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Keeping your aquarium cool during summer

M

maverick786us

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6 Nov 2024
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478
Location
Columbus, GA
How do you keep your aquarium cool during intense summer to ensure that the cold water fishes remain healthy? Do the regular heaters from Fluval and Eheim also keep your water colder than the surrounding temperature if you set the temperature between 22 to 27 degree?
 
No, aquarium heaters are not able to keep an aquarium cool. Options are - a chiller (expensive) - basically a fridge that the water flows through, or a fan that blows air at the surface of the tank to keep temperatures down. What fish do you have, what temperature does tank go to in summer?
 
I suppose in an emergency you could drop in some Ice (maybe in a sealed bag if you want to avoid possible contamination). Other than that and the solutions @hypnogogia mentioned, the tank can't get above room temperature (assuming the aquarium heaters are off) so if you have air conditioning in your room set at cooler temp than outside (E.G. 22-25C) it should be fine.
 
hypnogogia said:
No, aquarium heaters are not able to keep an aquarium cool. Options are - a chiller (expensive) - basically a fridge that the water flows through, or a fan that blows air at the surface of the tank to keep temperatures down. What fish do you have, what temperature does tank go to in summer?
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1. Red cap angelfish
2. Cherry barb.
3. Glowlight tetra
4. Pygmy Cory, Cory Panda, Green Cry
5. Bristle nose pleco
6. SAE
7. Hillstream Loach.
8. Cherry Shrimp
9. Amano Shrimp

In summer the mercury can hit 102 degrees Faranhite. I am not worried about water becoming too hot. My only concern is cold water fishes like Hillstream loach, if the water gets bit warm, it might cause them stress, thus affecting their immune system.
 
MoFish said:
I suppose in an emergency you could drop in some Ice (maybe in a sealed bag if you want to avoid possible contamination). Other than that and the solutions @hypnogogia mentioned, the tank can't get above room temperature (assuming the aquarium heaters are off) so if you have air conditioning in your room set at cooler temp than outside (E.G. 22-25C) it should be fine.
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I can try that, but those shrimps who are sensitive to sudden change in water parameters, I don't know how they will react
 
I imagine since the ice will be floating and that shrimps are typically bottom dwellers it probably wont have a big negative effect.

As the ice melts into cold water, the cold water will naturally fall to the bottom of the tank since cold water is more dense than warm water. However, since it will be melting fairly slowly, the cold water which is melting will probably heat up to/close to the tank temperature before it even reaches the bottom. If you're worried about other parameters, just do as @DanDKJ said and freeze your tank water.

Another thing which may aid in keeping your tank cooler is to partially/fully open the lid of your tank if you have a lid. You will get some passive cooling via convection, even without a fan. Would work better with a fan since that creates more air movement.
 
Hi all,
maverick786us said:
My only concern is cold water fishes like Hillstream loach, if the water gets bit warm, it might cause them stress, thus affecting their immune system.
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You need to really maximise dissolved oxygen levels, via plenty of flow, the problem is that <"warm water can hold less dissolved oxygen"> than cooler water. Have a look at <"Aeration and dissolved oxygen article - updated link">.

To use the chart you draw a straight line from your water temperature (on the top bar) through "100% saturation" and it tells you what that is in "mg / l
(ppm) oxygen (O2)". As you can see at 30 oC (86 oF) you only have ~ 7.5 mg / l O2 and that may not be enough.

nomogram-gif.90536


cheers Darrel
 
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Hi all,
Oldguy said:
Very useful, many thanks.
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It is <"quick and dirty">, but in the field it helps a lot as a teaching tool.

There is a calculator, with some added parameters, at <"DO ⇆ %Saturation Calculator">.

This illustrates @maverick786us's problem - <"Water on the Web | Understanding | Water Quality | Parameters">.

I. SALMONID WATERS - Embryo and larval stages
Dissolved Oxygenmg / l
No production impairment11
Slight production impairment9
Moderate production impairment8
Severe production impairment 7
Limit to avoid acute mortality 6 (mg / l)

cheers Darrel
 
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A fan or a computer cooler are the easiest ways to automate something to cool down water on a budget. You can expect to keep the water 2 to 3ºC cooler than without it. Ideally you connect it to a thermostat, you can even use the same unit for the cooler and heater, if it has cooling and heating outputs. But if you expect the temperatures to remain high for a while, you can just keep it turned on and forget automation.

The secret is to blow dry air to the water surface, so you need to avoid just recirculating the air, if using a hooded setup. The cooling comes from evaporating the water, so you may need to complete the water level between water changes.
 
Agree with @LMuhlen a fan is probably the simplest way for your open top tank,
Our smaller tank uses a 120mm low noise PC type 12v fan so think 2 fans would be better for your larger tank.
They are located on the top edge of the glass at about a 60 degree angle to give an even flow over the waters surface.

Our little Arduino controller takes care of the heating to 24.0 c and the fan kicks in at 24.5c and so far ( several years) its never exceeded that.
As said, you will also need an Auto Top Up system to compensate for the water evaporation which our Arduino also does.
 
dino21 said:
Agree with @LMuhlen a fan is probably the simplest way for your open top tank,
Our smaller tank uses a 120mm low noise PC type 12v fan so think 2 fans would be better for your larger tank.
They are located on the top edge of the glass at about a 60 degree angle to give an even flow over the waters surface.

Our little Arduino controller takes care of the heating to 24.0 c and the fan kicks in at 24.5c and so far ( several years) its never exceeded that.
As said, you will also need an Auto Top Up system to compensate for the water evaporation which our Arduino also does.
Click to expand...
Thank you very much I am gonna buy a couple of these fans. Do these fans of have clamps to attach on the top of the glass?
 
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