Temperature In Tank Sky High!

[B13]

Hi all,

Bearing in mind that the UK is going through a heatwave at the mo, my digital thermometer gave a reading of 31 degrees C this morning!!

I've done everything I can to cool the tank down (it's not by a window, by the way) I've opened all the windows to get a draft going through the flat, shut the blinds and drapes during the day, I've even got a fan blowing at it with the tank's lid open. But nothing I do is doing much to bring the temperature back down.

I can't move the tank because there's nowhere else to put it!

Will my fish be OK? I've read that the optimum tank temp should be 24 degrees C, so how will a 7 degree increase affect them?? Changing the water brings temporary respite, but I'm worried about even doing that because a sudden drop in temperature probably won't do them much good either!

HELP!!!!!

 

[jacko9901]

Hi all,

Bearing in mind that the UK is going through a heatwave at the mo, my digital thermometer gave a reading of 31 degrees C this morning!!

I've done everything I can to cool the tank down (it's not by a window, by the way) I've opened all the windows to get a draft going through the flat, shut the blinds and drapes during the day, I've even got a fan blowing at it. But nothing I do is doing much to bring the temperature back down.

I can't move the tank because there's nowhere else to put it!

Will my fish be OK? I've read that the optimum tank temp should be 24 degrees C, so how will a 5 degree increase affect them?? Changing the water brings temporary respite, but I'm worried about even doing that because a sudden drop in temperature probably won't do them much good eitehr!

HELP!!!!!

both of mine are just under 30 degrees C, i've turned the heaters to the lowest setting and use slightly colder water in the water changes.

hope this helps

 

[B13]

Thanks Jacko!!




(It looks like a load of us are having similar problems, I've just found this thread...)

 

[GoGators]

I'm from the states, Florida to be exact. Is it common to not have air conditioning in the UK? I know most Walmarts and Home Depot sell window units for under 150$ but you need AC year round here because without it the temp indoors is over 95 degrees. Please excuse my ignorance I thought most houses had AC. I guess it depends where you live because I bet my heat at home wasn't used but 10 days all of last year. The heat index was over 105 everyday last week, it sucked!

 

[Macko1968]

You'll be lucky to find anyone in the UK with AC in the house, we probably only get a couple of weeks of these tems (29-32) in a whole year.

 

[Rooster]

DONT WORRY ABOUT IT !!!

These fluctuations occur in nature... as long as its not much hotter than 30c I wouldnt do a thing.... then you can perhaps pop a jamjar, or some other SEALED container of cold tap water in the tank (thats IN the jamjar !)

The name of the game here is stability...slooow changes - panicking will kill your fish

 

[keenonfish]

I know most Walmarts and Home Depot sell window units for under 150$

LOL 150$ might just buy you one of those ### awfull tower fans that spray water at you and end up making the room humid as well as much hotter lol! I think you can buy Aircon units on wheels for office use etc. but they will cost a bomb over here!

 

[vincentclive]

yeah, we don't get 'adverse'* weather very often in the UK, my tanks up 3 degrees (centigrade) and i'm not sure who feels worse, me or the fish! you'd have to be very well off or in a really modern house (much the same) to have in home AC over here and anything you can buy for a 'reasonable' price (£100 or so) is the kind of crap you'd pay $70-80 for (so breaks before the end of the heatwave and sprays water at the best of times)


* i realise our definition of diverse might differ to most other countries

 

[GoGators]

It sounds like the exact opposite of Florida. It's only cold here maybe 2 or 3 weeks, the rest of the time it's 80+. The cost of AC in UK sounds awful, you guys are lucky it's only hot for a short time. I'm sorry for highjacking the thread I was just curious.

 

[arobinson1984]

Not fish related but just wanted to say I'd been to Florida twice and weather is so much different to here in uk.

Even after two weeks of being there I still expected it to be cold when I walked out of the air conditioned stores then the heat hit me lol

andy

 

[waterdrop]

No wonder your lawns are so nice over there, I'll bet your nighttime temps rarely stay above 70F/21C like ours do, which the fungus love.

All of our central air conditioners have been now running for months in the southeast USA.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[OldMan47]

Back to cooling tanks, I find that by spraying the water into the air from my pond tub's filter/fountain pump, enough of the water evaporates all the time to help hold the temperature of the tub down several degrees below the air temperature. For me that was literally a life saver last week when the temperatures here climbed to over 34C during the day. I was able to hide in my air conditioned home but the goodieds in my tub were definitely threatened by the daily high temperatures. This particular species of goodeids are reputed to be OK up to about 26C and I often feel OK pushing them to 30C as long as the time they are there is short but at 34C for several days in a row I had expected to lose some. When it cooled back down enough to open the house to the outside, I did a large water change and found almost as many fish as I had put out for the summer. They were much larger than when they went into the tub in April and were looking fairly good actually. I only find them when doing a water change because of the green water that they tend to call home. The ones that I found were the ones not smart enough to avoid me catching them by dipping out a bucket of water.
I am speculating that there might be something similar that could be done by directing a spray bar upwards with the water level a bit low to get that good evaporation rate that will cool your tanks.