cherrycoke

Well, my angel fish and guppies seem to have settled their differences and now they tend to just stick to their respective territory in the tank, the guppies have adopted the orange rock and plants on the left of the tank and the angel and pleco on the right. honestly never thought i'd see a fish turf war but there you go, one of the many learning curves of fish keeping.

I live in a very hot country (its only may and already outside temps are topping 40 degrees C) and summer is rapidly approaching. I'm only using the stick-on colour change thermometer that came with the tank kit but that seems to be reaching (and occasionally exceeding) its upper limit of 30 degrees most of the time. I haven't used the heater that came with the kit as i didn't really think i needed it. is this too warm? is there any need/way to cool the water down?

aquarist48

Good morning. Yes, your tank is too warm at 30C (or 86F). Unless you're having problems with ICH it needs to come down. I suggest to keep it at 26C or 78F. I hate it but I don't really have a long term solution to your problem. Is air conditioning out of the question where you are? I assume your home is that hot as well? Some have suggested in previous threads to freeze water in a bottle and float it in your tank. However, you DO NOT want any SUDDEN changes in your temperatures. It has to be adjusted slowly. I'm sure you'll get more suggestions in a bit. Good luck!

Too, with your tank being that warm it decreases your oxygen levels. If you have the means I would suggest adding an air supply line (bubble wand or air stone) if you haven't already.

I thought of something else. If you have a fan and can position it by your tank so that it blows over the top of the tank and not directly on it, that may help a little bit. Too, I don't know how your lights on the tank are positioned but if you can raise the light off the tank a bit that will also help.

cherrycoke

Thanks for the response

Since my first bunch of fish sadly passed on i added a bubble wand and this group seem a lot happier with it in there (i suspect a lack of aeration may have been behind some of the first group's deaths).

We do have air conditioning here, but the unit in the room where i have my tank isn't particularly powerful. unfortunately its the only room in my apartment with space for the tank and tends to get quite warm.

Putting a frozen bottle in the tank seems quite extreme. how would i regulate it and stop it from cooling the tank too much? aside from just watching the temp and fishing it out when it had cooled enough.

aquarist48

I haven't personally had this problem. As far as putting the ice bottle in your tank is only something that I have read on line. I'm sure some more people will come on line with more responses and help for you. To me it does seem a bit risky, temperature may fall too fast and you don't want that.

Can you put a fan in the room with an air conditioner to blow into the room where your fish tank is?

In the U.S. we have Chillers. I don't know if that would be an option for you or not. Too, they can be expensive. This link will show you what I'm talking about. http://pet-supplies.drsfostersmith.c...&subtotal=0.00

cherrycoke

I'm just concerned about the environmental impact of trying to keep the entire room cool enough to keep the tank down to temperature 24 hours a day using an air conditioner. generally i only switch them on when i'm home, and even then only in the room i'm in with the door shut to try to conserve energy (not to mention the power bill). Something along the line of one of those chillers seems like a better idea, except for the fact that the cheapest one on that page costs more than i've spent on the entire rest of aquarium setup so far. I'm hoping someone might come along with a slightly less costly idea.

aquarist48

Hang in there I'm sure you'll get some more options. Good luck!

pepetj

Hi cherrycoke:

Have you considered getting an electronic thermometer? These units are more accurate than those placed in the outside surface of the tank. I do use cheap inside the tank, red dyed alcohol thermometers but their error of measurement is a concern, I have one that reads 2degrees over the actual temp.

As for a definite solution, have you considered getting a mini chiller?

I live in the Caribbean basin (Santo Domingo) and I have two units that I keep in standby to cool down one particular tank (208L or 55gal) that is in the living room; tank temp there climbs easily slightly above 30C (86F) when the hot days of summer come by. These use up a fair amount of energy that is evident in my energy bill.

Thermoelectric chillers use less energy than conventional compressor chillers. Since you have a small tank you could use a thermoelectric chiller rated at 150W (e.g. Resun CL-150), these units are easily installed with a submersible water pump or power head.

Be aware that the info in the technical manuals can overstate their efficient capacity; so in the manual of a small unit like the Resun CL-80 you would see that the manufacturer claims it works for a 5 degrees Celcius pull down in tanks up to 16 gallons. That claim is based in experimental conditions which do not resemble our usual settings. I share this info with you since this is the reason I ended having two units instead of just one: I went by the technical data and purchased, installed and kept running (inefficiently in terms of energy use and long term lifetime of compressor) the Resun CL-280 which I later replaced with the CL-600.

Pepe
Santo Domingo

cherrycoke

thanks a bunch pepe, i'll look into it