Heatwave!!! How are your tanks doing?

i got home from work yesterday and my goldfish tank was at 78!!

fortunately i had some frozen bottles of water that i used as icecubes to pull the temp back down and keep it there... now i'm just rotating bottles every few hours....

the other tanks are just fine.. they like the warmth 8)
 
I am in Florence, SC, and we've had the same whether you're talking about lately. My aquarium temps are the same as always. I always keep my appartment at around 72F all year long.

It confuses me why people with AC in their homes end up struggling with overheated tanks. How is that possible? The tank is not outside in the heat. :confused:

I'm not being a smarty. I am geuinely confused by that. My appartment stays cooled on the hottest of days, which may partly be due to being in an appartment, although I am on the top floor with 2 walls facing the sun. When I lived in a house, the temps inside never reached the 80's there either. If your AC can't keep you in the 70's in the midsummer, your AC may need looking at IMO. It's not doing it's job very well.
 
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Well depending on what lighting and pumps you use the tank is going to be a few degrees hotter than the house. If you can keep your house lower than 78 there should be no problem keeping the tank cool. However if your a/c in your house is lacking its cheaper to invest in a chiller for the tank. It will cool your tank down even if your house is hot.
 
kimmisc said:
I am in Florence, SC, and we've had the same whether you're talking about lately. My aquarium temps are the same as always. I always keep my appartment at around 72F all year long.

It confuses me why people with AC in their homes end up struggling with overheated tanks. How is that possible? The tank is not outside in the heat. :confused:

I'm not being a smarty. I am geuinely confused by that. My appartment stays cooled on the hottest of days, which may partly be due to being in an appartment, although I am on the top floor with 2 walls facing the sun. When I lived in a house, the temps inside never reached the 80's there either. If your AC can't keep you in the 70's in the midsummer, your AC may need looking at IMO. It's not doing it's job very well.
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I've had my AC on 24/7 too.At 100 degrees outside its strugling very hard to keep it 78 in the house.Dont even want to think about what the electric bill is going to be this month.You said your in an apartment,so the floor and other walls not in sun will help keep yours cooler.
 
all of my tanks cold water amd tropical are at least 84 leave ceiling fan on and tops open and replace evaporation with cooler water then it drops about 2 degrees.. smaller tanks raise faster than the big ones
 
Our fw tanks don't suffer at all from the increased temps outside. It's all a matter of the larger amount of equipment / lighting on a sw tank that makes such a big difference. I could combine all of the pumps, filters, and lights for our 5 fw tanks and not come anywhere close to the amount of heat generated by the lighting and pumps for our one sw tank.

Besides, the majority of home A/C units are not designed to cool a home 20 - 30F below outside temps for an extended period of time. Sure, they'll do it, but you'll have one killer electric bill showing up in the mail. When it's 100 - 105F outside, there's not much of a choice for most of us, other than to let the temp inside climb close to 80F.
 
i went camping for a week leaving my brother in charge of my tank (which i regret now) and when i came home the tank was at 92 and i lost my cleaner shrimp. i took out a couple gallons and replaced it with cool fresh water and it slowly droped it back down.
 
ricsreef said:
I've had my AC on 24/7 too.At 100 degrees outside its strugling very hard to keep it 78 in the house.Dont even want to think about what the electric bill is going to be this month.You said your in an apartment,so the floor and other walls not in sun will help keep yours cooler.
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I've been in an apartment for about 5 of my 32 years, but nowhere I ever lived was incapable of keeping cool throughout the summer... and when I say cool, I mean what most people would consider cold. (Seems most of my family is hot natured, like me) The thing is, once the building is cooled, it doesn't take as much effort to sustain it as long as the windows and insulation hold the heat out well.

If the AC isn't working efficiently, it's going to work harder, and that alone will make the electric bill outrageous. Fortunately I never had problems with home AC.. I usually have problems with automobile AC failing. My electric is about $80 during mild months and about $120 during July-August and Dec-Jan. Maybe that seems outrageous to some. I'd give up cable before I'd be hot. I'd monkey! Bless you and I hope it cools down soon.

Sorry for getting kinda off topic.
 
fsn77 said:
Besides, the majority of home A/C units are not designed to cool a home 20 - 30F below outside temps for an extended period of time. Sure, they'll do it, but you'll have one killer electric bill showing up in the mail. When it's 100 - 105F outside, there's not much of a choice for most of us, other than to let the temp inside climb close to 80F.
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80F is nothing to worry about. I run my tank purposely at 80. When you hit 84 is when you need to start worry.
 
If I were struggling with keeping the tank cool, I'd just go ahead and invest in a chiller. I'd rather keep the temperature steadier throughout the days than other attempts at cooling could. Daily temperature fluctuations are unhealthy for the fish, so I've read. Getting a chiller in there would take some of the stress of you.
 
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