I'm having trouble keeping the temperature down...

rsanz

rsanz

The Peacock Gudgeon Guy
Aug 22, 2006
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I have a 10 gallon tank with a heater, and two 25 watt bulbs (non-flourescent) in my hood. I keep the lights on about 12 hours a day. My plants are fake, and I have a single Dwarf Gourami currently living in the tank (hopefully adding a Blue Ram some time in the near future).

The temperature has been high the past few days. The thermometer is reading 80-84. Should I be concerned? Should I try to bring down the temperature a little bit? The fish seems fine inside the tank...if a little excited. He swims up and down the sides with his nose against the glass often. Is this normal behavior? What should I do to keep the temperature down if that's the course I should take? Should I simply not leave the tank lights on for as long during the day?

Thanks for your advice!
 
hmm

I had a similar issue with my 10 gallon. What is your thermometer built for?

Mine was a 10-20 gallon, so I had to set it on the low side to keep it in the 78-80 degree range.
 
unplug the heater and leave the lights off 24/7. the fish don't care about the lighting and the heater thermostat may be off slightly.
 
The heater is a 50 watt, built for up to 15 gallon tanks. Right now, the thermometer reads 80-82 degrees. Now, the thermometer is right near the top of the...could that be contributing to an inaccurate water temperature reading? Could the proximity to the lights themselves be causing the temperature to read higher than it actually is?
 
I have a 50W all glass heater in my 10g ... I have it set at 71 and my tank water stays at 76. If I put the heater up at 76 ... the water temp goes up to 80.

I also don't turn on the lights, bec I wanted to keep the water temp under 80. I found if I left them on ... the temp would creep up.

guppy gal
3 mal guppies
1 dwarf gourami
 
You could turn off the lights if there are no live plants--and maybe think about replacing the incandescent bulbs for (cooler) fluorescent ones.

You could open the top and blow a fan over the surface of the water.

You could freeze a water bottle and place it in the tank.

You could freeze some dechlorinated water in ice cube trays and put some of the frozen cubes into the filter output.
 
your fish will do fine with no light and since your plants are fake, just keep the lights off until the weather gets cooler. usually i freeze bottles of water and float them on top of the tank, which usually drops the temp 3-4 degrees F. keeping the lid open and having a fan in the room will help as well. fluorescent lights use less power and produce a lot less heat than incandescents, you might want to change that.
 
honestly you probably don't have any real issues.

gouramis can be found in shallow waters and the native wild fish live through extreme
temperature fluctuations.

the recommended temp is 78 a few degrees higher probably isn't that big of a deal..wild fluctuations in temp maybe more of an issue.

in really warm water where the disolved O2 is low they gulp air.(Labyrinth fish)
 
yea all of my heaters are off by alot... in my 55g my heater reads 71 yet the tank temp is more like 80-82f and in my 150g i have 2 heaters and they are on there lowest setting and my tank is right around 78f
 
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