Aquarium Cooling

[maronov]

I just experienced mid 70's degrees Fahrenheit weather here in New York City, and considering that it's currently January, I got a bit worried. It's fairly easy to maintain proper temperature during the colder months with a decent heater, but what to do when the temperature skyrockets during the summer? I can't keep air conditioning running constantly, and I'm not about to dish out $500+ on a chiller for a 5.5G tank. Basically, I want to know what people here do to keep temperatures down in their tanks when necessary, so I'm not caught off guard when I have to do the same.

[Mgamer20o0]

what i do in my tanks is first leave the lid off. that speeds up evaporation which cools the tank. a fan over the tank that blows off hot air is another great way to cool the tank. i have also used frozen powerade bottles. i few small water changes would also work.

[icecubez189]

i also keep lid open and with blowing over surface. the room which your aquarium is in should have all shades down to keep as cool as possible. i also drop the water level down just a bit so when my water cascades down into the aquarium, creates more disturbance on the surface therefore more dissolved oxygen in the water, which there is less of in warmer water. i don't feed the fish as much as im trying to keep metabolism down and waste to a minimum. frozen water bottles definately help. for my 20G, i'll probably use 4 or 5 at one time, then have more ready in the freezer. i rotate their usage.

my fish are pretty hardy and take the heatwaves nicely, especially the bettas.

[parrot5]

I'm interested as my room gets pretty hot during the summer. By floating a few frozen water bottles on the water, would that freeze the fish too? :help:

[icecubez189]

no, it will slowly dissipate from the bottle (you can see it sink to the bottom) and cool the tank slowly. during the hottest days of summer, i used the water bottles. they usually cool around 3-4 degrees, but very slowly.

[Aussie_hippie_2]

There's an article in the article section on this stuff, though I think it's all been covered. I didn't have MTS back in summer so I only had to worry about one tank, but I'm thinking I'll probably do some small fans and open the lids a bit. For a 5.5 with guppies I'd say just get a small fan. I imagine it would create a current (on the water surface at least) on that size tank though