Temperature Variations & Stabilization

[svolk]

I have a question about keeping temperatures stable.

I live in Michigan where there are hot and humid summers and bitter cold winters. When the air/heat are constantly on in our house, keeping my 3 tanks at a constant temperature is not difficult (I usually keep them around 78 degrees Farenheit).

However, the temps outside here have recently dropped a little (especially at night), enough to warrant turning off our air conditioner. I run the air all throughout the summer mainly to keep the tanks stable. With the air off in the last 2 weeks it has been tough to keep my tanks stable and I worry that the fluxuation will result in stress. There are no visible signs of trouble, and I've been testing the water and everything seems to be ok.

For example, my husband left a few windows open to air the house out the other night and the tanks dropped to 70, 68 even in my 10 gallon (I yelled at him for leaving the windows open ). The previous few days were hot and humid and the water temps were near 80ish. Simply turning my tank heaters up or down doesn't seem to be working well.

Does anyone have a suggestion for this matter other than keeping my air on longer? My electric bill has been quite high lately though.

[Osiris]

i have same thing as i live in WI i usually live my sliding glass door cracked in living room where just happens to have my tanks. All my heaters are set to 80 degrees year round, night time temp drops but tank heaters will kick on when need be. You shouldnt have any problems with it going up to 84-85, but if it's daily hmm may be good to open the tops during day or kick the air on low just to keep house at 78-80.

[MyraVan]

Yeah, just get some heaters. Set them to 78 degrees and you're sorted.

Keeping tanks warm is a heck of alot easier than keeping tanks cool. We don't have air conditioning. In the summer I've had to keep my tank lids open to prevent the lights from heating up the tanks too much. Then the water evaporates and leaves behind a yukky white mess as we have very hard water.

[svolk]

I've never tried keeping the lids open. I definitely can't in my 55 gallon as I have 2 balas. I have a 38 gallon cichlid tank, which actually has been the tank that has been giving me the most problems as far as the temp situation goes. I have mollies and guppies in a 10 gallon, don't guppies jump occassionally?

The last couple of days have been better, I think I've found the right setting on my tanks heaters and the outside temps here have been more steady (I think our dramatic temp drop over the weekend was from Ophelia after effects).

[fish_doc]

You should never have to turn the heater down. They only turn on when temps in the tank drop below a set temp. If that temp is 78 than anytime temps run above that they will stay off. This solves you problem of the tank cooling to much.

As far as overheating the tank there are ways to cool tanks if things get to hot. I took the following off my website.

There are several ways to cool a aquarium. Some very expensive others very simple and inexpensive. But the continuing labor is tied to the cost. The more expensive has the least amount of maintance, the cheaper needing a constant eye and manual work.

The first way is to air condition your house - (you didn't want to hear that) There is the expense of installiation then the expense of electricity. But once installed there is no worrys. If you are cool so are they.

Second way is buy a aquarium chiller - Chillers are often needed to keep the water temperature within a range optimal for your tank inhabitants. These can run $400 on up. (Not so cheap either) But once again once set up it is just a visual check of the thermometer to see how things are going.

Chillers are available in two forms: drop-in and in-line. Drop-in chillers have cooling coils that you simply place in the sump to cool the water. No plumbing is required. In-line chillers have internal cooling coils. Water is pumped into the chiller, cooled, and then returned back to the tank or sump. The chief advantage of an in-line chiller is that it can be placed remotely from the tank (such as a basement, a different room or a garage).

Temperature controllers are necessary to operate the chiller. A single stage controller will control just the chiller, while a dual stage controller can control both a chiller and a heater to minimize variance and eliminate conflicts.

Third You can do small frequent water changes with cooler water - This is good for the temp but hard on the biological filtration. Plus you will need to do this several times a day.

Fourth You can place ice cubes in a ziplock bag and let it float in the tank. As the ice melts it will cool the water in the tank but you must keep a eye on the teom as to make sure the temps don't change to quickly for the fish.

The Fifth and final way that I am aware of is to take the lid off the aquarium and blow a fan across the top. I know this sounds dumb like how can a fan cool water, BUT the fan causes evaporation and evaporation is what creates the cooling of the water.

The Sixth way is to move the tank into the basement if you have one. It is a bit of a task but the temps are pretty constant year round. Heaters may be needed even on the hottest of days.

The Seventh and final way I can think of is to turn any tank lights off. These only create additional heat for the tank. This will only work if you do not have plants that need the light for photosynthsis.

You might want to try a combination of the idea 3, 4, and 5 to create a slow cooling process that wont shock the fish.

Keep in mind you want to cool your tank slowly. Rapid changes in temps are not good for your fish.

I hope this gives you a few things to try. Sorry for it being so long but I wanted to give you all the possibilities I could think of.

[svolk]

Thanks fish_doc!

I was about to post that leaving my tank lids open aren't an option at all because I forgot to mention that I have 3 cats! I'm sure that if I left the lid open on accident that I would come home to a dead cat (I have a very curious, somewhat clumsy, and water-loving cat).

What I initially needed was a way of cooling my tank because we turned our air off then had an unexpected humid spell. That is when I turned the tank heaters down, which did screw things up when we had the chilly weather spell.