lowering temp

[panboy]

i live in arizona and it gets really hot here, which is affecting my water temp in my 2 tanks. its getting almost 90 degrees, and we turn in the ac, but only to loewr the temp to 81 degrees in the house. so this means my tank wont be going lower than 81. and somedays in the summer it gets to 115 and im scared my tanks are going to burn, which will only happen cause i started last year during late summer.

anyways, for anyone in similar situations, how do u lower the temps? fans are expensive, and i have no other ideas. on ebay its llike 15$ for a small fan, and im a 18 year old kid and i dont have money, lol

 

[Fish Buddy]

I have that problem too... As long as you do not have plants in your tank, you can turn off the lights in the canopy. Incandescent bulbs give off a lot of heat! I have also tried putting ice cubes in the tank but I don't think that they work very well.

 

[modernhamlet]

Chillers cost hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars.

A clip fan should cost you no more than $10, $15 tops...

Just to keep it in perspective.

 

[Sang72]

how about putting a small ziploc bag of crushed ice in the filter? I have a Tetratec filter with an integral heater, it seems the reverse would hold true.

 

[heresmike]

Do you always keep the a/c on so that the house is at 81? If so, I'd think most fish should be OK at that temp. I keep my heater set to 82.

 

[lucky62]

Do you always keep the a/c on so that the house is at 81? If so, I'd think most fish should be OK at that temp. I keep my heater set to 82.

good point .

 

[panboy]

Do you always keep the a/c on so that the house is at 81? If so, I'd think most fish should be OK at that temp. I keep my heater set to 82.

well right now its 81, but its begging of summer at the high 80's. its gonna go up almost 30 degress in a few months.....

 

[heresmike]

so when it gets to be 115 outside, what do you keep the a/c set at?

 

[Eleonora]

We've had a VERY HOT summer here in Melbourne, Australia and I had the same problem. There were a few days where it reached 43C (110F) and my 22L (6G) tank got very close to the 37C (100F) mark. My 180L (47G) was a bit better and didn't go over the 35C (95F). Gee was I panicking. But all the fish survived it. When I would get home from work, I'd put some ice packs into the tanks.

The only fish that were effected from what I saw, were my Honey Dwarf Gouramis in the 22L (6G). I'd find them very still, resting on the gravel under some plants and they wouldn't move until it got cooler. They pretty much look as I felt, all hot and bothered not wanting to do anything but laze about in the coolest spot in the house.

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

I second the idea of ice in a ziplock bag. Costs about $.06 and works for me. Don't put ice directly in the tank... I forget specificly why but someone told me why once and I remember thinking "wow that makes sense I shoudnt do that" so there must be a good reason.

If you dont have jumpers taking the top off also helps a lot. If you have any powerheads in the tank they apparently also make a lot of heat. Ooh, and unplug the heater too. If none of this works and you dont want to spend money you can also just do water changes with cooler replacement water (just make sure not to change the temp too much in a short time).

 

[Eleonora]

I think the "don't put ice directly into the tank" thing is because the fish get stuck to them. I see this happening when I feed my fish frozen brine or blood worms. I have to make sure I wave the frozen pieces through the water and not let any fish eat directly from them because I've seen a few of them get stuck to the ice.

 

[Silly me]

I have the same problem in all my tanks. and almost everyone else here just leave there tanks and so far all seemed fine, My tank is curently on 37C (100F) and has been there for 4 months now? when my tanks gets closer to 40C I do some water changes to lower it as much as possible,

In the LFS all the tanks was on 39C and the owner said thats with cooling, all the water of the tank has one big filter at the back with a

Also my temp in the room is close to 27C - 32C but the water in my tank is stuck on 37C, I also only turn the a/c on when I get home, so..