What Do You Do About The Tank Temp During Summer?

[FishBlast]

Do I really need a cooler?
Temp here tends to reach over 35C during summer...
It's spring now, it's 20C in the house and my water somehow stands at 25C even though the heater is off / inactive. Which means it will be 40C during summer. X_X Will it have any effect on the swordtails / bacteria colony? For my first swordies it didn't matter, but not sure about these.

 

[KkAaNnEe]

Fans, less lighting, cold water changes, float some ice, no easy solutions really though

 

[Man of fish]

My heater just isn't in use. The house stays about 75* F and the tank stays about 78-80* F without the heater it's also on an outside wall though so I don't know snout my other tanks on inside walls.

 

[FishBlast]

After the incident with frozen bloodworms, I'm kind of scared of floating ice stuff in there during summer.
Fans - we do use them, but they only drop the heat to 30C, which would still leave the water at 35C...
Before I didn't worry much about the temp (fish didn't get heated water but had room temp during winter, and during summer it was the heat... it did kill some of the more fragile fish, but that was probably because I didn't know about filtration much back then).

Cold water changes - can do, but hope the fish won't go for the jet (they always do it at this time), as cold water + fish in warm water can be a shock -.-

Times like these I wish I had a cooler. Then if let's say the heater would break and go nuts heating the tank too much, the cooler would save the day. Or if the cooler breaks, the heater would save the fish from freezing.

 

[KkAaNnEe]

Im unaware of your bloodworm problem, sorry but I meant ice in a bottle

Also when I say cold water changes, I mean luke warm not so cold they will shock

At least these summer temp increases will be over a period of time and will probably remain quite stable

 

[FishBlast]

Im unaware of your bloodworm problem, sorry but I meant ice in a bottle

Also when I say cold water changes, I mean luke warm not so cold they will shock

At least these summer temp increases will be over a period of time and will probably remain quite stable

The bloodworms were frozen and I put them in the tank during a summer and some fish died as soon as they touched them. I don't remember exactly what other type of fish died (those yellow tetras with a black dot), but some of them were neon tetras and they pecked and died quite quickly. It was odd. One moment they were biting it and the next they turned to the side and died.

 

[Man of fish]

I guess you know now you're supposed to dissolve the cube in a cup first now right?

 

[FishBlast]

I guess you know now you're supposed to dissolve the cube in a cup first now right?

Ever since then, I just leave the cube outside on a lid to melt the ice.
But I see some people here say they have no problem putting it into the tank. (except that one incident when someone's betta took the whole cube for himself and pigged out on it).
So it makes me wonder what happened that summer with my fish and why they died so fast after pecking (and not eating anything off of it because it was still iced).

 

[watertown28]

I guess you know now you're supposed to dissolve the cube in a cup first now right?

Ever since then, I just leave the cube outside on a lid to melt the ice.
But I see some people here say they have no problem putting it into the tank. (except that one incident when someone's betta took the whole cube for himself and pigged out on it).
So it makes me wonder what happened that summer with my fish and why they died so fast after pecking (and not eating anything off of it because it was still iced).

you gave em fishy brain freeze!

 

[FishBlast]

I guess you know now you're supposed to dissolve the cube in a cup first now right?

Ever since then, I just leave the cube outside on a lid to melt the ice.
But I see some people here say they have no problem putting it into the tank. (except that one incident when someone's betta took the whole cube for himself and pigged out on it).
So it makes me wonder what happened that summer with my fish and why they died so fast after pecking (and not eating anything off of it because it was still iced).

you gave em fishy brain freeze!

Hmm, it was kind of fishy, indeed.

Well, that won't happen again, I defrost the cube (it still is in its plastic container and I can feed out of it for 2 days since I don't have many fish and my newt eats some too)

 

[Jay-93]

Just keep an eye on the water temp daily change accordingly.

I bought a digital thermometer in eBay. £2, absolute steal. One of the handiest things I've bought

 

[Aqua Tom]

Just keep an eye on the water temp daily change accordingly.

I bought a digital thermometer in eBay. £2, absolute steal. One of the handiest things I've bought

They look great but are not actualy that acurate, an old fashioned spirit thermometer is the way to go.


Tom

 

[Jay-93]

the old ways are the best sometimes, haha! Mine tends to stick on certain numbers, but it does change in 10ths of degrees Fahrenheit when I do water changes, no more than 2f obviously. Plus, a flick of the switch changes to °C

 

[FishBlast]

Just keep an eye on the water temp daily change accordingly.

I bought a digital thermometer in eBay. £2, absolute steal. One of the handiest things I've bought

They look great but are not actualy that acurate, an old fashioned spirit thermometer is the way to go.


Tom

Yeah I have a thermometer... not like it will save the fish in case a disaster strikes and I'm asleep or away from home though.
A cooler + heater mix could. Unless I'd be really unlucky and both break down and one goes stronger than the other, resulting in fishcicles or boiled fish.

 

[CezzaXV]

A heater should only come on when needed to maintain the water at a certain temperature. If the room temperature goes above what you've set it to and the water is the same then it shouldn't be on at all.

You can get fans especially for tanks. They're common in marine tanks where the lights and other equipment can cause a lot of excess heat.