[modster]

It's getting hotter day by day. How do you lower your water temperature?

 

[guppy]

This is what I do usually to reduce the water temperature:
1. Get a fan to blow across the top of the water.
2. Get too hot get ice cubes and put them in a bag and float them in the tank.
3. Run your tank when at night by having the lights on at 4-5PM till 11PM. This is good too cause you are not using electricity during peak hours.
4. Get a chiller...

 

[modster]

does the fan lower the temperature enough? I am thinking about getting a chiller, but it's kinda hard to install with my HOB filter :-\.

 

[guppy]

The fan actually works pretty well for my reef tank I have a fan blowing across it almost 24/7 and have the lights come on at night and my temperature didn't get too hot. Just watch out for the evaporation rate also I had to refill about 1/2 a gallon a day in a 20 gallon tank in the summer.

 

[ZooTycoonMaster]

I float a frozen water bottle where the filter output is. This way the output disperses the coldness around.

 

[go9ma123]

You can do something like DIY fan with small computer fan and that could bring down 1-3 degree. You can also buy aquarium fan. I killed about 3-4 shrimps other day because I didn't turn on my fan and tempture was about 78-80... Now my tank is 74-76 around there.

 

[modster]

Just out of curiosity, how does everyone measure their temperature? I used to worship my coralife thermometer until I read the reviews recently.

 

[dgphelps]

We've had a few oddball hot flashes in my neck of the woods. I lowered the blinds and floated ice cubes in a bag on the super hot days and watched my water temp. It never got above 82. Typically I have it set to 79.

Thanks for the frozen water bottle idea, that one sounds like a great solution.

 

[southerndesert]

115 here in AZ during the day now, my shrimp room has it's own AC and stays at 73F.

Bill

 

[MatPat]

Not much help but since I keep my Shrimp tanks in the basement, I usually have to heat them. The basement rarely gets above 70 degrees.

 

[oblongshrimp]

Here in AZ everyone has an air conditioner (and if you don't you buy one before spending money on shrimp) so you just have to keep it cool enough. I would recommend trying the fan idea first. It can lower the water temp by quite a bit depending on the humidity. Its also the cheapest method and doesn't involve replace bottles of ice.

 

[CincyCichlids]

Depending on your setup, you can do water slow, frequent water changes. All of my shrimp tanks are on a system where the tap water goes through a house filter, then into two 44gal Rubbermaid garbage cans. The water in the cans has large airstones and heaters (for the winter months). Early this summer we had a surprise 95+ weekend and our A/C died the day before! Even though the shrimp were in the basement, all the tanks jumped to 83 degrees. I basically drained the stored water, let the cold tap water refill (~73 degrees off the street) and let the impurities and chlorine filter out. By the end of the last day of the heat wave I was able to keep the temps to around 76 degrees. The next day the A/C was fixed. In the end I only lost 1 berried CRS (of course) and a berried Blue Pearl.. the rest of masses of shrimp were spared.

Obviously this isn't a solution for most, but perhaps can give some other options for all of you living in the heat.

 

[invertedclack]

I was curious about your use of the airstones in the stored water. I also use the 44G container method (with heater), but haven't used any aeration with this water. Are there additional benefits to this?

 

[CincyCichlids]

Well, none that I can prove by research haha. I will say that adding an air stone (mine is a 3" ball) it likely creates circulation so the water heats faster and more evenly. If I take too long to replace the carbon insert in the house water filter, the aeration will help get rid of chlorine and/or other gases that may be present.

The downside is that it will also assimilate the water to room temperature quicker too, which is why I turned it down when I was doing the long water changes to lower the temperatures.

This is all in "theory" though... I have not taken the time to measure anything other than temperatures. If someone can see a flaw that I've overlooked please help me before I am the demise to hundreds of shrimp haha.