Summer heat

[the_dougie]

Well, it's summer now (yipee), but unfortunately, my house isnt air conditioned. I only have 2 tanks with fish in them right now, a 20 gallon currently with 2 zebra danios, 2 gold danios, 3 harlequin rasboras, 3 ADFs, a guppy, some ghost shrimp and a rainbow shark. the other tank is just a 5gal with a betta.

Anyways, I don't even have the heater on either of them, and in the bigger one its 80 degrees. theyre all darting around a fair bit, and within 2 days I've awoken to find 2 dead fish stuck on the filter intake; a zebra danio and a guppy.

I don't know what to do about the temperature in my tank! i hear lowering the water level could increase the flow but aside from that I'm out of ideas...
any suggestions would be appreciated.

*edit* the guppy's also looking very stressed. hes hiding in corners, plants, caves, ect. in wierd positions. he's almost lying on the things on his belly. I fear he wont last the night...

[firefly]

You could run a small fan over the surface of the water to cool things down. Just keep an eye on it--you'll get much more evaporation and need to top off more. 80 isn't all that high for many tropicals though, so I'd check other water parameters and see what else is going on. In warmer temps fish are more active and eat more and thus produce more waste, so upping your water changes might also be needed.

Emily

[Vyper]

When water gets warmer, less oxygen is able to stay in the water, odds are the decreased levels of oxygen may be the cause, make sure you have plenty of air stones in the tank, as the last post said thopugh your fish shouldn't struggle at 80F some other factors must be taking effect, do some water tests inc an oxygen level test

[WinterWind]

Make a whole bunch of dechlorinated ice cubes and dump them into the water! Have many trays ready, so you can use half of the ice cubes at one time, and have time to replenish the supply before the ice in the aquarium completely melts. Also, have a lot of air stones as surface tension releases some heat.

[uwish]

tanks less than 120L (30g) are difficult to maintain and do suffer from large temperature swings due to the small water volume. Keeping a small tank healthy is much more challenging that keeping a large tank healthy (believe it or not). I would agree with the above posts, use some de-chlorinated water ice cube and drop some in during the really warm days.

Its not the temperature that is killing your fish, its the temperature gradient that is killing them.

[Kasakato]

Not really. I am able to keep my 20g under controll in all types of conditions. For heat I use heater, and for cold I use ice cubes. ITs not that hard once you know how much or little an ice cube dose.

[uwish]

but I would bet your next allowance check that your temperature gradient is huge in that smaller tank. That is what stresses and kills fish, they can live in really very poor environments if the change is gradual enough and that is one thing small tank do not have...gradual changes.

[Kasakato]

THe range is 78-80 in 2 hours, This only happens during very hot summar days, before I can break out the ice.