, which is a massive volume of water, the water temperature fluctuates quite a bit. The Great Barrier Reef is exposed to water temperatures between 20-30C, and whilst the corals tend to bleach at temperatures above 28C, the fish and other organisms are fine. Other parts of the ocean vary even more and can be 5C in winter and 30C in summer.
If it gets hot, turn the tank lights off and turn off any electrical appliances in the room (TV, video, fridge, etc). Leave the filter/ pump running. Remove the coverglass if you keep fish that don't jump. Have a fan or portable air conditioner in the room. Open the house/ windows up at night (if it's safe) and close the house (windows and curtains) in the morning to stop the house heating up.
Even in the ocean, which is a massive volume of water, the water temperature fluctuates quite a bit. The Great Barrier Reef is exposed to water temperatures between 20-30C, and whilst the corals tend to bleach at temperatures above 28C, the fish and other organisms are fine. Other parts of the ocean vary even more and can be 5C in winter and 30C in summer.
If it gets hot, turn the tank lights off and turn off any electrical appliances in the room (TV, video, fridge, etc). Leave the filter/ pump running. Remove the coverglass if you keep fish that don't jump. Have a fan or portable air conditioner in the room. Open the house/ windows up at night (if it's safe) and close the house (windows and curtains) in the morning to stop the house heating up.
It's mainly that we are not used to hot weather so we panic.
A couple of days ago it was cold enough to need a cardigan, today it's very hot and humid (28 deg C outside at the moment at 7 pm). I've just looked at the Met Office weather forecast and it's going to be horrible tonight - the temp is supposed to drop to 15 deg C where I live but humidity getting to 90% around 5 am. Then it is supposed to drop to a max of 18 deg C by Sunday.
A couple of days ago it was cold enough to need a cardigan, today it's very hot and humid (28 deg C outside at the moment at 7 pm). I've just looked at the Met Office weather forecast and it's going to be horrible tonight - the temp is supposed to drop to 15 deg C where I live but humidity getting to 90% around 5 am. Then it is supposed to drop to a max of 18 deg C by Sunday.
I'm not surprised to see Joey aka King Of DIY has a solution, have seen him drilling holes in a fridge to run filter piping through lol - someone should have told him to come on here to be told it doesnt matter
Retired Viking
Fish Connoisseur
The last time I was too England it rained 3 days that week and I had one simi sunny day. It was cool and cloudy when not raining and I wore a jacket. I would love to visit in a heat wave or at least a sunny week. That was in late August 1978.
Today is the third hottest day on record in the UK. It's understandable for people to worry about their fish when it's so much hotter than usual here.
You should have been here in August 1976! The longest dry spell on record. I was living in Cardiff at that time and we had water rationing; we only had mains water between 6 am and 1 pm. My kitchen looked worse than a water change with buckets of water everywhere.
Oh I can remember stand pipes at the end of street to get water.
Power cuts etc. Now nothing aver happens so there is progress !!
Except the young think it's ok to throw macdonalds **** out onto the road. As I said before..l is this what my folk fought for ? They would turn in their graves.
Power cuts etc. Now nothing aver happens so there is progress !!
Except the young think it's ok to throw macdonalds **** out onto the road. As I said before..l is this what my folk fought for ? They would turn in their graves.
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