Badmans Tropical Fish Message Center: archive: How do you cool a tank?
Jay
Friday,
August 10, 2001 - 03:20 pm
Hi. I was recently away from my (10 gallon) tank
for a week and when I returned I found the water temp at
94! It is usually around 72 so this really shocked me. I
think it contributed to the death of my otto cat and my
2 other fish didn't look too happy either. I'm wondering
how to go about cooling down a tank. I tried submerging
one of those reuseable "cold packs" wrapped in a
couple of plastic bags but it had very little if any effect.
I didn't know what else to do so I just cooled off my
room and the water temp gradually lowered. Is there another
way to cool down water temp, other than altering room temp?
With all this heat we've been having I might not be
able to keep my room at a nice 72 degrees for my tank. Thanks
for any advice.
Kick
Friday,
August 10, 2001 - 06:04 pm
Sure. There is an easy way to cool off a tank, but you want
to remember not to fluctuate the temp too much at a time.
I use plastic coke bottles (the small ones for individual
drinking) and fill them up with water and place in the
freezer. Then when the temp gets really high like it has
been, I just keep plopping them in the tank and refreezing
them. As long as you can get it down to about 80 to 82 "slowly"
it does take a little time for the temp to go back up. Just
make sure you have a good supply of the coke bottles ready
to use.
Slight water changes with colder water introduced to the
water very slowly will also help. But this can become a
pain removing and replacing water. That is why I like the
coke bottle method...
Jay
Saturday,
August 11, 2001 - 04:55 pm
Okay, thanks for your help. I'll try that the next time
the tank gets too hot. One last Q, do you take off the labels
on the bottles before putting them in the tank? I would
think the labels might come off in the water but maybe they
don't, I don't know. Thanks again.
Kick
Sunday,
August 12, 2001 - 09:56 am
Yeah, I usually take the labels off. Most of them are of
the type that really won't hurt the tank (plastic
covering), but by removing, I know they are for the
fishtank.
