Water Temp - How To Keep It Stable In The Summer

[rebrn]

Hello,

I have a question regarding water chillers. I have a 5 gallon tank, no fish yet still cycling, however, in the summer months (I live in South Carolina) I noticed that with the heater unplugged the water temp got up to about 85F and occasionally on really hot days up to around 90F (it was September when I got the tank I would hate to see it during the height of summer). I can keep the water temp around 80 F with the AC blasting, but that means my husband and I are all bundled up in thick woolly sweaters to keep from freezing. It is not a big deal now as we are hitting the winter months and it is a little cooler, but for next summer this will definitely become an issue. I keep the tank in one of the bedrooms, and generally the bedrooms are hotter by about 3-5 degrees than the rest of the apartment, but I really can't move it to the main living area due to space (have my larger tank set up there with danio so they definately need cooler water than the betta). So one of the 3 bedrooms is the only option right now. I have seen aquarium chillers but none that are appropriate for a 5 gallon tank. Any ideas of where I can get one?

FYI I did (and will still for next summer) have fans in the bedroom that helped somewhat but still the water would reach around 87 F even with the fans.

 

[nmonks]

A chiller on this sized tank is not going to be cost effective.

To be honest, a 5-gallon tank will experience wild temperature changes whatever you do simply because of its size. Water heats up and cools down relatively slowly, and the more the water, the slower this happens. Hence a big aquarium barely experienced any temperature changes at all during the summer because by the time it starts warming up in the daytime, it's already the evening, and it'll cool down again during the night. So any variation in temperature will be well within the tolerances of most fish.

It's the same reason why a cup of tea cools down quickly, while the teapot takes longer, and a bathtub even longer again.

I have an 8 (Imperial)-gallon tank on a windowsill, and it experiences very dramatic temperature changes even here in England, thanks to direct sunlight. The solution has been to choose livestock that don't mind that. Limia seem to do well, being quite happy for the temperature to go as high as 32 C for short periods during the day. Likewise, desert gobies (Chlamydogobius eremius) not only don't mind wild changes in temperature, they seem to breed happily under such conditions too. Cherry shrimps are a third type of animal that does exceedingly well in this tank. So choosing the right livestock may be part of the solution. While I don't keep bettas, I'd fully expect them to handle this sort of thing well, particularly the hardier varieties.

An old approach is to freeze two or more plastic cartons of water (with lids on). These can be floated in an overheating tank as required. While not really practical for long hot summers, if you're dealing with just a few days of overheating, then this system can work well.

Cheers, Neale