Hi everyone.
I was wondering on how to cool a fish tank, or rather any other alternatives to cooling down a salt water fish tank.
It's the summer, and at least for me there will be a heat wave starting today and ending whenever it wants.
I've already lost to my terrible dismay my cleaner shrimp. Whom i loved for the two months i've had him (bought him two months ago).
I do blame the heat for his death as my tank reached about 86+ degreees over the weekend.
The tank is a 29 gallon tank with a 15 gallon sump (pretty susceptable to temperture change).
My filter is a wet dry (hence the sump) with no media just live rock frags and a pretty dense chunk on the bottom.
In total i have about 40pds of live rock maybe more.
It's a FOWLR tank and all that's inside is a dragon goby (aka brown barred goby) whom seems unaffected by the heat which totally rocks
and a coral beauty who spazed out at the heat which got me terrible worried.
There was a cleaner shrimp but he's rotting now, hopefully the hermit crabs will make a meal of him.
The tank is situated in the living room with no windows so theres no sunlight touching it.
However that also means theres no fresh air or cool wind or breeze to cool down the room temperature.
I do not have central air nor can i run an air conditioning all day or else my parents would kill me for the electricity.
They already think my fish tank is an electric burden.
I have taken the following steps
1. bag of ice to lower the temperture
2. turned on another power head to circulate more water as heat makes water carry less oxygen and i hope that it'll stabalize the water temp better.
3. turned on a fan to blow on my sumps water surface as i'll need a pretty tall fan to blow the water on the main tank.
4. opened my hood to let evaporated water come out instead of having it trap and heat the surface water.
5. i've removed my heater just recently. No use on setting it for 76 when it's 80 and above in the tank at it's lowest
The following steps i'm going to take
1. get a clip on desk fan (6 inch diameter) for the sump water surface since at the moment i'm using a house hold fan (24 inch diameter).
2. start freezing water in bottles to put in the sump to at least try to cool the water (i know from the other threads not to drop more then 4 degrees a day)
3. I have no room nor patience to make the DIY chiller. Took me about two hours and three other forums to figure out what it was suppose to look and
be built like. (God i wish there were pictures)
the questions are
1. is there any other alternatives?
2. does the fan work? originally i used the fan to circulate the room air as to not create stuffyness
3. I would like to close my hood as i heard stories of dragon gobies jump out of tanks (he never jumped out cuz i had the hood on)
4. i'm looking for a low maintenance alternative as it'll be done while i'm at work.
5. another source of heat is the lamp i put on my chaeto. Because my living room gets no light unless someone is in the living room.
if i turn it off i'm pretty sure the thing won't last too long or do it's job as a nitrate and phosphate sponge.
All answers and remedies and stories will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
~Wil
I was wondering on how to cool a fish tank, or rather any other alternatives to cooling down a salt water fish tank.
It's the summer, and at least for me there will be a heat wave starting today and ending whenever it wants.
I've already lost to my terrible dismay my cleaner shrimp. Whom i loved for the two months i've had him (bought him two months ago).
I do blame the heat for his death as my tank reached about 86+ degreees over the weekend.
The tank is a 29 gallon tank with a 15 gallon sump (pretty susceptable to temperture change).
My filter is a wet dry (hence the sump) with no media just live rock frags and a pretty dense chunk on the bottom.
In total i have about 40pds of live rock maybe more.
It's a FOWLR tank and all that's inside is a dragon goby (aka brown barred goby) whom seems unaffected by the heat which totally rocks
and a coral beauty who spazed out at the heat which got me terrible worried.
There was a cleaner shrimp but he's rotting now, hopefully the hermit crabs will make a meal of him.
The tank is situated in the living room with no windows so theres no sunlight touching it.
However that also means theres no fresh air or cool wind or breeze to cool down the room temperature.
I do not have central air nor can i run an air conditioning all day or else my parents would kill me for the electricity.
They already think my fish tank is an electric burden.
I have taken the following steps
1. bag of ice to lower the temperture
2. turned on another power head to circulate more water as heat makes water carry less oxygen and i hope that it'll stabalize the water temp better.
3. turned on a fan to blow on my sumps water surface as i'll need a pretty tall fan to blow the water on the main tank.
4. opened my hood to let evaporated water come out instead of having it trap and heat the surface water.
5. i've removed my heater just recently. No use on setting it for 76 when it's 80 and above in the tank at it's lowest
The following steps i'm going to take
1. get a clip on desk fan (6 inch diameter) for the sump water surface since at the moment i'm using a house hold fan (24 inch diameter).
2. start freezing water in bottles to put in the sump to at least try to cool the water (i know from the other threads not to drop more then 4 degrees a day)
3. I have no room nor patience to make the DIY chiller. Took me about two hours and three other forums to figure out what it was suppose to look and
be built like. (God i wish there were pictures)
the questions are
1. is there any other alternatives?
2. does the fan work? originally i used the fan to circulate the room air as to not create stuffyness
3. I would like to close my hood as i heard stories of dragon gobies jump out of tanks (he never jumped out cuz i had the hood on)
4. i'm looking for a low maintenance alternative as it'll be done while i'm at work.
5. another source of heat is the lamp i put on my chaeto. Because my living room gets no light unless someone is in the living room.
if i turn it off i'm pretty sure the thing won't last too long or do it's job as a nitrate and phosphate sponge.
All answers and remedies and stories will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
~Wil
