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Being a Brit who is not used to keeping fish in hot weather I am rather nervous with our recent heatwave currently running at a balmy 32C here in London.
My fish tanks (see profile for tank specs) are both over the 30C limit of the thermometer and it would make sense that they are up to 32C which is a good few degrees too high for some of my fish and they are getting very lethargic especially my betta who just rests on the bottom of the tank 'panting' . All my params are fine appart from the temp.
How do fellow aquarists from warmer climates cope with such high temperatures? Do you have some kind of air con (or aqua con?) for your fish tanks?
Many thanks,

Sweaty Jim

PurestDJ;

Get some buckets of water out of the tank and freeze them. This gives you a large source of friendly ice blocks. Otherwise, air-condition the room. You think I joke?

Hope that helps a little;
Tarky

one way to combat heat without putting out a lot of money is to uncover the top and have a small fan blowing across the top of the water. this should cool it down a few degree's.


chris

Ice isn't a good idea because it unevenly cools the tank. Your fish could have temperature shock from the extreme differences in temp.

*Kristin*

Air Con the room a bit much, although it would be very nice it would cost more than I pay in rent to keep it running!
I'll take the lid off one of the tanks and get a fan going and for the tank with jumping fish (don't particularly fancy coming home to diced platy strewn accross the room!) I'll freeze some of the tank water. How many cubes would you think would be safe to put in the tank at a time (it's a 22 Gal)?

I usually put one tray's worth of ice cubes in about every 30 mins - although I'm talking for a four foot tank - I know its not a huge difference, but the idea is just to make a dent in the temperature, not cool it comepletely. The fan idea is good! Otherwise, ensure that the room is well ventilated. To help the DO content, maybe also use a pump with a few air stones in the tank.

I'm experiencing something like this myself, given that I'm in England too and where I am, temperatures have been in the high 70s/low 80s Fahrenheit for some time now.

Time for me to break out my "Heath Robinson Cooler" again

Ingredients:

[1] A spare powerhead
[2] 30 feet or so of siphon tubing
[3] A couple of cable ties
[4] A small aquarium (12" x 8" x 8" will do)

Coil the siphon tubing so that you can stick the coils in the small aquarium. Use cable ties to keep the coils in place.

Attach one end of the siphon tubing to the powerhead. Do this so that the powerhead is taking water through the inlet at the bottom, and directing the flow into the siphon tube attached to the outlet. Use assorted adapters from your fishkeeping parts bin to make the connection watertight if need be.

Attach other end of siphon tubing via a secure clip so that the water outflow goes back into the main aquarium.

Fill small aquarium with iced water.

Turn on powerhead attached to coils.

Bingo. A DIY chiller that will do the job very nicely, and will cost about £25 to set up if you don't have the parts to hand already. If you DO have the spares in your fishkeeping parts bin, it'll cost you whatever time it takes to put it together.

This way, you get to cool your aquarium more evenly than you would by dumping ice cubes in the aquarium itself, and provided you keep the small aquarium topped up with iced water every 3 hours or so, you shouldn't run into trouble with elevated temperatures.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Failing that, a plastic bottle filled with ice and put near the outflow cools things down quite well, and the inflow disperses it evenly. Only works in big tanks though, youd probably kill your fish in a small tank.

Its getting hotter in old blighty thats for sure, ive had tank temps in the 80's before, but never so early in the season, its getting ridiculous.

I'm a Londoner (north) with the same problem.

What I've done is open all windows at night time to let my flat cool, and then close them in the morning. Importantly, leave your blinds/curtains drawn throughout the day to block the sun and heat out. Also have your lid open (floating plants stop my fish leaping out) and definately a fan blowing across the water as it draws heat off.

Yesterday, when it was 32 degrees, my tank remained at 28. Calilasseia's tips look good if you have all those spare.

Bit cooler today (thankfully!) - down to around 75 Fahrenheit. Means I won't have to instigate emergency water changes to cool the aquaria.

After the latest large water changes and gravel vacs, the temperatures are as follows (in degrees Celsius recorded by my digital thermometer):

Panda Fun Palace: 24.2

Panda Nursery: 23.3

That should be about right for them all.

Tell you what, the fish appreciate some new clean and cooler water just as much as we appreciate a refreshing shower - after the labour of the water changes, and the disturbance (the Cardinals tend to be the most touchy as regards the disturbance of the water changes - the Pandas on the other hand follow the gravel vac around looking for new titbits!) and once everyone has settled down, the fish all start frolicking about like mad in their new fresh water. It's happy fish time once more.

As I type this, it's started raining where I am, which is going to cool things down some more. Means I don't need the desk fans to keep me cool either.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Consider buying a chiller. they can be sorta expensive but it's only june and the weather will just get hot hot hotter.

Find the worlds best aquarium sites at www.FantasticAquatics.com

For those in the UK tesco has started selling fans at £7, i picked up a couple, theyre quiet too!