Emmy

please help!
the temperature in my tank has been maintained at 78, since i set it up in january. now that the warmer weather is here, my apartment is so hot. i do have an air conditioner but i don't like to run it all day while i'm not there... i have to pay hydro and the AC is NOT cheap.
the temp in my tank is rising and rising, this morning before leaving for work it was 81.9.
i left the AC on today but do not want to make this a habit.
to bring the temp down a bit i put a few ice cubes in a plastic ziplock and floated it, the temp came down to 81.6. i added a few more cubes and got it down to 81.3, then i had to leave. also, i don't want to bring the temp down too quickly, i don't want to shock anyone.
i've read that a good idea is to freeze some bottles of water and float those.
i do not want to spend $600 on a tank cooler and i don't want to leave the AC on all day, and obviously i don't want stressed out fish.

i know i can't be the only one with these summertime issues, so please, any input is appreciated!

thanks.

Mikoten

81F is not too bad for most fish, what fish do you have? If you don't have any jumpers I would recommend to keep the hood open, if you can. The heat is most likely getting trapped in the tank under the hood.
Also, what is your tank size and how many watts is your lighting? A high number of watts would add to the heat.
And keep your tank away from windows!

matt6765

look at this website http://www.google.com/products?hl=en...num=1&ct=title

Emmy

i have guppies, corys, an oto, neons and ghost shrimp.
it's a 20gallon tank and very low fluorescent lighting, 15w.

Mikoten

Yeah none of those fish are distinguished jumpers, just keep the hood open and try everything else I said in the last post. Again, 81F is a fine temp for those fish dont worry . Well good luck!

jdhef

I believe I have read here in the past that along with removing the lid, having a fan blow across the top of the tank helps lower the temp.

prairielilly

Fans are MUCH cheaper to run than an AC, just point it at the tank, turn off the oscillation and let it run all day. Also if during the day you close the windows and draw the curtains/blinds (make it really dark!) you will keep the overall temperature in your apartment down significantly. Then when the sun goes down open up EVERYTHING and let the cool air in.

(I had an apartment once in Regina where it got so hot I could pour peanut butter out of the jar...)

MizRamzi

I ditto the fan and keeping it dark and keeping the lights off and it wont hurt to keep some baggies filled with ice handy.

Emmy

thanks everyone! the temperature has now dropped to 79 so things are getting back to normal. everyone in the tank seems very happy