alexraj

Hi All,

The weather is hot in my place, and the water temperature goes as high as 84 F. I have a rainbow shark, pearl gourami, and sword tail in the tank. Do I need to try and bring down the water temperature. If yes, then how?

Regards,
Alex.

Shawnie

if its over 80ish, id use some frozen water bottles floating in the tank

Alasse

My tank sits at 30C most of the time and this is in winter (lights are heating it) Fish appear to cope no probs. Summer may be a prob for me though i think, so i will probably go the frozen water bottle if i see fish in distress.

Chief_waterchanger

The problem with warmer water is both for the fishes' comfort and the oxygen levels. (Higher temperatures cause their metabolism to be higher, which leads to shorter lifespans in a lot of animals, especially cold blooded ones. (Higher temperatures than they are genetically predispositioned to handle, that is.))

If the water temperature, for MOST tropical fish, gets over 83 degrees farenheit (28.333333333333335 celsius, I think ) I would use the water bottle idea to cool it down (careful to not cool it too quickly or too much).

Alasse, if that works for you then I wish you luck, because as we all know there are multiple ways to keep fish and most of us do things differently than others.

Martinismommy

This is how I keep my 5 gallon hex tanks cool.....In my 55 gallon salt tank I drop a frozen soda bottle filled with water in the sump....

Attached Images

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alexraj

Thanks everyone. The weather cooled down, I got to wait for another round of hot weather to try these techniques.

alexraj

Ok everyone, the heat is back and I am trying to apply your suggestions. I am not able to get hold of the adjustment. I floated a 20 oz frozen bottle in the 30 gallon tank. The ice melts in less than 15 minutes, but there is no change to the temperature. Should I try a bigger or multiple bottles. Another thing is when I tried the same size of bottle in a 10 gallon tank the temperature reduced by 1 degree in 15 minutes, so if I put a bigger/multiple bottle in the 30 gallon, I am not sure if such a change is drastic.

clinton1621

You only want to lower the temp a degree or two every 30 minutes to 1 hour to avoid shocking the fish... also try an air pump or maybe a second filter to get more aeration, more aeration and circulation means more heat dispersal and cooler water, kind of like when you stir water and it takes longer to boil.

pepetj

Hi alexraj:

I am keeping the temperature in my (former species only, termporarerly turned into Community tank) Red-Salmon Rainbowfish, 4footer, 40gal tank, close to 28C -almost a 2C pull-down!

I use four 20oz. bottles, placing only one at a time, and replace it every 2 hours or so (if I'm home) or even more than that (5 hours at evening time). I do this around the clock, 24/7 as a temporary solution that has saved my remaining 3 out of 7 Red-Salmon Rainbowfish (thanks to Kate and fishlore). I just open the lid and drop them inside the tank.

The first bottle will probably not show any impact in temperature going down, -same experience you are having, I had, probably due to the fact of daytime temperature being too high- but you will see by the second day, it works pretty well. Don't mind if you don't see the ice there, the frozen water that just turned liquid is still cooler than the tank's water.

I keep the bottles inside a plastic bag in the fridge section, at the corner where things get frozen right away, and allways rinse them by running some drinking water all aroung its surface to remove (and hopefully with the temp shock: kill) any organic stuff that may have found its way to the surface of that bottle (from the frozen-food stored in there).

Hope the heat goes away soon.

Pepe
Santo Domingo

alexraj

Thanks Clinton and Pepe. I wanted a air pump for my tank from the first day, but skipped doing it as it is optional, may be this is the time to setup one. Thanks for the plastic bag idea to wrap bottle, currently I put it in the ice tray, so it is separated from food. But 4 bottles are not going to fit in there, so got to put them with food.

Any idea approximately how much degrees the air pump can bring down?

lilsoccakid

another good one is to take the hood off of the top and have a fan blowing over the top of the water. this will cause more water to evaporate, so you might have to top the tank off more often, but it does help cool it down

clinton1621

It depends entirely on how big the air pump is and how much water it ends up moving... I would guess at the most it will bring it down a degree or two if its big enough to cause a good increase in circulation... also lighting could be causing the excess temps depending on the intensity and what wattage bulb youre using

clinton1621

The only reason (and its a big one!!) I wouldnt do this is because a lot of fish will jump, and you'll probably end up with one that doesnt land back in the water.... dried up fish on the carpet dont live so well lol. But the basic idea of this is the same as increasing your water flow.

pepetj

I would use a large airstone, or some of them, side by side, all the way at the back/rear side of the tank (looks good); and increase the HOB output, maybe take an inch or so of water from the tank than the usual level so the impact of the output water agitates the water better. However, airstones per se, would not bring temp down, just aid in the process.

If you have internal powerheads or submersible waterpumps remove them, they release heat into the water.

For long term solution, placing a few (noisy but helpful) small fans (those used in cooling power supplies would work well, easily availble at 120AC and 12DC)*. You could place a grid (metalic or plastic maybe?) at the rear end of the tank and place the fans on top. A lot of water will be evaporated, but all you need to do is refill daily.

*I'm giving the fan info based on my years of work as audio-maintenance engineer in a 24-48 channel recording studio, but that was BEFORE CDs were created LOL, I'm talking 1980s. So if those fans I give reference about are out of market, obsolete or completely outdated, I'm sorry, look for computer fans then... ROFL.
(I dropped down the Engineers world, I'm a Clinical Psychologist now)

Pepe
Santo Domingo