Is 80-82 degrees too warm?

[mort]

Hi all,

We bought our first aquarium (55 gal) and it's been cycling for two days. The tank has no heater and the temperature is between 80 and 82 degrees F.

Everything I've read thus far indicates that an ideal tank temperature would be in mid to upper 70s. Are there any fresh water fish that can sustain these temperatures ?

Don't plan to add fish for a few weeks.

Thanks for any direciton,
Mort

 

[Joker741]

I run my tank in that range. Click my tanks on the side to see what I have in my tanks.

 

[spoonman]

The range for most tropicals is 78-82. Welcome to AA!!

 

[mgamer20o0]

thats fine for now. it just depends on what fish you are adding. some fish dont do as well in the higher temps.

 

[kaiofcanada]

Welcome to AA! I keep my tanks as well in that range. I keep angelfish. There are a number of fish that you could keep in that range. Since you live in hot Texas you might want to consider keeping some warm water fish, that way you won't have to worry about stressing cool water fish.

 

[mort]

Hi all and thanks for the replies.

The thermometer reporting 80-82 degrees is the tape kind that sticks to the outside of the tank. It came with the new aquarium. The 'color display' was showing more than one color -- basically indicating conflicting temperatures.

Today I purchased a digital aquarium thermometer and am getting a consistent, reliable reading of 77.5 degrees.

Mort

 

[Drayven]

If I'm not mistaken, at least in the cycling phase, low 80s is good for bacteria growth.

 

[Nippy Fish]

Those strip thermometers are notoriously inaccurate. Is your tank near a window?

 

[tlkng1]

I live in an older home that doens't have central air, so, I have to use window units. During the summer, and due to the location of my windows, I have a pedestal fan that sits in front of the AC unit to better circulate the cooler air. I can get a steady temp around 76 - 78 depending on how hot it is outside. I also prefer the digital thermometers to the stick on tape; as you have seen, I think they are more accurate.

Fortunately, I am addicted to Swordtails who like my temps

 

[OrionX]

I run my tanks at 85 or so for around 5 days or so, only when i have had an ick breakout, this made the fish a bit active, but the ick Exploded and now can can drop the temp, as i have read somewhere that high temps are not good for too long and some fish dont like too hot temps

 

[HN1]

I run my tanks at 85 or so for around 5 days or so, only when i have had an ick breakout, this made the fish a bit active, but the ick Exploded and now can can drop the temp, as i have read somewhere that high temps are not good for too long and some fish dont like too hot temps

Heat alone will not irradicate ick. It needs to be used in conjunction with salt. Search the forums for ich treatment. It most likely just went waterborne and will reappear. The main troubles with higher temps are depleted O2 saturation and increased fish metabolism. The two combine to create serious issues.

 

[OrionX]

oops yes i did forget to mention i added a bit of salt i do need to add some more salt, but im not sure if i should take the zeolite ammonia remover out of my filter when adding some more salt

 

[HN1]

Sorry for the thread derailment Mort.

Orion- why are you running an ammonia remover? Was your tank cycled?

 

[OrionX]

Sorry from my side too Mort, yes it was cycled, but the LFs here told me that i would need it if i run my temps high i might get more activity and there may be more waste produced by the fish. They were the ones who told me to increase the temp to around 85 for ick treatment for 5 days. They had ick treatments, which had copper in it, and having plants i read that too much copper is not good, so i requested an alternative.

The bottle of zeolite they sold me says on it remove zeolite before adding salt ~ im not sure if they cause some kind of chemical reaction or not, hence i was dicey to really too much salt. i am beginning to think some LFS are just out to make money

 

[HN1]

Their advice seems reasonable, but better (and cheaper) advice may have been to just reduce feedings to once every other day and do water changes (salt would need to be added). Did they sell you aquarium salt for the treatment? I ask because regular table salt would work.

I could be wrong, but I believe that salt will essentially "kill" the zeolite.

 

[OrionX]

No they have not, but I saw the other day in the pool section of a hardware store that you get non iodated salt in a 25kg bag, this I assume is probably for salt water pools. Would this work in aquariums?

I will reduce feedings as of now.

With regards to Zeolite, Im not sure how this works or what it is, Maybe this is not the place, i will make a new thread on it asking the correct questions, as they say on the bottle remove zeolite before adding salt(which might kill it, as you say), but then i hear conflicting reports that says to recharge zeolite soak it in a saltwater solution

Mort once again sorry for the derailment. On your tank whith the overheating problem, i could be wrong but i know filter pumps can sometimes add a slight amount of heat to the tank, a possibility that could assist you would be to maybe have the inlet water drip in a thin sheet over a wide area of glass (like a waterfall effect) that could be cooled with maybe an aluminium heatsink and a PC fan glued to it(obviously on a side where there is no water at all). This is a similar principle that a water cooler uses. Water is kept in a container, and a heatsink with a pc fan is mounted to it, as the fan spins it cools the heatsink which in turn cools the container, thus extracting the heat from the water.