General Aquaria Discussion • heat rising need some help

[barbarian206]

i am fairly new to the cichlid community about six months summer time is here and i need help temp. is sitting at 85 degrees in my african tank i need some suggestions about bringing it back down too normal lvls was keeping temp at 78degrees any help will be appreciated ty all

[Fogelhund]

What is the room temperature, where the aquarium is? What temperature does that room reach in mid summer?

[Nathan43]

If its not the heater warming the water, then its the room. Unless you have a chiller, you need to bring the temp in the room down below 80 degrees

[barbarian206]

i live on the top floor next to the roof it is fairly hot here in the summer months i spoke to a freind of mine and he said chillers only drop the temp about 3- 5 degrees not worth the money what he did tell me was to take some water out of the tank and take the hood off it will cool the tank. also it would be cheaper for me to get an ac. to keep the room temp cooler im looking for all advice i can get cause i was thinking of throwing in some ice cubes since i have a fluval filter and cannot put ice in it . ty for all your help i really appreciate the advice

[Nathan43]

do not chill the water by using ice cubes or cold water, its a bad idea. AC is the best and cheapese option if you ask me...
Trust me, i know all about top floor near the roof. It sucks. My tanks are all 82 degrees now and I am struggling as well.

[Laurel]

Would a frozen water bottle floating/getting switched out every 12ish hours create too much of a swing?

[barbarian206]

ty all for the info im struggling here will be buying a portable ac this week so i can keep room temp down ty all i really appreciate the advice.

[Reiner]

Buy a small clip on fan (like 8" diameter) take the lids of and have it blow across the surface of the water. I used to do that with my salt tank and was able to keep it at 82 when all my other tanks were 86 in my house. BTW 86 is not really a problem for a cichlid tank unless it's underfiltered and overstocked.

[sublimerjm]

Nice topic, I was actually going to post something similar to this today, my tank has been hovering around 85 for a little while also. At what temperature is there need for a real panic? Like someone said earlier the less stock and more movement the better.

[Reiner]

I live in LA and usually by the end of June I unplug all my heaters until the end of September and my tanks hit 86 -88 every year and I never had a problem. Once it goes over 90 I would probably be concerned but cichlids are very tough to say the least.

[MalawiLover]

I live in LA and usually by the end of June I unplug all my heaters until the end of September and my tanks hit 86 -88 every year and I never had a problem. Once it goes over 90 I would probably be concerned but cichlids are very tough to say the least.

You shouldn't need to unplug your heaters. If the water is above the set point (what ever temp you set it for), the heat doesn't come on.

[barbarian206]

thank you all for the advice it is much appreciated

[Willy W0nka]

Being that these fish are native to African waters, is it really a bad thing that the water temps reach over 85 degrees?

[pvtschultz]

In the reefing circles, we use computer fans (about 4" diameter) on regular AC to DC inverters from printers and other electronic goods to circulate fresh air into the light hoods and to force evaporatation of the water. The evaporation cools the tank water (at the expense of increased evaporation) and will usually bring the water temp down several degrees below ambient. My fans were (will be) on the same timer as my lights during the summer months. You could also make a temperature sensor out of a thermistor and create a regulated fan to cool the tank.