The Heater In My Tank

[greekcardinal]

I have a 10 gallon tank in my bedroom, which now houses guppies that I rescued from the internet. =) The thermometer (one of those sticky strips that afixes to the outside of the tank) says that the temp is like 82 degrees. I know that this is really too high of a temp. But it is a 2-15 gallon thermometer, and my room does stay rather warm, but I am afraid that if I take the heater out, it would drop the water temperature too much. Any suggestions?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

i assume the heater has a thermostat, turn it down as low as you can and then monitor the temp

the key to remember with high temps is that the warmer the water is the less oxygen it holds, so fish may struggle and die from a lack of oxygen, so simply making sure you have lots of surface agitiation from your filter can counteract bad effects from temps just a little bit too high (obviously if it gets up to boiling point it's still gonna kill your fish!)

 

[greekcardinal]

It is one of those heaters that is "self adjusting". I have a bubble stone in the tank, will that help any ya think? I guess the oxygen thing is why they are all hanging out at the top of the tank for the most part

 

[Miss Wiggle]

self adjusting? i'm not sure what you mean... you should be able to either set it to a specific temp or at least increase/decrease the temp and it will just come on and go off by itself to heat to the correct temp.

yes that does sound like poor oxygenation, the top of the tank (where there is greatest interaction between air and water) are always the highest oxygenated part of the tank, so if they are short of oxygen they hang out there.

can you adjust your filter so that it's output is above the water surface? or at least level with it so it creates a lot of disturabnce.

also you need o keep the room as cool as possible, just get a desk fan and aim it at the tank, leave that running through the day when it's hottest and that should cool things down a little

 

[garf3r]

my heater is weird too, its settin was 26 and it made the water go, 30 or sumfing, so i put it at 24 and its in between 27,28