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Hot Water, 92 degrees!

1K views 9 replies 9 participants last post by  lauraleellbp 
#1 ·
Help. A pipe broken in our condo and the insurance company has paid for big fancy machine to dry out the wood floors and walls. The place is bone dry and as hot as a place that is unreasonable hot. My tank's water temperature has gone from a ideal 82 degrees to a fish melting 92 degrees in a day. It looks like the machines will be here for maybe a week.

I've adjusted my filter's return upward to break the surface more.

I have thought about putting an airstone in the water?

What else could I do? The fish seem sluggish, but otherwise ok.
 
#2 ·
92 is cooking them. I doubt they can sustain at those temps long. See if a friend can take them in. If the entire house is not effected, try relocating the tank. Floating ice cubes in a zip lock will chill the water but you have to constantly refill them if the house is 92. If you have the funds, a chiller or diy chiller will work. You can also but a fan(s) over the tank and use the evaporation cooling method. Very effective for alot of people.
 
#3 ·
Some additional aeration will definitely help since higher temperatures will allow less 02 saturation. Unless you can afford a chiller, I would say the ice cubes and aeration plus something blowing some air directly across the surface of the aquarium may be able to get you down where you want to be. As a bonus, you can put some of the ice cubes directly in the water to account for the evaporation, depending on your water requirements. Make some ice from distilled water if possible if you have some more stringent water requirements. All my top-offs/fills are straight from the tap here. One note though, be careful about how much ice you use at one time, too much and/or too quick of a temperature change can be worse than a constant temp of "too hot".
 
#9 ·
Hey I like this idea. I never thought of that. It will last longer than the ice cubes that for sure. If you have the space, go even higher. A 3L or a gallon. When we grocery shop we buy like 4 things of milk and freeze them. We set one out per week in the bare sink and it takes about 1-1.5 days to completely thaw at room temperature.
 
#10 ·
I've adjusted my filter's return upward to break the surface more.
Take that another step. Either lower the tank water or pull the filter return up higher out of the water entirely so that the water drops before it hits the tank, creating a waterfall. This will encourage even more evaporation and cool the tank further.

Yes it will also out-gas any injected CO2. Plants can grow back. Fish can't.

Cut down on your photoperiod significantly and you'll also cut down on heat, as well as reducing plant CO2 demand.
 
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