78 replies to this topic

[Westie]

My apisto tank hit 27 today. I noticed fry too!

[Fox]

Great stuff Jason. Throw some pics up

[Westie]

This is the only clear pic I could take of the apistos that are about 2.5cm at the moment
The ones that are about 3cm maybe a bit bigger are already breeding.

[sandgroper]

Nope i've just replaced my light diffuser covers with glass lids, you shouldn't need heaters over summer at all. If you have internal filters or power heads they will give of enough heat as do lights if you have them on for long periods.

[Westie]

and another heat wave starts tomorrow
got my aquarium cooling fan ready

[sandgroper]

Lids should be off now guys and gals, heaters and lights to. Try to get the temperature down as low as you can over night, 22 would be ideal by morning as your going to need the extra play if it hits 44 on Sat. good luck and stay cool. 

[Poncho]

One other tip - feed less and in the afternoon or evening

The bacteria consume oxygen to break down waste so if you chuck a heap of food in your tank in the morning, they wil be depleting oxygen out of the water as the temp gets hotter. Fish don't need to be fed every day so when it's 44 you're better off to not feed at all

[Mononoke]

Would a handful of icecubes made from RO water in the tank help, or would that stress the fish?

[malawiman85]

Opinions vary. My opinion is if the fish are struggling with the heat/oxygen deficiency then treat the oxygen deficiency immediately if there is still an issue, do whatever you have to do to get the temp steady.

I have never had an issue using frozen 2 Litre coke bottles it doesent have a major effect, usually just helps keep the temp steady or might drop it by a degree or two.

I guess it depends on the size of the tank as to what you use... 

[brenno71]

my 1500lt is on 27 haven't had heaters on for over a month I find on 40 degree days it jumps about 1 degree per day just before xmas it hit 32 after 4 days ive added 2 wave makers facing the surface I hope this helps oh also it is outside in an area that gets really hot

[werdna]

Temp drop is always pretty minimal IME, however I only had tanks >4ft.

 

You can calculate easy enough

6x2x2 tank is roughly 600L and is sitting on 30 degrees

Say you freeze 10L of water to freezer temp, around -17 degrees

 

Formula is ((tank volume x tank temp) + (Ice volume x ice temp)) / (tank volume + ice volume)

 

The new temp will be ((600 x 30) + (10 x -17)) / 610 = 29.2 degrees

 

So 10L of ice will drop a 6ft tank less than 1 degree

Hardly worth the effort in my opinion

[malawiman85]

My outdoor 1600ltr never even went past 28 i dont think.

I had a couple small tanks outside that got to 33 though so lots of water movment and oxygen was used and all went well.

Tanks in garage have been pretty chilly this last week and havent been above 27 this summer yet.

[brenno71]

Temp drop is always pretty minimal IME, however I only had tanks >4ft.
 
You can calculate easy enough
6x2x2 tank is roughly 600L and is sitting on 30 degrees
Say you freeze 10L of water to freezer temp, around -17 degrees
 
Formula is ((tank volume x tank temp) + (Ice volume x ice temp)) / (tank volume + ice volume)
 
The new temp will be ((600 x 30) + (10 x -17)) / 610 = 29.2 degrees
 
So 10L of ice will drop a 6ft tank less than 1 degree
Hardly worth the effort in my opinion

I have 16lt of frozen water im lucky if it drops 1 degree

[Mononoke]

Thanks guys. Mine's a 190l, with a second 90l growout tank. As I use canister filters for both I may do the bucket of ice with the filter inside for temp control, and a fan/airpump combo for aeration. I might try to reposition the filter spraybar to agitate the water more as well.

[JackMack]

I'm not sure if this would be a hazard or not; but if you could hook airline tubing up to the intake of your air pumps and place the other end in a loosely sealed bag of ice it could possibly help keep temps down..

Might just be a waste of time though, haha.

[werdna]

One day I am going to try my own version of an inline cooler based on peltier coolers on an outlet from canister filter.

Should only cost about $40 to build, and $2 per day to run.

Wont be any good for large tanks, however nano tank should work.

 

One day...

[JackMack]

I think a cool way (not sure of how effective) to cool the water down via a canister filter would be to make a hollow bulb from glass that you can fill with ice cold water. Inside that bulb you have a spiraling glass tube that hooks up to the outlet on your canistee.

I figured you probably wont hve the faintest clue as to what I am on about so I drew a half assed diagram:  201401110246.png   214.61KB   0 downloads

The green lines are the canister tubing, the blue represents water and the black is the glass.
What I imagine you could do is make a few of them (pay a glass blower to do so when they aren't busy making crack pipes) and have a couple in the freezer and just swap thwm over as they melt..

I would of course come up with an idea of a quick release attachment that would make it possible to replace the bulb short of turning off your canister taps and turning it off at the wall.

[werdna]

Why not just throw the same amount of ice straight into the tank?

More effective, cheaper and easier.

 

Not to mention that when water freezes and turns to ice it expands, so there is a good chance you are going to shatter your spiral tube and the bulb.

[JackMack]

As I said, I wasn't sure if it'd be affective; I was just spitballing.

If the bulbs came with a formulated amount of liquid in them then you wouldn't need to worry about them bursting.
I just thought it might be a decent idea so I'll work on it and see what I can come up with.

[brenno71]

I am building my own cooler I have a thermostat to plag my heaters in and the other plug ill run to a small pump with hose coilled in a wine cooller I pickes up free