mcdonald.kk

I have my heater set to 76 F. I have never seen it fluctuate until recently when we had a few days with temps in the mid-seventies. The temp in my aquarium shot up to 82 F by the time I got home for work. Naturally I freaked out because I know that the temp should only change 1 or 2 degrees for every couple of hours. Over a period of three days I slowly lowered my heater setting to 73/74. It is almost 10pm now and the temp is reading about 78. What should I do? Do I need to be worried about my fish? I have had to put aluminum foil on top of my tank to keep my cat from jumping onto it. Could this be trapping the heat? Any help would be great! =)

Shawnie

your fish acclimate well to temps ...78 is ok..and up to 80 is fine...they even go up to 84 or so for ich treatments...just make sure you do water changes as warmer water holds less oxygen

mcdonald.kk

oooh Thank you so much for the info about oxygenation! I'll do a water change tomorrow just to be safe. I do see pearling almost constantly on my watersprite so at least that's been helping. Again thank you thank you! I would be heartbroken if my little guys died.

steveangela1

One thing I will note.. I bought a stealth heater for my 36g bowfront omg its a wonderful heater.. I am having to fiddle w/ my heater on my 55g from the temp going up in TN here.. the stealth has a set temp and its been consistant.. my water temp stays right at 77-78.5... I am replacing all my heaters w/ one w/ a thermostat...

mcdonald.kk

what kind of thermostat do you use? I just have the sticker one that goes on the side. I've always wondered how accurate it was....I'll be sure to check out those heaters at my lfs.

Tavel

those sticky thermometers are remarkably accurate.

They're all a little different, but most work like this...

- Blue means the temperature is above shown
- green means 'exact' temperature
- red/brown mean temperature is below shown.

so if 78 is blue, and 80 is red, the temperature is about 79 degrees.

but you should use a kitchen thermometer to figure out the color scheme, one of my strips goes by the highest temp shown.

My thermometer indicated the temperature as 78 degrees...the kitchen thermometer said it was 78.6 degrees. not bad, eh?