Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => General Fishkeeping advice => Topic started by: AndreaC on December 26, 2014, 02:22:03 AM
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Hi all :) So in August I moved to Western Australia which is essentially a desert. Up until a few weeks ago I was running a heater in my tank to try to maintain temperature stability but now during the day outside temperatures get to thirty-eight and at night it's never below twenty degrees. Yesterday it got to forty degrees outside and my tank temperature hit thirty. I've been told to expect it to get close to fifty degrees when we actually get into summer and I'm getting very concerned about my fish. When I had gold fish I just used to leave big blocks of ice in the tank as a way of cooling the tank down but I'm not sure if this would be okay for my tropical tank? Is there a better way to cool down the water? Unfortunately we don't have an air conditioner in that room, and my partner isn't happy with me running a fan all day. Thanks :)
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You could use ice provided you make it from dechlorinated water. Or freeze some plastic bottles not quite full of water (in the UK 2 litre coke/lemonade bottles are ideal if you have those in Oz). If you freeze a few, you can put a new one in and refreeze a melted one.
Or remove the lid and arrange a fan blowing across the surface. This causes the water to evaporate faster and cool it down (by latent heat of vapourisation). You will have to top the tank up regularly though, use cold water.
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Thanks Sue, I really like the coke bottle idea. I can't believe that didn't occur to me lol
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Hi Andrea, just wanted to say, hope you get the heat problem sorted, and that at least your enjoying it if not the fish?. We have opposite prob of course and where i am it's dreaded power cuts that are the nightmare scenario. :wave:
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Hi Aquamaid :) Yes, I've started freezing a water bottle and putting it in the tank before lunch. In New Zealand I worried a lot about winter power cuts as well but here I've actually taken my heater out of the tank lol
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You could have a look at this page (http://www.thinkfish.co.uk/article/keep-your-fishtank-cool-in-hot-weather) for some ideas.
However, given your climate, it may be wise to invest in a chiller. There are loads of these available, but they can be quite expensive. There are some ideas on YouTube for some DIY solutions. I found this one (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5s8Cu59-NM) to be the simplest.
If your partner continues to give you gyp, make him/her sit outside in the sun all day.
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I love the idea of a DIY chiller :) I'm actually going to give that a go. Thank you :)
Haha my fiance loves the sun. He'll be out there all day reading while I'm huddled right next to the air conditioner!