Water temperature fluctuation

[RJOfford]

Good morning all,

I was wondering if anyone has any tips on keeping the water temperature stable. I have Platys and Neon Tetras in my tank, and am struggling to maintain the water temperature at around 24/25 C. The problem is due to the heatwave we are currently experiencing. I'm out at work all day so of course I have to keep the windows and doors shut, which means the room where I keep my tank warms up during the day.

As soon as I get home I open the patio doors and the windows to ventilate the room, but typically the water temperature is increasing to around 27/28 C during the day, and then cooling back down to around 24/25 C over night. I have a heater, but it has been switched off for the last few weeks as it is simply not needed in these current conditions, but how can I keep the water temperature stable. Are there such things as water coolers which work in the same way as the thermostatically controlled heater I have?

 

[Lunar Jetman]

How big is your tank? To be honest your tank is rising and falling due to the temperature in your home much like it would do in the wild so I wouldn't get too worried about it. I know there are often people on the forums getting anxious and worried but it won't last forever and as long as its not a sudden jump you should be fine.

You could turn off the lights which generate a fair amount of heat, presumably under the hood of your tank where it will get trapped. Maybe turn them on later in the day when you get home.

I did my weekly water change last night of around 50% of the water. Temperature was up above 86-88 before and dropped down to 78-80 afterwards. My tank is 288l/75 gallons though so a fairly big amount of water that will rise and fall temperature wise slowly so shouldn't really affect the fish as much as a sudden change.

 

[RJOfford]

Thanks for your comments. My tank is a 30 litre tank, which probably has around 25 litres of water in it. I keep the light switched off during the day, so that is not contributing to the heat of the water. I guess in nature the temperature of the water fluctuates a little too, although probably not by as much as 4 degrees. It is probably heating up from 24/25 to 27/28 over a period of 4-5 hours, and then back down over a similar period of time, so hopefully this is not too sudden.

 

[Colin_T]

Close your windows and curtains before the house warms up and remove or turn off any televisions or computers in the room because they heat the room up.

Don't worry about the temperature fluctuations, 27-28C is nothing to worry about, when it hits 30C then it's time to worry.

I had fish in 40 litre plastic storage containers out the back that hit 40C + in summer. And I have surveyed waterways and found fish in the shallows where is it 36C and in deeper water in the same pond that was 20C.

If you are really concerned, you can have a fan blowing air over the tank during the day and that will help keep it a bit cooler.

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Not that this helps with your current issue, but if you had a bigger tank with a larger water volume, the temperature wouldn't fluctuate as fast.

 

[RJOfford]

Thanks Colin, yes curtains and blinds are closed and all electronics are switched off. Sadly I don't have space for a bigger tank, but one day I will have an absolute monster tank and then won't have to worry about such things...

 

[mikey11]

your worrying way too much....the temps you describe are perfectly fine,

water temps in the wild fluctuate from day to night.....stop worrying, the fish dont even notice a few degrees

 

[RJOfford]

Thanks for the reassurances, I'll stop worrying about it.