gilesp

Hi there, i have somewhat of a plethora of questions, so i apologise in advance.
i am currently living in bangkok, thailand which as you are probably aware is very hot. I have air conditioning in my room so the temperature of the room varies from 36C ( almost 100F) down to 24C (high 70s??) i was wonderinf how i could get around the problem of water temperature. is the heat capacity of water sufficient to act as a buffer or not?
also, if i had the inclination, could i go to the beach and just remove some sand from the waterline or just pick up any piece of coral or do they need to be from certain areas? I have relatively easy access to numerous reefs. also, what would be the best way to transport the materials? would it be possible to steal some seawater to use in my tank to hasten the cycling process?
how much are you paying for clown fish? here they are 100 baht each which is around 3 dollars or 850 baht for red ones ( about 26 dollars)
all i want is a small tank with a couple of clown fish and maybe an anemone in the future. would a 30 litre tank be sufficient?
i thought i had more questions but I seem to have run dry :-)
i have been doing internet research for some time now because all the books here are in thai so it is taking me a lot longer to research.

thanks,

giles

armadillo

Hi Gilesp. Bangkok, niiiice. I heard it was lovely.

OKk, first off, am absolutely no expert on salt water tanks, but here's my 2-pence where I think I can help:

Temp buffers:

The water's capacity to buffer for large temperature changes would depend on your overall volume of water. The bigger the tank, the better the buffering capacity. What is the volume of your tank, and how big are the fluctuations that you notice?

A good precaution would be to add more than one heater in the tank. Their thermostat would prevent them from overheating, yet their combined power would bring a quicker reaction to a need to raise the temperature.

Picking up stuff from outside:

The general rule for freshwater is to not pick up rocks, driftwood, etc. because of the associated risk of introducing pathogens in your tank (and risk of rotting). This would also rule out using sea water to precipitate the cycle. But perhaps salt water tanks do not follow the same rule, so let's wait for the expert's opinion on this one.

Recommended tank size for clowfish

30L sounds very small for most fish, and I have never seen clowfish in anything smaller than around 120L, to leave enough space for its hiding spots. But then again, I've not spent much time looking at clow fishes so better wait for a specialist's answer on that one.

No idea how much clowfish costs here.

Would definitely take me a looot longer to research if it was all in Thai! Mind you, I have to decipher instructions in Dutch and in German since moving to Holland. Not a day in the park either!*

COBettaCouple

With that temperature swing, do you mean that you don't have air conditioning? If so, you might want to look into a window A/C unit if possible or some high-speed tower fans and see if you can keep a bowl of water at a relatively consistent temperature.. probably in wherever is the coolest spot in the room.

It's possible to bring in stuff from a natural setting, but you do risk introducing disease or harmful bacteria to your tank system. I don't believe sea water will help the cycling of a SW tank to any significant degree. Transporting the materials would be the challenge and everything should be kept in water if you chose to get items for your tank from the 'wild'.

Clowns vary in price depending on size, but they are definitely cheaper there. 30 gallons is the minimum recommended tank size for a clownfish. The clownfish would also want water 75-80F. You'd want to measure the salinity and specific gravity of your tank also and i'd recommend some live rock and live sand for any SW tank.

armadillo

BettaCouple, I think his post mentions that he does have AC, and that that is the problem (as soon as he's home, he turns it on, which will drop the room temperature significantly)

COBettaCouple

If so, my suggestion would be to run it, even if at a slightly higher temp, while out so the temp. drop isn't as great and the tank water doesn't get so high.

gilesp

hi thanks for the prompt replies.
Im sorry about the slight error in my initial posting( to err is human, to arr is pirate). I mistook litres for gallons. I meant a 30 gallon tank and I thank FLBetta couple for his/her/their reply.
I do have air conditioning and I am loathe to leave it on constantly as that would be prohibitively expensive for my meagre salary. The setup I was thinking about was a number of cooling fans and a very small heater as I predict that the tank will spend more time being too hot than too cold.Am I correct in thinking that fans would decrease the temperature by around 2-3 degrees?
This is a new tank system so, currently, it is devoid of all aquatic life so there would be no danger of introducing any bacteria but I will cycle the tank in the usual way.

thanks,

giles

COBettaCouple

The fans should reduce the temp, especially if you can position them to flow air across the water surface. Other things to lower the temp could be to use a screen top for the tank rather than a hood (if possible), or use fluorescent lights instead of incandescent. You could also float ice cubes in a sealed plastic baggie.. and change your water daily with the coldest treated tap water.. maybe doing a few gallons each day. Hopefully these could all help lower the temp slowly and keep it from going too high during the day. you could also look for the most heat-tolerant fish and other sea life.