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So summer time is here and my water in the tank gets really hot. Its recently starting to top at 84-86F. What can i do to get them temp back down? I was thinking of some kind of ice pack that i could just replace every few hours. I don't really want to spend a lot of money on this unless i have to.

55gal Tank:130 watt coral lights,Eheim Wet/Dry 2227 Canister Filter,Powerhead, Co2 Injection and a heater.

1st thing, unplug the heater thats in the tank and another thing I can suggest, is to try cutting down the hours that the lights are on.

i had this problem to, unplugging the heaters helped the most

Fish tanks are an expensive addiction

Room temperature, If the tank is in a room that gets warms either there not enough Ac vents or in my case a lot of windows that heat up that room. All the suggestion Monkey made are great ideals and should help with the problem. However if you have the money and don't want to move the tank from the room thats getting hot, they make chillers mainly these are use in SW tanks but they can be used in FW tanks. They are very expensive even on eBay. They also Make a fans that you can attach to you tanks frame to cool it down slightly. I have read about DIY a return line to a fan and have it cool the air. I will tell you from experience that just doesn't work and it reduces the flow rate of the filter and is just a waste of money. the cheapest was is to just put a fan blowing across the surface water of the tank.

Djrichie
"So Long, and Thanks For All The Fish" Douglas Adams

the fans are a popular idea. but then again, what fish are in the tank that you would be doing this with? because of course if you have ones that could possibly be jumpers, taking the lids off would be a very bad idea.

this leads to another invention. make your own, or pickup some kind of mesh screen (like on reptile tanks) and use that to cover it while the fan blows across the water

Fish tanks are an expensive addiction

I would suggest aganst the ice pack idea, it can create artificial cold zones and if the water doesn't circulate, you will just stress the fish out with the constant rise and fall of the temperature. Many fish will do just fine in temperatures that are not 'ideal' for them, so long as the temperature is steady. Constant temperature, albeit slighly warmer than you'd like is more important.

As far as keeping the tank from boiling your fish, evaporation is pretty much the only cheap option. As suggested, having a fan blow across the surface will keep it in better check than an ice pack.

Then again, most fish adapt well to a stable environment. Keep the tank on an inside wall away from sun with an unplugged heater and the fish should be fine. You may want to add surface agitation either through an airstone or powerhead to maintain oxygen levels. Higher temps mean the water will have lower amounts of dissolved oxygen.

Of course you could air condition the room. Nah, I would buy the chiller and plug the heater back in.



__________
"To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research."
researched from Steven Wright

Depends what's in the tank. From my experience dojos would be dead in those temps. My olive royal plec was also dead at 84F. Now some fish would be completely content and you wouldn't have to do anything. I purposely had a tank set at 84F for several years because the room it was in would get up to 86F during the day while staying 70s or even lower at night so I didn't want it to fluctuate that badly. However the tank was stocked with angelfish, black neons, and temporarily some rams. All of which did fine until a bacterial infection wiped out all the tetras species in all my tanks.

Ice touching the tank or water tends to cause temp fluctuations that can stress the fish. Only way I'd use ice is to set it in front of the fan. If you put a frozen bottle of water or bowl of ice in the path of a fan blowing on the tank it will cause cooler air to pass across the water and be more effective than just the fan while not causing the temp changes of ice directly in/on the tank. That's only temporary though and you'd have to keep replacing the ice throughout the day. If this will be a frequent problem it's easier to just stock the tank with hot water loving fish or invest in a chiller if you've got a large tank and fish you just don't want to part with.

I dont know if you have a glass top on it or not but my suggestion would be to remove it because they trap heat in a tank.They also cause low PH due to poor gas exchange at the surface. Alot of my friends are using egg crate that you can get at any hardware store. IMO fans are going to be your best bet.I`ve seen temps drop about 5 degrees by blowing a fan across the surface. HTH