Manhattan is hot and so are my fish

[SixFootDaisy]

The temperature here is rediculous!


The temperature in the tank usually creeps upward and upward. What can I do to keep the temperature stable in my tank?

 

[reefrunner69]

What can I do to keep the temperature stable in my tank?

You can put a fan blowing across the surface of the water (probly have to leave the lid open), anything to encourage evaporation will cool the water. Make sure you have a heater in the tank so it doesn't cool it too far.

 

[justDIY]

when it was pushing the 100's back at my old place, the fish were mighty p*ssed ... I took off their lights, put in an aerator, and then placed one of those cheap 24" box fans on top of the tank, running at low speed, blowing on the water

this worked good, big difference between water temp and room temp, over the course of a few hours ... had to add more water every few hours too - this was with no A/C ... if you have A/C, use a small fan and like RR said, make sure your heater works, as evaporative cooling is much more effective in a low humidity enviroment (like air-conditioned air)

all that extra humidity didn't help me stay cool ... but back then I had a sweet employer and keys to the building, so I often spent many hours "working" in the air conditioning

 

[ConanTheLibraia]

You could get a chiller but from what I've heard theyre mad expensive.

 

[justDIY]

there's always the DIY approach!

http://www.aloha.net/~hqf/indexjrosechiller2.htm

their plans look like something for a permenant installation in a reef aquarium ... you could elimiate a lot of their redudancy and efficiency improvements and still have a very effective and cheap chiller for temporary use during exceptionally hot periods ... especially if you've gotten a new brother-in-law that is willing to give you a 18x18x18" cube fridge for free ... ah yet another diy project for me to experiment with this summer

 

[BondStreet]

Hi there...
Got some great advice, but not sure how practical it would be...
I hear if you have a canister filter, you could put it in a bucket of ice for a bit....
this is a crude way of chilling your water, and you could stop it when you feel the water is getting TOO cool...
Lemme know what you do..I live in Manhattan as well(Noho) - cool a fellow manhattan fishhead!
Take it easy..
Bondstreet

 

[justDIY]

hey ... great idea!! ... can get 20 lb of ice here for $0.99 ... probably would cost more than that to run a chiller for a day

i guess the problem is 15 to 20 °F temperature swing over a rapid period of time ... going up and down up and down as the ice melts and get refilled - your fish will either stress out, or spawn like crazy, thinking it's the rainy spring season

 

[reberly]

It's super hot down here in Ohio! Our high today was 95 degrees with 89% humidity. It's awful, we're running our crappy A/C 24/7 but our bedrooms are a comfortable 88 degrees right not at almost 4 am. Crazy hot, our fish are struggling. Is putting an ice cube or two in the tank a stupid idea? Never done it, seems like there'd be a good reason not too... am I right?

Ryan

 

[reefrunner69]

Never done it, seems like there'd be a good reason not too... am I right?

IMO, you'd do better with fans or with a 2 liter bottle that was frozen, but the problem with using ice in the tank, is just as glmcell said, the temp would swing to quick. It's a little easier to do this if you have a sump, the ice can be put in the sump and a heater can help to keep the temp constant. IMO, either a DIY chiller or fans are the way to go.

 

[SixFootDaisy]

Thanks everyone for the awesome advice.

I ended up breaking down and buying an AC for my bedroom. This heat is way too much and my babies are suffering badly. My poor ferrets

The AC is on 74, and the tank has been at its normal stable temperature.

I like to keep everyone happy

 

[wabyrd]

Is putting an ice cube or two in the tank a stupid idea? Never done it, seems like there'd be a good reason not too

I do it. I don't put too much in at a time though an I put it in regularly throughout the day. I don't put it directly into the tank either. I have an Emperor 280 and I put it behind the filters. That way the warmer water flows over it and distributes it more evenly and slowly in the tank. I don't do too much at a time so that the temperature swing isn't as sharp as just putting a frozen lump in the tank. This method works fine for me and my fish and I'm able to keep the water temp down and mostly stable. I could be wrong though. This is just what works for me.

 

[BondStreet]

Yet another idea, is similar to the bottle mentioned earlier: small CLEAN water balloons that either were frozen, or contain cold water. This way, you can control it more. How's that? By using small balloons, you don't dramatically change the tempertaure. And you prevent and contamination from bacteria that might be in ice cubes(you know they just use unfiltered tap water most of the times for making it, unless you make them with bottled/filtered water yourself). You can let these puppies float for a bit, then remove them when you feel it's where you want it to be, and keep doing so with a little more control. Just a thought!
Bondstreet

 

[reberly]

I could put ice cubes up in the hood of my eclipse filter... Maybe on top of the filter cartridge. Water would flow over it and slowly melt it! Hell of an idea wabyrd! Ever had any problems with your fish using this technique?

Ryan

 

[wabyrd]

No, I've never had any problems with my fish doing this, but I like the water balloon idea better than the ice cube idea. It solves the problem of the ever increasing water level when adding ice to the tank.

 

[Doraemon]

Would it be a bad thing to put a rubber water balloon into the water? Maybe a ziplock bag instead?

 

[wabyrd]

Actually I've got some water bottles that I can use from work that are made from inert plastic. It's the water bottles that our irrigation comes in for surgery. I can put a few of those in the freezer at home and they will not bust. I think I would be afraid of the ballon hitting a corner on the hood or something and busting. That would not be the best thing since all my tanks (except one) are on my wood floors.

 

[i3k]

Well, I live in Los Angeles...the valley area...it is about 100-105 degrees here every day...I just turned my heater down to 74 degrees and the temp. in the fish tank still gets up to 80 degrees even if the heater is off. So far the temp. in the tank hasnt raised above 80 degrees so im not worried about it. All my fish did OK last summer with the same temp. hope your fish pull thru.

 

[wabyrd]

That's the reason I don't even have a heater on my tanks. It's more of a problem keeping the tanks cool than warm. With daily temps in the 90's to 100's, heat is no problem. Even the winters here in Houston are mild enough that I don't worry about heating the tanks. The variation in temp is only from a low of about 77 in the wintertime to a high of about 82 in summer. That's fine for all tanks except the goldfish which I have to chill out every so often.