Should I Heat my tank in summer?

[Henri]

Hi everyone,
I made some research and found out I should not have done this, but right now I'm on vacation and I can't do anything since I'm not at home . I live in southeast Europe and it gets madly hot here, the temperatures reach 40-42 degrees Celcius. Throughout the year I mantained a heating temperature of 24 degrees celcius in my tank.
In the beginning of summer I unplugged all the equipment during a waterchange and decided to not plug the heater since it was really hot. Now the thing is that the tank is a room of my house that is the only room without an air conditioner, so there are no temperature swings, right? I'm guessing the fish wont be shocked since the temperature don't drop much at night?
Other than thay, is there a risk of burning/breaking/damaging the heater, if it's submersed in the tank, but not plugged in? Can I damage it in any possible way?
Thanks!

 

[jcolon]

You could damage it if it was plugged in and not submerged ... In your case, submerged, not plugged in should be ok.

 

[FishFanatic88]

You might want to consider moving it to a room with AC. Im not sure what those temps are in fahrenhite (yes im american, yes it is probably spelled wrong) but a 20 degree difference is quite abit. it also depends on what fish you are keeping, but i dont think your fish will b at optimal health with the temp so high.

 

[Henri]

You might want to consider moving it to a room with AC. Im not sure what those temps are in fahrenhite (yes im american, yes it is probably spelled wrong) but a 20 degree difference is quite abit. it also depends on what fish you are keeping, but i dont think your fish will b at optimal health with the temp so high.

I am keeping swordtails right now, and did you take into consideration that the water temperature is always cooler than the room temperature? Plus, isn't the room temperature itself a few degrees less than the temperature outside?

 

[jcolon]

I am keeping swordtails right now, and did you take into consideration that the water temperature is always cooler than the room temperature? Plus, isn't the room temperature itself a few degrees less than the temperature outside?

The water in an unheated tank will eventually always closely match the ambient air-temp .. Minus a degree or two. In an un-airconditiomed room, that means the room temp will be dictated by the outside temps... In this case plus or minus a couple of degrees. So tanks in this case can go through temp swing. If your going through a 90F heat wave for a few days, the tank will creep up to those temps ... But then the next day, have temps drop by up to 10F .. Kind of what I'm going through now.

In larger tanks, it'll take longer for the temps to swing. I prefer to leave a tank in an airconditiomed room with a heater running. This way, there will Bo no crazy temp swings.

 

[FishFanatic88]

I am keeping swordtails right now, and did you take into consideration that the water temperature is always cooler than the room temperature? Plus, isn't the room temperature itself a few degrees less than the temperature outside?

I was just trying to help, water temp is usually cooler than room temp but room temp is usually the same, if not warmer than the outside temp if your house is not ACed.

 

[Henri]

The water in an unheated tank will eventually always closely match the ambient air-temp .. Minus a degree or two. In an un-airconditiomed room, that means the room temp will be dictated by the outside temps... In this case plus or minus a couple of degrees. So tanks in this case can go through temp swing. If your going through a 90F heat wave for a few days, the tank will creep up to those temps ... But then the next day, have temps drop by up to 10F .. Kind of what I'm going through now.

In larger tanks, it'll take longer for the temps to swing. I prefer to leave a tank in an airconditiomed room with a heater running. This way, there will Bo no crazy temp swings.

I'm not really going through a heat wave, that's how hot it is during the whole summer. Especially this month, in my country at least. I'll re-plug the heater though, I was just unsure of what had I done.

I was just trying to help, water temp is usually cooler than room temp but room temp is usually the same, if not warmer than the outside temp if your house is not ACed.

I'm sorry if you took this as a flame, i really wasn't trying to offend you, seriously. My house is air conditioned, the room where the tank is, is not conditioned. I just thought that swordtails would be okay since they are tropical fish, plus, taking in consideration the fact that the temps in summer rarely change here and people beg for some rain, I thought that the heater was unnecessary.

 

[FishontheRock]

The heater wouldn't have turned on so yes its unnecessary. The waters where the fish we keep come from are generally 24-26oC. Many species start to suffer ate higher temperatures. In their native habitats they have been able to drop down deeper in the lake/pond/river when in got really hot. Just think about the warm layer at the surface when you go swimming and how much cooler the water is underneath.

As you live in a climate with far warmer summers than most people here you'll need to think of a long term solution. You should think about moving the tank to a cooler part of your home or getting a chiller to maintain ideal water temperatures in the summer. Fans blowing at can help but not enough at 40oC i don't think.

 

[Henri]

The heater wouldn't have turned on so yes its unnecessary. The waters where the fish we keep come from are generally 24-26oC. Many species start to suffer ate higher temperatures. In their native habitats they have been able to drop down deeper in the lake/pond/river when in got really hot. Just think about the warm layer at the surface when you go swimming and how much cooler the water is underneath.

As you live in a climate with far warmer summers than most people here you'll need to think of a long term solution. You should think about moving the tank to a cooler part of your home or getting a chiller to maintain ideal water temperatures in the summer. Fans blowing at can help but not enough at 40oC i don't think.

I know what you're talking about. I live in the mediterranean and I frequently check the news from outside the country, especially from the US, cause I'm obsessed with living there, however I just recently read about the temperatures and they're about the same with our temperatures, if I remember well it just reached 107 degrees F in most states (about 40,6oC)?
The rest of my house is ACed. I'll start leaving the door of that room open from now on, so that the AC will work on it too.
I'm just surprised of the many pet stores which all keep their fish in unACed temps and their fish do fine.

 

[FishontheRock]

In fish stores the fish have a limited residence time. So they maybe fine for the few weeks they live there but be stressed out. Long term it would lead to issues.

Put a normal thermometer (alcohol or mercury) in the room with the tank. That will give you a better idea of the air temperature your dealing with. If the room is getting to warm for your liking you can stick a fan in the door way to blow cooler air in from the rest of the house.

 

[hpiguy]

I know what you're talking about. I live in the mediterranean and I frequently check the news from outside the country, especially from the US, cause I'm obsessed with living there, however I just recently read about the temperatures and they're about the same with our temperatures, if I remember well it just reached 107 degrees F in most states (about 40,6oC)?

The temps in Wisconsin, the state I'm from (near the great lakes) swing from 100F in Summer to -40F or even sometimes lower in Winter. Some Winters we'll see windchills near-70F for a day or so.

I run one 150W heater in my tank in summer, and in Winter, I tend to keep the house around 60F and colder at night, so I have a second 150W heater I plug in, just to keep the tank a consistent temp side to side instead of being warm in the center and much cooler on the edges. It also keeps the single heater from having to run all the time trying to keep up.

 

[Henri]

I did the room temperature test with a thermometer and the temperature yesterday night was actually 27 degrees C (80F) and today in the morning are 30 (86F) degrees C.
Is it better?