Faye Rod

Hi everyone - We had a couple of warm days last week and the temp in my aquarium rose from 76 to 82 degrees F. The fish were sluggish and I kept the lights off until it cooled off around here. We don't like to use air conditioning unless it gets to 90 or so in the summer - any suggestions for keeping the water temp steady with the air temp rising?

Evelyn1919

hi,
i'm pretty new to this but i would think you should try to turn your heater down when the weather gets warmer. that might help.
here in NY we also had some nice days last week but once the summer's here we need a/c 24/7 cuz of the humidity but i was also thinking about my new tank so i'll be keeping an eye on the temperature to see how much warmer the water will get. but i'll have a/c once the temp goes about high 70's faren.

Shawnie

As evelyn said, its time to turn off the heaters if we are having warm weather...30% water changes will help also..remember, the warmer the water temp the less oxygen...I also throw a few ice cubes now and then in my tank...the fish play with them and think they won the lottery or something goodluck

Faye Rod

Thanks - I have two heaters from winter - I'm going to take one out and turn the other one down. We are away for part of the summer and I want insurance if the temp dips. If it's set at 74 it shouldn't come on unless it gets cooler - right? I don't know how the heaters are set to work.

The ice cubes are a good idea! And I'm thinking of getting an airstone of some kind since it's a 55 gallon tank. I've been wondering about the oxygen - the barbs are hanging out by the filter flow.

COBettaCouple

Unless the ice cubes are from treated water, I'd stick them in a ziplock freezer bag and float that.

FL lights help with the heat and taking the lids off (if you are sure the fish won't jump).. There are screens you can buy to put on tanks in place of lids too for the jumpers.

Shawnie

yes i treat the water ...but great reminder ....i tried the baggie thing and my oscar poked it to death..and I was scared he would eat the plastic...they are big garbage disposals

Martinismommy

Here is the screen on my salt tank....There is also a ceiling fan about the tank....When it get's higher than 85 I'll put frozen bottled water in the sump..

COBettaCouple

Yea, it does work better with smaller fish. That'd be a great vid..

Faye Rod

As soon as I posted this the weather changed and we are supposed to have a cold night tonight(high 30s). Our house won't be as cold as winter - so I'll take one of the heaters out when we do our water change this weekend - thanks for the suggestions about the lid and ice. I was also wondering about treating ice cubes before putting them in - will remember to put them in zip locks when it's hot around here again.

COBettaCouple

I like to just use untreated cubes in a bag.. it's water that I'll just throw out after the cubes melt.

LetDiceFly

You shouldn't ever take your heater out of your tank, if it is hot it won't do anything. You want to keep the temperature from going up and down. It is better for the tank to be a little warmer than to have the temperature fluctuate. During that heat wave, here in Long Beach my 5 gallon tank got to 92 degrees and I totally freaked. Frozen water bottles is probably the best thing, they can't hurt the fish.

Jim

I live in florida and this is a big concern here, especially with my planted tanks (lots of hot lights). Even now my tanks are averaging around 85 degrees and will be near 90 by late summer, even with the A/C on. There isn't much I can do, so I've adapted the tanks instead. My bowfront is a planted Asian Swamp (more or less) and my column is a planted Amazon rainforest (again more or less). And other than a Madascar Lace plants I'm taking a chance on, everything in my tanks is well adapted for the hotter weather. Plus both tanks have emergancy bubble stones just in case the O2 looks like it's dropping too far.
As for trying to cool the tanks, i haven't really had to worry about it yet, but I have canister filters and was debating ice-packs wrapped around my intake and outflow tubes.

seedy

Hi
Your heater should have a thermostat to control the temp and should only come on when it needs to.
I remove the glass covers and just use a fan to blow air over and around my tank on really hot days.
Hope this helps

Faye Rod

Thanks for the replies and suggestions - I kept one heater in the tank - took out the older one until next winter. The weather is fluctuating quite a bit here - I'm not worried about the cool weather because of the heater. The ice and fan suggestions for warmer weather will come in handy. Also turning off half or all of the lights has helped to keep the temp down.