Fish Tank Too Warm

[Beephnix]

It has been quite warm in here tonight and the temperature of the water in the fish tank has gone up to around 27 - 28 Celcius (about 80F). I'm sure that this is still just about ok for the fish, but it's got me worrying about what I should do when the temperature in the flat goes up too much. I don't have air conditioning or anything, so I can't do much about the temperature inside.

I did a partial water change and brought the temperature down to about 25C. Is this the right thing to do? Am I worrying too much?

 

[doresy]

My tank temp goes up to nearly 30* sometimes but was told on here that it's ok. In very hot weather I leave the feeding flap open to allow heat to escape and lessen the lighting time as they add to the problem.

If you consider doing it then check that none of your fish are jumpers!

 

[afishdude]

making your tank temp fall, over 5ºF may leed to ich. so watch out when trying to lower it.

 

[Meds081603]

I have several tanks that often reach the low 80's and have no issues. I even have a quarantine and fry growout tank in my tool shed that hits 90 and I don't have issues with those either. Just keep the water aerated pretty well.

Regarding temp drops, if you do drop the temp do it slowly and don't worry about ich. If the tank is established and there are no new fish then you can't get ich from a temperature drop. The only way dropping the temperature could result in ich is if you have a newer fish that has ich but no visible signs. The sudden temp drop could stress the fish allowing the ich to gain strength and show itself as the telltale white spots.

 

[Rooster]

Nothing to worry about.... its RAPID change that does the harm, adding cool water is the last thing to do... unless there are a lot of fish "gasping" at the surface, do nothing !

 

[squarefish]

Last evening was a humid night in Southampton, and the room temperature got quite high. The tank temp reached about 80 plus (top of the safety zone) but fish seemed OK. I put a fan towards the tank, which lowered it but only very slowly (a couple of degrees in three hours!). I did turn the lights off and open the feeding flap to keep everything cooler.

 

[Aphotic Phoenix]

Mine hovers around 80-82F if I leave the lights on for the plants and haven't seen any effect on the fish. Considering people temporarily raise their tank temps to 86F for ich treatments I wouldn't be too concerned about 80-82F.

If you are really worried about it however:
1) If it's cooler outside at night open the windows to let in the cooler air, and once the sun starts coming up close off the room, block up the windows with heavy (insulating) curtains, etc, open everything up again at night to keep the room cooler.
2) Keep the tank lights on a minimal amount, especially if you have higher wattage bulbs, or incandescents (yikes! huge heat producers)
3) If none of your fish are jumpers then open up the cover and position a fan to blow across the surface of the water...this can usually help drop the tank temp by a few degrees although it will cause more evaporation.