Help! Water got too warm!

[shelly25]

My house is usually pretty warm and generally the 29 gallon tank in my family room stays the correct temperature without needing a heater. Yesterday however, the temperature hit about 90 where I live and we had the door open and closed a few times because we were moving in furniture (got a new tank!) So the house heated up a little more yesterday.

I checked the temperature in the 29 gal tank and it was up several degrees (I think it was 87 or 88). I stuck my hand in the water and it was very warm. As usual, the heater was in the tank, but was not on. I have mollies and platies in the tank. They seemed to be acting normal last night but this morning I found a dead molly. The temperature is the only thing I know that's changed. How can I get the temperature back down without affecting the fish even more? I had to leave for work, so I put some Stress Coat in the water this morning to hold them over until I get home. I've left the tank lights off and turned the ceiling fan onto high speed.

What else should I do?

Interesting thing...my husband's 10 gal is in the same room and his temperature did not change much at all yesterday.

 

[luxum]

That's a bit high as you noted. You can float some ice (i advise you to keep it in a container personally) to lower the temp, but keep an eye on it so it doesn't drop too quickly. The fan will help, especially if you don't have jumpers and can expose the water surface to the air movement. Turn off the lights (don't do that longterm if you have plants, obviously). The best way to cool the tank is to cool the room, so crank the AC if you've got it. Good luck, i hope you don't lose anymore fish.

 

[Becca]

One of the books I have covers how to cope with your tank in an emergency situation, and the first thing they tell you is to insulate your tank well with a blanket and a couple of hot water bottles. Of course, that works well if you're trying to keep it warm, not cool it off.

luxum's idea of floating ice sounds best to me. Might be able to do a gradual water change as well. Just putting in slightly cooler water. Just my opinion, you might want to get someone else's input, I'm still kinda new.

 

[wetwetwet]

Both good ideas

 

[Tropjunky]

get some cold dechlorinated water and then start a siphon using some air line into ur tank slowly so the temp should come down. hope this helps.

And if u hape an external filter then put some ice around the water intake\outlet or u could sust get a bag of ice and put it on the filter. it should cool ur tank more evenly.