lousieg55

Okay, well i got back late last night, looked at my tanks briefly and then went to bed to tired to see anything.

So, First look not good. Lets start from the first problem before i left.
YIKES 92, Going on vaction tomorrow for a week HELP ASAP

My first thread, My tank was at 92, degrees like said in that tank, then when i got home last night around 1130-1200 way after the heat of the day, the tank was at 90 , Not good, What are my options, I hear chillers but those are pretty pricey correct ??

Its not my heater i know cuz i unplugged it while i was gone, Im pretty sure it was my room just getting very very hot while i was gone, my grandma told me it was in the 90s out side. Any my room gets hot fast no matter if AC on ect.

Thats my first problem, also looked like all maid it bedsides maybe one badis, I count 1 badis, 2 gobys, 2 corys, 1 Badis MIA, or i just cant see him right now.
Also dont know i this is possible but they look very very skinny, I don't think the weekend feeder fed them should i just feed them now or go slowly not to hurt there stomic.

2nd problem, My other 5 gallon tank, which i think if i cant figure out the problem in this tank, Im going to ditch my desk and just keep this one, because everything died in my bath room tank .
So thats were my second problem startsm that tank is a mess, it house brown allagie on 3 of its 6 sides, its a 5 Gallon hex, and that temp was fine last night at 82, but the rest of the tank is a mess, what should i do, CLean up all the algea by hand do a water change let it run a little while see what happens??

On to my big 29 gallon tank, First look looks fine, no allage bloom, no dead fish, well i think 1 but i did not look hardlast night so dont know 4 sure, So i think that one is good just low on water.

So as of right now, Im going to feed all my fish some bloodworms, and then i have to do some stuff around the house(Fix my car that also broke the day i was leaving ) and couple other things that need to get done asap.

BUt one i get cought up going to do water change all three tanks, head count, test water. Any other suggetions.

Shawnie

welcome back!!

sorry for the losses and what you may find later but I would do massive water changes on them all asap(test before if you want but water change irregardless) ...wipe with your hand all the algae, and then feed them...as far as the one that keeps overheating, the chiller is one way but super expensive or you can keep a fan running constantly above it...like a tall kitchen fan...do partial water changes to bring the temps down a couple times a week...and floating ice containers help also...allot of fish just slow their metabolism down in the summer when its warmer...they do acclimate and adding extra aeration helps also...

lousieg55

Yea, The chillers i was looking at they are like 300 ^^ not something i want to spend on my 5 gallon :/, So i think i might just clean up my other tank, swap somethings around and drop them in that tank and sell this one , Cuz so fare the seem to be doing okay, but im scared this will happen all summer and they wont do well the hole time.

Shawnie

5 gal is great to just float a frozen water bottle....shouldnt be that hard for such a small one..its the larger ones that are a pain...my 75 gal was 87 yesterday so I had to do a partial water change...today its back to 80

harpua2002

Frozen water bottles are much more economical than a chiller. $300 would be cheaper than any chiller I've ever seen, LOL. That's a huge reason I've never run MH on any marine tanks before!

summersquash

I had problems all week with water getting too hot. I tried the ice cubes in a zip lock bag, and it worked really well. I would put the ice in, wait 20 minutes and check the temp in my 55gal tank. If it wasn't cool enought I would add some more ice till I got it down. Couple times a day was enough to keep the water bearable for the fish. I did n't try the water bottles but that sounds like a good way to go. Also putting a small fan to blow across the water helped, especially at night when I couldn't change out the ice cubes.

Emmy

i have a question regarding this floating ice method to cool down a tank.
toronto had a heat wave last week (imagine that!) and rather than leaving the AC running all day, i put icecubes in a ziplock bag and floated that until the temp. came down. my question is, that within 2hours the temp dropped 2degrees. isn't that too much of a drastic change? maybe more gradual is better/less stressful for fish?

eaglescout316

Time for a brief physics lesson. Materials have a property known as specific heat, and for water it's pretty high. This is the reason you set a pot of water on the stove for 10 minutes before it boils, even though the flame is extremely hot from the instant you fire it up. A high specific heat means you can store a lot of thermal energy in the substance, so not only does it take a long time to heat up, but it takes a long time to cool down too.

I mention this because it's the reason your tank was still at 90 long after the main heat of the day had passed.

eaglescout316

I feel like the floating ice method is going to create pockets of cold water in with the other water. It may have dropped the temperature 2 degrees for the water near your thermometer but had an inconsistent effect throughout the tank. Just my own personal theory. I also don't know how much ice you used, since ziplock bags come in many sizes.

Either way, i don't think one degree per hour average is anything to worry about. Think about it this way, your heater clicks on when it reads a temperature that's below the setting, then heats the water back up, then lets it drop over and over and it doesn't stress the fish out. I wouldn't be surprised if it was a degree difference that clicks it on.