The Tank of Death

[Leslie]

I've had a 10 Gallon running for 6 months now. It's heavily planted with bogwood in it. It's got a Penguin 125 and a heater which is kept around 74 degrees. I do weekly 20% water changes at which time I also vacuum the gravel. Everyone was doing wonderfully well until last weekend when we had very hot weather which pushed the temperature in the tank to around 86. I lost my 2 lovely Otos first then the White Clouds started dying off. In total I've lost 5 Gold White Clouds and 2 Otos. There are only 2 GWC left as well as 3 Habrosus Corys and 1 Bristlenose Pleco. It's this side of fishkeeping that really bites.

 

[tstenback]

Try to have a bottle or too of frozen water ready in the freezer for those scorcher days i here other people in the world get . When they come and the temp starts to get out of the "normal" range then float one in the tank. It will drop the temp or at least help to hold it steady. you will have to experiment with the number/size of bottles for your tank though. Also you could let a fan blow across the top of the tank. More evaporation but effective as well. Hope it works out for you.

 

[Leslie]

I was doing the ice and fan thing... unfortunately I have too many tanks and not enough ice. As well I was unable to be home for some of the time. We're not used to 95 degree weather in these parts.

 

[Wyld-Fyre]

I'm curious. During the time of the heatwave did you by any chance left the heater on?

We had a spell of hot weather, here in the UK, recently and my tank temp rose to about 86f/88f. This was when I took the risk of unplugging the heater. The temp didn't plunge and was stable throughout. None of my fishes have suffered.

Perhaps you could consider this yourself.

 

[SilverDollar_03]

yeah, turn the heater off, keep the lights off as long as you can, and put bags of ice in the tank.

Sorry to hear that, that really does bite

 

[Aquascaper]

Or move to England where your lucky if the outside temp reaches the tank temp let alone makes it rise

Oh, did i mention the rain?

 

[fuman_chica]

I've had the same luck with my tanks. I've pretty much given up as I have been putting ice in everyday and have had fans on my tanks for the last two and a half weeks with no change. The tempature changes so much in the tanks that I ended up with a REALLY bad case of ich in this last week. I've lost 2 cherry barbs, 1 red-eye tetra, and 1 betta to ich in the last three days.

Since the beginning of July I've lost (in total, including the ones from ich) seven mollies, two bettas, two cherry barbs and one red-eye tetra. I only have one betta and one red-eye tetra left.

I don't figure that my room-mate's obsessive smoking habbit helps anything either. there is almost always a layer of it on the top of the water...no matter how many times I do water changes.

I took my new betta (the only one left) to my mom's so hopefully it will get the chance to live. The tetra has been in the same tank as all of the others that have died, so I don't want to put it in with my betta...don't want to risk exposing the betta if it doesn't have ich already.

 

[SilverDollar_03]

i guess im lucky, because where i live, in London, Canada it gets very hot, about 85-90, but i keep my tank in the basement where it is nice and cool!

 

[suspectdebbie]

I live in "garden" (basement but sounds nicer!) apartment in Chicago, so it stays pretty cool most of the time, I only run the A/C for maybe an hour a day just when I get home. But, i'm worried about the winter, last winter it was pretty drafty (draughty for those in the UK). We will have to see I guess, thankfully I do have a heater, maybe in winter it'll actually need to run.

 

[Leslie]

It's very difficult when it goes from 95 during the day to 55 during the night. The temperature in the house is set to 70 and I make sure to close all the windows at night but the fluctuation has just been too much. Luckily I haven't lost any Bettas yet, although a couple of them are looking downright miserable. I've also got Ich in the 125... stupid stupid me didn't quarantine the Black Neons and wouldn't ya know... 3 days later they come down with it. Thanks goodness I have an excellent lfs close by and caught the Ich early enough... everyone seems to be doing fine now.

I'd love to come to England !! Send me a plane ticket and I'm there !!

 

[cometcattle]

Sorry for your losses Leslie.

I am also dealing with a tank of doom. Bad ich outbreak.
I lost all my rummies and neons so far, and I doubt my ram will be alive tommorrow. I caught it early, but the meds don't seem to be working.

I now know this tank, being a 10g and because it's location needs to be stocked with hardier fish. So much for my South American tank.

 

[Earthgirl]

Awh, so sorry to hear about your loss!