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Tank Cooling - Summers Here!

ukco2guy

ukco2guy

Member
Joined
9 May 2010
Messages
221
Location
Swindon UK
Hi,

Recently my planted tank has reached 30c in the daytime / 28c at night and i`m worried about some of my plants as their recommended temps are no more than 28c. What methods might i use to gradually cool it back down to 24-26c? I have seen a few online stores selling plants with cool packs, has anyone else tried dropping these sealed packs into either an external canister filter (with no medium so just acting as a pump) or into the tank itself?

Cheers,
 
there are a few low tech and high tech methods..

add some fans blowing over the top of your tank, this increases evaporation a lot though, should be able to get 2-3 degrees C below ambient.

or add a big block of ice. your heaters thermostat will stop the water getting too cold.

or a couple of 10% water changes with cold water, this wont negatively impact your fish, as it simulates a cold rain shower. this and the fans will increase your water consumption a lot.

high tech, expensive option would be to get a chiller... if you are breeding expensive shrimp this is probably the best option.

i used to run my tank at 30C when i had discus though, and never noticed much impact on my plants...
 
Ok thanks for the replies guys, i`ll probably go for the fan option as i have a load of spare Xilence 120mm fans that i can hook up. As per initial question what are your thoughts on these cool packs? They seem like a good idea, no idea on how long they would stay `cool` for!

Cheers,
 
Great idea! I will try this asap, thinking about it i could probably fit a small coke bottle inside an old fluval 4+ (without the filter sponges) so it will distibute the cooler water...

Thanks for that dw1305 :)
 
Hi,

Don't worry yourself about it at all is my answer to the problem.

After all we're talking about keeping TROPICAL tanks here. They do have a summer period in the tropics as well which pale our summers into insignificance.

Sometimes I may have up to 20 tanks on the go at any one time so this is seriously not an option when the weather gets hot this time of the year and its never caused me a major problem in over 20 years of fish keeping. Think about it even cold water species (i.e. goldfish) cope with short term high ambient temperatures and they are often kept outside in shallow ponds in direct sunlight.

The biggest problem is that of oxygen depletion as its harder for the O2 to dissolve into warmer water, so add an airstone or two if your fish seem distressed, and if your worried about the temperature being to hot then just do loads of large water changes with cooler water. But I reckon the constantly fluctuating temperatures would distress your fish more than a short term higher than ideal but stable temperature. O2 depletion in warm water can be a real killer because there's a kind of double whammy. Not only are there lower levels of O2 dissolved in the water but the fishes respiration is likely to be increased. Trouble is when people loose a tankful of fish in warm water the temperature often gets blamed when in fact its more likely that its just the smoking gun. Its the asphyxiation due to low O2 that usually did the damage.

In warmer parts of the world and when keeping fish which aren't adapted to changes in their environment (i.e. Marine fish) it can be a problem but not IME in the UK with Tropical freshwater tanks.

I'm not certain how plants are affected but I would expect it to be much the same.

Regards, Chris.
 
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