Temperature Drop At Night And Also Water Flow

[Stewartb]

I may be in the position of having an empty tank in a while and would be in the position to experiment:

Would it be safe (and worthwhile to use a turkey baster to put some food colouring in front of the in pipe of the filter to see where it goes and so understand more about water flow in the aquarium (this would be without fish but with plants, gravel...)?

In the wild at night there is a temperature drop in the air and I suppose in the water as well. Is it worthwhile to try and copy this in the aquarium? If so I guess you could fix the plugs for the heater/s to a 24 hour timer and turn them off for a while. If it does how much does water temperture drop in the wild?

 

[OldMan47]

I am unable to say that a temperature drop in a general community tank is of benefit but in my goodeid tanks I allow my tank temperatures to track room temperature. Simply stated I don't use a heater in them. As is the case with most people, I do not heat a home as high at night as during the day and I do not heat as high in winter as the room naturally achieves in summer. My fish follow a breeding patten that imitates wild fish breeding to a degree since they breed as the temperature warms up and that is what they see in my home in the spring. I have seen some research that suggests that you can get 2 breedings per year in a controlled environment where you run a false winter in mid summer by lowering tank temperatures then letting the temperature return to outdoors environmental conditions. Where I live in a northern location spring and fall mean open windows and warm air. Summer means air conditioning and cooler temperatures than we tolerate in spring while winter means minimal heating for comfort, thus the false winter water temperatures in summer, especially in a subterranean basement area.

 

[Stewartb]

Someone has since said that it would encourage spawning which isn't isn't really what I was thinking of, more just the health/vitality of the fish. He advised against it saying in the wild it was only a fractional drop anyway.

 

[OldMan47]

Try taking a look at a real world situation for common freshwater fish. They experience a huge drop in pH and water mineral content every time it rains hard in many environments, along with a temperature drop. My own fish do just fine if I use rain water for makeup water in their tanks, with no accommodation at all made for temperature differences. The idea that a heavy rain does not make huge changes in the water chemistry or temperature reflects more about our prejudices than it does about the real world. My fish, being only subtropical, are exposed to those weather related patterns to some degree. They do not die but thrive in those conditions. I cannot say that it will be the case for all fish but for my goodeids it works out well.

 

[Stewartb]

Try taking a look at a real world situation for common freshwater fish. They experience a huge drop in pH and water mineral content every time it rains hard in many environments, along with a temperature drop. My own fish do just fine if I use rain water for makeup water in their tanks, with no accommodation at all made for temperature differences. The idea that a heavy rain does not make huge changes in the water chemistry or temperature reflects more about our prejudices than it does about the real world. My fish, being only subtropical, are exposed to those weather related patterns to some degree. They do not die but thrive in those conditions. I cannot say that it will be the case for all fish but for my goodeids it works out well.

Very interesting, thanks I'll think about collecting rainwater.

 

[OldMan47]

If you collect rain water, first let the rain wash loose dirt from your roof, then collect the water during minutes 21 until the rain ends. That way anything that has settled on the roof does not end up in your tank. The 20 minutes rinse in a decently heavy rain seems to clear out any residue and gives me decent water to collect.

 

[Stewartb]

Thanks, it's looking like collecting rainwater is something else to look into. Would it also matter much to plants, there doesn't seem to be much indepth info on plants (I've looked on what I what I take to be the proper plant sites), but I suppose what the fish are used to the plants would be used to as well!