Aquarium Versus Air Conditioner

[Tommy Gunnz]

Hey everyone. I got an interesting delema, at least I think I might. I live in an apartment which has obviously a floor plan that I cannot change. My question deals with my 55 gallon tank being directly underneath our built in air conditioning unit (which again, cannot be moved). This is by far the best place for me to keep the tank due to my living room layout, couches, entertainment center, computer, and phone jacks, cable hook ups, etc. Is this going to add a new problem to my tank if the cold air is blowing about a foot above the tank? I have looked and cannot change the direction of air flow, but the good news is that IF the air conditioner were to leak, it would go behind the tank and not into it. Would this just add more stress to the heater in the tank or is it just an all together bad idea to keep them so close? Last summer, I rarely used the AC at all, but this year could be much hotter or colder, it is hard to tell since I live in Wisconsin where we have all kinds of odd weather.

If anyone has any suggestions or has run into a problem with this before, I would love to hear your input! Thanks for taking the time to read this and help me out!

 

[steelhealr]

If your tank is covered, and, as you said, protected, I don't see an issue UNLESS you buy a cheap heater and then the tank starts having temp swings. You may want to consider buying 2 reliable heaters and putting one on each side of the tank. This might stablize water temps and also act as a backup if one should die. SH