How do you cool an aquarium?

Question

My 40 gal freshwater tank has been hitting 82 degree F during the day and unfortunately there is no A/C in the house. Chillers cost a lot of money; are there any inexpensive methods of cooling that is safe for my fish?

Answer 1

I freeze a water bottle and let it float on top of the water until it cools down to the temperature that I want to be. it's very inexpensive and it works very well. You could also let fans run over the top of your water surface. There are many creative and unique ideas out there, just use any one that seems sensible.

~ZTM

Answer 2

It's a pain in the neck, but you should be able to do a 5- to 10-gallon water change daily with cold water, and not upset the tank chemistry too much. IMO 82F is not that dangerously hot for most tropical fish that are hardy enough for aquarium life. If they aren't tropical natives, though, cooling is probably needed... just not more than about 3-4 degrees at a time because it will stress the fish. You'd have to experiment to see how much you could cool the tank with a water change. Ideally, you'd do small changes or additions periodically throughout the day to keep the temp constant, of course, rather than letting it heat up and then suddenly cooling it at the end of the day.

I've also heard the suggestion of floating a bag of ice cubes in the tank, but I didn't find that it reduced the temp for me any, especially in a big tank. If you're not at home all day, then turning off the light at the warmest part of the day, protecting the tank from sun, and opening the hood and fanning across the surface to encourage evaporative cooling may also help limit how hot the water gets. Using a powerhead that blows the water just above the surface may help cool by evap too.

Answer 3

there are many ways to do this without an expensive chiller. You can feeze water bottles cap them and let them float in your tank. If you have a canister filter ive seen people wrap them in ice packs. you can also tape ice pack to the outside of the aquarium. One other thing to try is having a fan blow across the top of the water. Any of these will work to bring the temp down. 82 isnt that big of a deal as long as it isnt for extended periods of time. I assume the tank tends to cool at night to a safer temperature. If you plan on getting a chiller my advice is do yourself a favor and just get a small AC unit this way not only your tank benefits but you keep cool in the summer as well.

Answer 4

I have used two methods in particular for my customers (in my maintenance business) that have worked well depending on the temperature and size of the aquarium. Often I have combined both methods;

*Floating frozen 2 liter pop bottles, this can especially work well for tanks less than 60 gallons, although be care on really small aquariums to not shock cool them with too many bottles. In a 40 gallon one bottle is usually sufficient.

*Draping a wet towel over the aquarium and then adding a fan to cool with evaporation. This is a more steady approach to lowering temperature and I recommend this over a fan aimed at the water surface as excess evaporation can cause excess mineral build up in the aquarium.

This may not be necessary with many fish, although some fish such as some catfish and goldfish are much more prone to diseases such as columnaris at temperatures over 80 F.

Answer 5

I build a string of 2 or 3 computer fans across the tank and adapt them to a ac~dc converter. It's very simple and would take the water temp down a couple of degree as long as the fans are on. It usually on permanently.

It's cheap and low cost to run but the only disadvantage is that evaporation rate is higher, that mean more water top up.

.

Answer 6

There are a variety of ways to cool the tank as mentioned in some of the posts above, BUT... you don't need to cool the tank. That are very, very few fish that will not be just fine at 82F, no freshwater fish that I can think of would suffer badly at that temperature, even for several weeks. Just me sure you aerate the tank well (lots of surface motion) and your fish will be just fine.

MM

Answer 7

Try fill a bottle of rub up of water then put it in the freezer, Then once the tank gets too hot up the home made chiller in the tank and watch the temp doesnt go too low.

~ GG

Answer 8

if you need to make it colder fast, add 2 or 3 ice cubs in the water, but if you just need a little temp. change, then add some cups of cold water after you get rid of the same amount of old water.

Answer 9

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