How far will nerites and RCS climb

[seangee]

I mean out of the water.

My nerites move at will between the front and back of my flex which involves climbing about an inch over the rear divider. Knowing this I don't bother investigating when one goes missing. This morning I found one upside down in the pump chamber while cleaning. I also found a little colony of shrimplets thriving in there. If they didn't climb over the top they went through the sponge filters and vent covers protecting chamber 1, through chamber 2 which is filled with a solid block of foam and into chamber 3.

As an aside these guys have survived massive temperature fluctuations because the extended warm spell in the UK means that every night I float frozen bottles of water in chamber one and the water flow is via chamber 3 (where they are living), and back into the main tank. Typically I drop the temp of the whole the tank by 5-6C over about 5 hours every evening!

And that warm spell is the reason for my question. Its showing no sign of letting up so I am wondering if dropping the water level and leaving the cover off is an option. if this is feasible how far should I drop the level?

 

[Baccus]

I personally would not drop the water height, because this will reduce volume while increasing fluctuations of temp in the tank. The shrimp are more than likely getting in to the filter because it has yummy (in their opinion) stuff to eat in there. Also because of the greater water movement within the filter there is the possibility that there is more oxygen more readily available in the filter over the tank. I would look at raising surface agitation to improve heat transfer between the surface oxygen and the water. This can be done two ways, if you have a HOB filter you can raise the water so that the return flow is running across the surface causing ripples rather than dropping into the water. The same can be done with an internal filter just raise it up the glass far enough that the return bar is level with the surface. Or you could add an airstone, and reduce the hours of tank light since the light will also heat up the tank.

 

[NickAu]

The shrimp are more than likely getting in to the filter because it has yummy (in their opinion) stuff to eat in there

Hey Baccus remember this?
http://www.fishforums.net/threads/houdini-the-escaping-shrimp.441732/

And shrimp are quite happy living in filters, its dark there is plenty of food and nobody bothers them.

 

[Baccus]

Hey Baccus remember this?
http://www.fishforums.net/threads/houdini-the-escaping-shrimp.441732/

And shrimp are quite happy living in filters, its dark there is plenty of food and nobody bothers them.

I certainly do. Thankfully most of my shrimp tend to stay in the tank, except where I have a large canister filter that one the shrimp just cant resist

 

[seangee]

I personally would not drop the water height, because this will reduce volume while increasing fluctuations of temp in the tank. The shrimp are more than likely getting in to the filter because it has yummy (in their opinion) stuff to eat in there. Also because of the greater water movement within the filter there is the possibility that there is more oxygen more readily available in the filter over the tank. I would look at raising surface agitation to improve heat transfer between the surface oxygen and the water.

I have no problem whatsoever with where they choose to spend their time, as long as it is within the confines of the tank. Like most people in the UK I don't have aircon because why would you?

Lights have actually been turned off for the last 2 weeks to keep temps down. Night time air temp in that room has now hit 29C and there is nothing I can do about it. Air temp outside is lower at night but as soon as I close the windows the heat comes back in from where it is stored in the wall and ceiling cavities. We have got through the weekend by constantly rotating frozen bottles of water between the freezer and the tank but its back to work tomorrow and the long term forecast shows no let up in sight .

My community tank is running 5 degrees cooler. 2 because its in a cooler room and 3 degrees because I have the hood open and a fan continuosly blowing across the surface to create evaporation.

 

[Baccus]

My tanks do not have airconditoning either and are in an uninsulated colourbond car shed with concrete floor. In winter my tanks can get quite cold especially if we have some 3 degree cel nights/ mornings. But in summer my tanks are regularly over 30 degrees cel for almost the entire 3 months of summer if not longer. So all my tanks are open topped with as much surface agitation as possible with added airstones. When I am home I open up a couple of the doors to try and get the heat out.

 

[NickAu]

You could try cooling fans

Or you could build your own out of Computer cooling fans