Dangers Of High Temperature

[starsatnight]

hello there. i have an established 25Gallon tank and have recently started a 10gallon tank. the area i'm living in now is experiencing a heat-wave and shows no sign of going away for the rest of the week. my fish have all been fine, but i've noticed that a few of my silver tipped tetras sitting at the bottom of the tank and appear to be losing some of their colour. the other silver-tips are fine and are swimming around normally. there are also a pair of platy's in the tank and they have good colour and are as friendly and mobile as ever.

i've noticed that the temperature goes beyond my the max of my 30C thermometre "tape" by the end of each day. i've been doing water changes and introducing slightly cooler water to bring the temp back down - but am now wondering if it's better to leave a high temperature alone - or to keep trying to bring the temp down.

i guess the question i'm asking is : are temperature fluctuations better than high temps in a smaller tank. i'm just so concerned i'm going to boil my fish!

any help would be appreciated.

 

[afishdude]

just leave it alone, temp changes can leed to desies. just put a fan next to the tank and leave the lights off durring the hot times of the day. and feed less also

 

[starsatnight]

just leave it alone, temp changes can leed to desies. just put a fan next to the tank and leave the lights off durring the hot times of the day. and feed less also

thanks for the advice. i'm already leaving the light off during the day - but i hadn't thought of the fan. i'll try that!

 

[murphyk32]

im not sure how it works but ive also heard of people adding ice cube or two

 

[-germ-]

Have the fan blowing onto the waters surface if possible, as well as increasing the potential for oxygenation (hypoxia being a worry due to the high temp) this will agitate the waters surface, a good thing IMO. I have 2 fans, 1 of which is constantly on my Hillstream Loach tank, blowing on the glass and another clip on fan which is rarely used, i live in the UK and the 1 fan is generally sufficient.
Temp fluctuations are often discussed by the more scientifically minded posters on this forum and the general consensus (which, however, does not make it a fact) appears to be that water changes using cooler water would not lead to illness and/or stress in the majority of cases.
Obviously there are exceptions to this; 100% water changes Betta Splendens etc.
With a bit of luck one of the

more scientifically minded posters

will notice this and elaborate on theory that i don't understand in detail.
Maybe not but you certainly need to get the temp down.
I think murphy is talking about adding icecubes to the filter or a bag of ice to the tank which should also lower the temp a little, but realistically a fan is a more practical option.

 

[starsatnight]

good advice germ (and murphy)!
the weather is breaking today - so i'm guessing the temp will go down on it's own - but they're warning that we'll be back up to 40C in a few days time. got to love the toronto weather!

i'll do another partial water change in a few days - but for the past 2 days the tank has been hovering at 30C. it's better than when i see the level 'disappear' off of the strip all together. i worry that i'm cooking the poor things.

i'll keep doing what i do and see how it goes. worse comes to worse - maybe i can drop the 10G inhabitants in my 25G tank for a few days! it's much better able to regulate the temp.

 

[knt5005]

I've tried the ice cube thing, and it doesn't do much. My water was off the scale when I was at home, and ice cubes would be gone in a minute. I took out one bucket (2.5 US gallons) and replaced it with slightly cooler water for a few days until it came back down. My fish didn't seem to mind, as I was unaware of the fan idea. I would try that instead. It seems less invasive.

 

[afishdude]

o yea! go with my idea.