SUMMER WATER TEMPERATURE 90°

[Sicklidcommunity]

Hi guys, i i live in india and the summers here get pretty hot my tank is an in- wall one and the hood is very difficult to remove since it also carries top filters ( it can be moved enough for water changes ). I recently lost most of my mbuna cichlids and the only reason i could think of was the temperature since everything else was well balanced. The room where my tank is has no AC.
Can someone please suggest ideas to cool down the tank withouth spending 100s of dollars.?

 

[Colin_T]

Turn lights off during the day.
Make sure the heater is off.
Have a fan in the room blowing air over the tank.
Have the tank closer to the ground. Hot air rises so the higher the tank the warmer it gets.
Opening the hood up and removing coverglass so the heat can come out a bit quicker.

You can freeze plastic bottles of water and let the bottle float in the tank. You need to monitor the temperature when doing this and replace bottles regularly to keep a steady temperature. Once a bottle has been used in the tank, put it back in the freezer to freeze again and reuse it the following day. Keep the lid on the bottles at all times.

Use a small portable air-conditioner in the room with the fish tank.

Open the door and window at night (assuming it is safe to do so) to let the room cool down, and close the doors, windows and curtains in the morning to keep the heat out.

If you have a television or computer in that room, try not to use them. Electrical appliances warm rooms up quite quickly and even a laptop being used to surf the net can warm the room by a couple of degrees Celsius.

Rift Lake cichlids generally don't do well in temperatures above 30C (86F), so if your water hit 90F, that will kill them.

 

[seangee]

Are you able to raise the hood slightly so there is a gap. Perhaps using small bits of wood or plastic to support it.

What is the temperature of the water that comes out of your tap. If noticeably lower than room temp it may be worth doing more frequent water changes. I know people say to "temperature match" the new water but in the wild fish do have temerature fluctuations so if you could drop it by say 5 degrees during a water change - especially if it takes more than a couple of hours to get back up to room temp. If you do have AC in another room you could keep a 25l jerry can in that room to lower the temp before a water change ( and possibly add ice to it as well.)

Every little helps

 

[Sicklidcommunity]

Turn lights off during the day.
Make sure the heater is off.
Have a fan in the room blowing air over the tank.
Have the tank closer to the ground. Hot air rises so the higher the tank the warmer it gets.
Opening the hood up and removing coverglass so the heat can come out a bit quicker.

You can freeze plastic bottles of water and let the bottle float in the tank. You need to monitor the temperature when doing this and replace bottles regularly to keep a steady temperature. Once a bottle has been used in the tank, put it back in the freezer to freeze again and reuse it the following day. Keep the lid on the bottles at all times.

Use a small portable air-conditioner in the room with the fish tank.

Open the door and window at night (assuming it is safe to do so) to let the room cool down, and close the doors, windows and curtains in the morning to keep the heat out.

If you have a television or computer in that room, try not to use them. Electrical appliances warm rooms up quite quickly and even a laptop being used to surf the net can warm the room by a couple of degrees Celsius.

Rift Lake cichlids generally don't do well in temperatures above 30C (86F), so if your water hit 90F, that will kill them.

Thank you very much for taking time to reply ..but most of the tips wont work out for me its a 55 gallon and ive tried floating bottles and it barely makes a difference and if i remove my hood i will have to remove my filtration to because its fixed on the hood . Its unrealistic to keep the doors open at night in my locality . I got a basic idea of what i need to do though appreciate the help

 

[Sicklidcommunity]

Are you able to raise the hood slightly so there is a gap. Perhaps using small bits of wood or plastic to support it.

What is the temperature of the water that comes out of your tap. If noticeably lower than room temp it may be worth doing more frequent water changes. I know people say to "temperature match" the new water but in the wild fish do have temerature fluctuations so if you could drop it by say 5 degrees during a water change - especially if it takes more than a couple of hours to get back up to room temp. If you do have AC in another room you could keep a 25l jerry can in that room to lower the temp before a water change ( and possibly add ice to it as well.)

Every little helps

Yes it can be raised slightly .. i have tried ice cubes but its a 55 gallon i would have to overflow my tank for it to make any difference and have been using RO water all this while my tap water is extremely hardh.... oh but brilliant idea about keeping the jerry can in AC room definitely trying this.. thank you

 

[Colin_T]

Leave the lid of the hood open so the heat can come out. You won't have to remove the hood and the filter can keep working. And remove the coverglass because they trap heat in the aquarium water. When the weather cools down you can put the coverglass back on the tank.

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If you have African Rift Lake cichlids like Mbuna, they need hard alkaline water. Do not use reverse osmosis water for African Rift Lake cichlids unless you are adding a Rift Lake Conditioner to increase the hardness. The fish need hard alkaline water so if your tap water is hard (has a lot of minerals in it) then use it. And use a dechlorinator to remove chlorine/ chloramine from the tap water before the water is added to the tank.

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Big tanks might need 2 or 3 or even 4 bottles of frozen water to drop the temperature. A friend has a 10ft long (1000+ litre) marine tank and he uses a couple of frozen 5 litre bottles to drop the water temp in summer. A couple of 2 litre bottles of frozen water should reduce the temperature in your tank a few degrees.

You only have to keep the temperature below 30C (86F). You don't have to drop it 10 degrees C, It only has to be less than 30C. A couple of frozen 2 litre bottles of water should be enough to bring the temperature down to less than 30C.

If you are concerned about the tank overflowing, remove 5-10 litres before you put the bottles in the aquarium.

 

[Sicklidcommunity]

Leave the lid of the hood open so the heat can come out. You won't have to remove the hood and the filter can keep working. And remove the coverglass because they trap heat in the aquarium water. When the weather cools down you can put the coverglass back on the tank.

-----------------------
If you have African Rift Lake cichlids like Mbuna, they need hard alkaline water. Do not use reverse osmosis water for African Rift Lake cichlids unless you are adding a Rift Lake Conditioner to increase the hardness. The fish need hard alkaline water so if your tap water is hard (has a lot of minerals in it) then use it. And use a dechlorinator to remove chlorine/ chloramine from the tap water before the water is added to the tank.

-----------------------
Big tanks might need 2 or 3 or even 4 bottles of frozen water to drop the temperature. A friend has a 10ft long (1000+ litre) marine tank and he uses a couple of frozen 5 litre bottles to drop the water temp in summer. A couple of 2 litre bottles of frozen water should reduce the temperature in your tank a few degrees.

You only have to keep the temperature below 30C (86F). You don't have to drop it 10 degrees C, It only has to be less than 30C. A couple of frozen 2 litre bottles of water should be enough to bring the temperature down to less than 30C.

If you are concerned about the tank overflowing, remove 5-10 litres before you put the bottles in the aquarium.

Ok il keep the lid open slightly and try adding more bottles in through the small gap . The person at the fish store recommended RO since the fishes were born and brought up in it and they had been working fine for me in the last year. I will try my best to cool down the water using your suggestions thank you

 

[DrRob]

They'll still prefer being gradually acclimatised to hard water, and may well survive better if other conditions aren't perfect.

The other option if you're into more diy is evaporative cooling, same principle as a swamp cooler. You could rig up some form of waterfall arrangement outside the tank. I've seen people use set ups like the algae scubbers some reef keepers use (but with a fan instead of the lights). You'd have to increase top off water but in the dryer heat of summer it can make a huge difference.

 

[Colin_T]

The only reason I could think of for using R/O water for Rift Lake cichlids is if the tap water is toxic, but they should be adding mineral salts to increase the hardness.

I don't mean to offend you but are you sure you have Mbuna cichlids and the shop didn't mess up labels and give you south American cichlids?

If you definitely have Mbunas and the shop said to keep them in R/O water, I would find another shop to buy fish from, or see if there is a cichlid society in the area and go to their meetings and get fish from the local breeders

 

[Sicklidcommunity]

The only reason I could think of for using R/O water for Rift Lake cichlids is if the tap water is toxic, but they should be adding mineral salts to increase the hardness.

I don't mean to offend you but are you sure you have Mbuna cichlids and the shop didn't mess up labels and give you south American cichlids?

If you definitely have Mbunas and the shop said to keep them in R/O water, I would find another shop to buy fish from, or see if there is a cichlid society in the area and go to their meetings and get fish from the local breeders

no i definitely had mbunas and a pair of green terrors ...wil make sure to use hard water the next time .
i have decided to give my fish away to a friend since i am going on vacation and the 3 fish that are in the tank arent very confident and always hiding .. they will probably do better in a crowded cichlid tank. thank you.

 

[Colin_T]

If you are only going on holiday for a few weeks your fish should be fine without anyone caring for them. Just do a couple of big water changes and gravel cleans before you go, clean the filter and give them one good feed before you go, then let them be. If fish are well fed they can go for weeks or even a month or more without any food and not suffer any bad side effects.

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If your fish are shy and hide a lot you can have a small television on in the room (no sound needed) and the flashing light and movement can help them get use to having movement around the tank. You can also use a small oscillating fan with some streamers tied to the front. Have the fan on a timer and as the fan comes on during the day the streamers wave about and the fish see movement and get use to it.

 

[Sicklidcommunity]

well in my experience every day of feeding i skipped the least dominant cichlid would be dead and found only with a skeleton and i feel like i also need a break from all the aggression of cichlids (they will always be my favourites ) and try a different kind of fish . the fish that i have right now are relatively new and only 3 so i want to switch before i fall for the cichlid trap and buy more again

 

[Chief Brody]

Try discus or green neons

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