A nice hot, soothing....tank?

[ChikenMan]

Since the weather has started to warm up, my tanks have started to get warmer. I have a 30gal and a 10gal. Over the winter, they both stayed at a comfortable 72-75 degrees. My 30gal's heater hardly ever turns on and my 10gal doesn't even have a heater. Last night I noticed that they were both close to or just over 80. This is kind of a problem since I don't have AC and its only going to get warmer. I have looked at chillers, WOW those are expensive! Is there a cheaper alternative? Ice cubes? :D I have thought about placing a fan near the tank, but where? Should it blow on the glass, or across the top, or maybe at the bottom? I know that I like a nice hot bath, but I'm sure that the fish won't be so appreciative. Any Ideas or am I stuck with forking out the bucks for a chiller or the alternative <img border="0" title="" alt="[Eek!]" src="eek.gif" /> poached gouramis?
By the way, the 30 has two gouramis, four painted glass fish, one pleco, and one silver dollar. The 10 gal is fairly new and only has two male guppies.

<small>[ April 14, 2002, 09:14 AM: Message edited by: ChikenMan ]</small>

[nolofinwe]

run a fan over the surface of the water, it will make a surprising difference in temperature. heres the catch, especially on thyat ten gallon, and without a sump, evaporation is going to go through the roof, when i runmy fans my evaporation of each of my 75s touches 2 gallons per day. so just look out for that.

[vjvl51]

ChikenMan, I don't know if you're still interested. Each fish species has its own temp requirements.
For example - guppies 64 to 82 F,
you didn't say which gourami, but some are 72 to 82 F
pleco (again, you didn't say which species) are 72 to 82 F, in general
As you can see 80 F water is within their requirements. One method to cool tanks is to put a plastic bottle 3/4 full of water in your freezer. When frozen, float it in the top of your tank as required. Watch your temp as it won't take much to lower a 10 gal aquarium's temperature.

I hope this helps.

Vickie

[ChikenMan]

Thanks for the info.
I think I was a bit over excited. When it first started to warm up, I thought uh oh. But, even after our temps went into the 100's, my tanks stayed within 85 degrees so I didn't worry too much after that. I will keep that bottle trick in mind. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="wink.gif" />

[vjvl51]

Glad I could help ChikenMan. Short turm temp changes (as long as it is done slowly) won't hurt most fish.

The frozen bottle works the other way if you ever loose your electricity. Just heat some water and then float the hot bottle in your aquariums. I've heard of people wrapping their aquariums in blankets to stop the heat loss during a power failure. Now you say, no hydro, how do I heat water? Propane camp stove - barbecue, etc.

Vickie

[raptorpb1]

But remember, dont cool the water too fast or you will stress the fish, and they may get sick later on.

[cal]

Hi there,
You could try making a large bag of ice cubes from clean , matured water and , when the temp starts to rise, add a handfull of cubes to float around the tank and melt thus replacing evaporated water and reducing the temp at the same time. Just remember not to overdo it and little but often usually works a treat.
My goldfish actually chase the cubes around the tank, and ( I think ) enjoy the play.....but thats just my impression !.

cal.

[gypsy]

I don't know if you still need advice since you already have a few reply's , but I also had the same problem,also looked into chiller's and couldn't belive the prices! At the time it was a 55 gallon tank I was concerned about. I opened the hood a little(my iridesent sharks like to jump!) and put a fan above the tank. I didn't want to worry about conditioning the water for ice cubes, so I put the ice in ziploc freezer bags. This worked well for me,of course if you have any fish that might be interested in tasteing the plastic baggie's don't use them.

[oscarbartoni]

vv