eaglescout316

My apartment's A/C has completely crapped out and lucky me, maintenance won't even look at it until Tuesday. Since my lease is up in 3 months, based on past performance these guys could drag their feet on their repairs well into the summer. I'm really hoping they don't, but i'm trying to prepare for the worst. My tank is currently 4 degrees over what i have the heater set at (i don't think the heater's kicked on in days) and i'm wondering how one would cool down a tank without an extremely expensive cooler as seen on Drsfosterandsmith.com.

The only idea i thought of while brainstorming, and ruled out for several reasons, is putting some ice cubes in the filter. My guess is there really isn't a good way out of this situation.

I guess if the tank temperature gets too high and fish start dying, i could start bringing them to the property manager until he gets the A/C fixed...

neupane00

btw, i have simlar question too. i travel for few days here and there. and obviously i dont wanna keep my whole house A/C on the whole time. How do people make sure the tank temp is not too high? are there coolers like heaters that keep the water at certain degree?

Lucy

I know some members float frozen water bottles in their tank to cool it down. Tank lights can sometimes heat up the water so decreasing the amount of time they're on, or just keeping them off might help.
Also pointing a fan in the direction of the tank or lifting the lid might help, be careful of jumpers. (I'd be afraid to do this lol)

Increasing the aeration would help them also, the warmer the water, the less oxygen.

eaglescout316

They make chillers, they're more designed for saltwater tanks it seems, and they're also at least $300 from what i've seen.

eaglescout316

I've got some jumpers on my hands. Every once in awhile i hear one bounce off the lid, i have no idea what that's all about. It's not common and by the time i cross the 4 feet of floor to see inside the tank i can't even tell who did it.

I'll keep the frozen water bottle idea handy though, hadn't thought of that. Do you think it would be very effective on a 29 gallon tank?

Lucy

I don't seee why not, you might need to use a couple of them, just keep an eye on the temp.

What you could do is go to walmart or a craft store and get some of those plastic craft sheets, they look like this:
Craft sheets

Don't know if they'd fit across the lid of your tank. The ones I bought are 14" x 11".
They're also great for cutting to fit gaps in the lid where the filter etc is.