100*F temperatures approaching

[Marconis]

I have no fish in my tank, and no AC in my apartment. I am barely here in the summer, so I have no need and there is no threat to any livestock. In my 55g thread, I was worried about my tank being in the mid 80's and questioned the health of my plants in such temperatures. With 100 degree temperatures approaching at the end of the week (for 3-4 consistent days), I have an increased concern about my plants with the combination of light fixture heat. Currently, my tank is 89*, so I can only imagine what it will be when my apartment heats up to the upper 90's.

Will my plants experience any damage?

 

[jcolon]

Oh that's great! I'm heading back to L.I. this weekend ... just in time for 100+ temps! Joy!

I would think your plants would be O.K ... however, a simple solution is to put Ice in a plastic bag ... like glad bags and float them in the water. That and run a fan across the surface of the water should help keep temps lower. Note however the fan will increase evaporation.

 

[Crepe]

As long as it doesn't last for more than a week they'll be okay....I'd personally get a personal AC unit for your own and the fish's comfort lol. Either that or a chiller...which is about as expensive as a room AC unit.

 

[Innovator]

Push come to shove you can make a "swamp cooler" by placing bags of ice in a cooler and a fan to blow the coolness it gives off. You can find small AC units for far less than a chiller, under $300. or just purchase multiple fans to keep the air from being stagnant.

 

[Marconis]

I'll definitely keep my big box fan blowing over the tank while I'm gone...it uses pennies of electric. So that'll definitely work? I'll keep it on the "1" setting so the movement isn't too powerful. I'll be back on Monday so I'll be able to top off sooner than later.

*EDIT* I got two free 6500 BTU AC's but one wasn't enough to cool my living room...I'm going to buy one eventually for when I'm back in my apartment for all of the end of August.
*EDIT #2* Just want to clarify that until I'm living here full time again, I could care less about personal comfort, just want my plants to be okay .

 

[adadkins1]

As long as the fan is blowing over the water, it will keep the temperature considerably lower. The fan encourages evaporation and thus keeps the temperature within reason, and since you are going to top it off you should't have any problems.

 

[Sparky74]

Partial WC's would help as well. I use a thermo to try and match water while I'm changing it, but you could change it out and just slowly lower temp.

It takes water a while to catch up to the air, so it will buy you some time each day.

 

[Marconis]

Yeah I think I am going to do another PWC on Thursday morning before I leave to get the temperature to low 70's, then set up the fan over it until Monday.

This sucks...I really hate heat.

 

[Sparky74]

If you are using a canister filter(depending on design) you could place it in a cooler with some cold water. This way it will lose some heat each time water passes through the filter.

 

[Marconis]

What I may do, actually, is buy one of those "bedside" clip-on fans that you buy for your college dorm bed and stuff. That way, I can just clip it on to the rim of my tank and tilt it how I want.

 

[roundar]

Bedside fan sounds like a win for the tank at least, but I mostly just wanted to say 100° << alt codes ftw.

 

[Marconis]

Haha how did you do that!?

 

[Aquatic_Adam]

Hahahaha alt codes FTW...

 

[roundar]

Hold down ALT then press 0 1 7 6 in sequence, release ALT.

 

[Sparky74]

Fans will actually make the room hotter, not cooler. Anything that uses electric is going to add heat to the room.

Fans will make it feel cooler to you, but will not in fact make room cooler. It feels cooler to you because of wind chill effect(allows your sweat to evaporate more efficiently), which does cool you off to a degree, but it will have no such effect on the fish tank. You may get some added evaporation from the tank, but any energy used is going right back into the apartment anyway, so the net heat loss is zero.

You can't make cold, you can only remove heat(which fan does not, unless being used as an exhaust with a cooler intake). Adding a fan will only raise temp, not lower it. In fact if the apartment is warmer than the tank, a fan over the tank will increase the temperature faster because of a more rapid exchange of heat due to increased air movement over tank.

If your apartment was below the tank's temperature, then yes, a fan would help lower tank temp. But if the apartment is at or above tank temp it will not.

 

[Marconis]

Good information. Can't find any clip-on fans. Bags of ice the solution?

 

[Sparky74]

I would say it probably is. Just let them float in the tank. Should at the least keep it from getting warmer.

A swamp cooler would be a good idea if you lived out west, but they don't work very well when humidity levels are high. You'll wind up with an even more humid apartment and not much cooling.

 

[Marconis]

It already knocked down two degrees with a melted bag...good.

 

[Sparky74]

One other idea...

If you have a water changer that hooks up to the sink, you could get some extra tubing and loop it through the tank, turn on the cold water and let it just trickle through the tubing(discharging to sink/tub/etc). Feel the discharge water. If it's still really cold, turn the flow down even more. You probably would need very little flow.

That will act as an open loop chiller.

If you are taking ice from the freezer in your apartment, remember the fridge dumps all it's heat in the apartment. So if you have an ice maker and it has to make more ice, you will be adding more heat to the apartment. If you can buy a bag of ice, that will help in a few ways. It will help freezer maintain temp, so your fridge will run less and since you aren't using up ice from the fridge it won't have to make more(adding more heat). You can even put some ice in a bowl in the fridge. The less it runs, the less heat it dumps.

 

[Marconis]

That does sound like a good idea, but I won't be here for a few days after tomorrow so I don't want that going on when I'm gone. I just want the temp to be in the high 70's before this massive heat wave comes through. My freezer doesn't have an ice-maker, I make my own ice.