Hot Summers...what is the best for a tropical tank?

[littlelouie]

U guy's have just come out of a hot summer, what did you do to keep ur tanks temp stable?

I keep mine @ 26 deg cel with the heater @ 22 deg cel. Today the tank reached 30 deg b4 I noticed and now I need to know the best method of keeping it at 26 deg cel, with the light on for 8-10hrs a day in ambient temp of around av temp 25 deg cel during the day and down to 22 deg cel overnight.

The tank is an eclipse 6 gallon, I have a clown loach and 5 cardinal tetras. They look fine atm but it is a reminder that I will need to know what to do when we hit our Australian HOT summers.

 

[Terry]

To keep the Temperature down in my tanks i put bags of ice in the freezer, Float the bag til it defrosts and then put it back in the freezer.
What ever you do don't just throw ice into the tank, when it melts the tank will overflow.
On really hot days you could also turn the light off, this might lower the temp alittle.
There are probably loads of differant ways that people use to keep there tanks cool and you will most likely here about them on AA.com.

 

[Madame_X]

I have a couple of 4" PC cooling fans mounted to the top of each of my tanks. One blows into the tank and the other blows out, as an exhaust. They're wired to one of those universal A/C adaptors that have the adjustable wattage switch on them. This way, I can adjust the speed of the fans as needed.

My Eclipse 12 was getting as high as 86 degrees during the day. These fans kept it down between 78-80. On an Eclipse 6, you could probably use two of those little 2" fans and get good results.

 

[littlelouie]

Thanks Terry & Madame-X,

I'll keep the lights off as an immediate remedy. The ice 'float bag' is a good idea as well as the fans, i'll keep both in mind.

 

[William]

I have a couple of 4" PC cooling fans mounted to the top of each of my tanks. One blows into the tank and the other blows out, as an exhaust. They're wired to one of those universal A/C adaptors that have the adjustable wattage switch on them. This way, I can adjust the speed of the fans as needed.

My Eclipse 12 was getting as high as 86 degrees during the day. These fans kept it down between 78-80. On an Eclipse 6, you could probably use two of those little 2" fans and get good results.

Do oyu have a link to the exact product you used to wire the 120mm fans up?

I have a bunch of spare compuer fans around and I'd like to do this to my main tank, since it reaches almost 88-90degrees F at times 8O :? 8O

 

[RogerMcAllen]

What ever you do don't just throw ice into the tank, when it melts the tank will overflow.

Actually, it won't. If you put icein a cup, and fill the cup all of the way up it will be the exact same level when the ice melts with no spilling. This is becuase objects displace exactly their weight in water.

 

[Madame_X]

Do oyu have a link to the exact product you used to wire the 120mm fans up?

I have a bunch of spare compuer fans around and I'd like to do this to my main tank, since it reaches almost 88-90degrees F at times 8O :? 8O

The ones we used were just some off-brand that we bought at Fry's Electronics cheap, but they were similar to this one:

http://www.bgsales.com/electronics/mws1189uc.asp

You can see the switch on the front.