Fairly New Tank, Heat Issue!

[Xreaper]

Hello all, and well met!

I'm new to the boards and the hobby in general, so I hope to learn alot from all of you. My wife and I set up our first tank back in January and everything seems to be going well. My setup is a 30 gallon tank with 3 tiger barbs, 3 rosy barbs, a red tail shark and a clown loach. Here is my issue:

I don't have central air in my house, and in the past we didn't usually leave the window units running while we're at work (we both work an average of 10-12 hour days). During the summer there have been times when I walked into my house and my thermostat has read 93 degrees. With summer approaching i'm very concerned about the fish and how this will affect them.

A) I imagine if the temperature in the house is 90+ degrees the water in the tank will get up there too. Is this something I should be worried about, or can these fish handle it? Logically these are tropical fish and the lakes they come from must warm up in the summer as well, but I don't know that heat will affect a huge lake the same way it would a little 30 gallon tank of water.

I have been told of 'chiller' units but understand they can run you upwards of $300-$400. I would guess i'm not the first person in the world with this problem, is there any 'workaround' or something else I can do short of spending $300+ or running my AC units all day long? Please help!!!

Thanks,

George

 

[JenCliBee]

for a start hello and welcome

firstly 90 is really way 2 warm i have a temp issue aswell my tanks sit around 82- 86 but my fish are healthy and it doesnt seem 2 bother them i think it mite at 90+ the only thing i can really suggest other than buying 1 of these chiller units which i have no clue about is put a couple of frozen water bottles in the tank just 2 keep temp down slightly and always have backups so when these 1's melt u have the ones 2 replace them .

the only other issue is that clown loach get rather big and 30 gallon tank isnt really big enough for when they do start 2 get bigger if ur going 2 upgrade in the future then this is no concern but i thought i would just let u know about this lol

hope this helps


jen

 

[Xreaper]

Thanks Jen!

The water bottles might work - but would that cool the water too quickly and make it uncomfortable for the fish? I'd like to hear some other opinions on this!

Also, I goofed - he's not a clown loach, he's an Angelicus Loach which from what I read grows a max of 5 inches (still kind of big) which is much smaller than the Clown.

~George

 

[JenCliBee]

The water bottles might work - but would that cool the water too quickly and make it uncomfortable for the fish? I'd like to hear some other opinions on this!

i wouldnt have imagined so cause as the tanks colling bootle are melting its reasonbley sized tank so i wouldnt think it would drop 2 much

 

[Xreaper]

The water bottles might work - but would that cool the water too quickly and make it uncomfortable for the fish? I'd like to hear some other opinions on this!

i wouldnt have imagined so cause as the tanks colling bootle are melting its reasonbley sized tank so i wouldnt think it would drop 2 much

True, and thinking about it now if the water DID get too cold the heater would kick on to even things out anyway. Thanks Jen!

 

[JenCliBee]