I live in Phx, AZ...the weather's starting to heat up here, problem is our tank seems to be heating up right along with it. New tank (a 55), new house, never encountered this issue before. Unplugged heater, tank is staying at about 82 right now, exactly the same temp as inside the house. We aren't ready to turn the air conditioner on yet, so aside from purchasing a chiller for the tank, does anyone know any cheap & easy ways to keep the tank a bit cooler? Kinda not fond of the idea of boiling our fish...
How to cool a tank?
- Thread starter Pattiable
- Start date
You can add a couple of fans to the top of the tank. I used computer fans on my reef tank. One one pushing and one pulling air across the tank.
I've heard of people putting frozen bottles of water in the tank to cool it down, never tried myself though.
Oh, yes. I had this problem, too. You can position a house fan to blow across the water, float a bag of ice or, the thing I never did: Rig a powerhead or water pump in the tank which pushes water through a hose and back into the tank. The hose can be coiled and put into the cool ground or a small fridge (or an ice-filled cooler!). You need a long hose, though, because the plastic they are made of is pretty insulative. I'd say wrap it around something metal in the cooler to improve cooling capacity.
I like the hose/cooler idea! Seems like a waste of a keg-a-rater though... I'm having the same issue with my tank at work. Being in Houston, they turn the AC off on the weekends, so my tank gets up to 80 or 82 F by Monday. I have to let it cool down until wednesday (~77 F).
