Question: Axolotl Cooling Help

[charliendarwin]

I live in a college dorm where they do not turn on the air conditioning until late spring. It is currently 60 degrees F (15 C) outside but the room is 80 (26 C) (I am fearing for when it gets warmer, hopefully my school will turn on the ac before then). The tanks are on the floor. I have fans blowing over the open tanks, cold, wet cloths on the glass with more fans blowing on them, and I lean icepacks against the tanks (I circulate them throughout the day). The thermometers in the tanks still read lower 70's (22-23 C). My 3 axies are eating fine and acting normal. Only one had their gills slightly forward when I came back to my room to find it to be 80, but now it's back to normal. Any ideas on a college student budget to help cool them would be appreciated!

 

[JayFaye]

I have this exact same problem (and goodness aquarium chillers are expensive...). I don't know how much more you can really do, but something that might also help is (if you have access) fill a large water/milk jug or large bottle with water and freeze it and put it in the tank. That seemed to help my temperature a bit.

 

[jburns2422]

My friend uses 2 litre mt dew bottles
(with paper torn off and rinsed out of course) filled with water he freezes daily! But you would have to get a small freezer! Hope that helps!!

Sent from my SCH-R530M using Tapatalk 2

 

[ebonykrow]

Hey there, so I set about looking at DIY chillers, simple google search, and this popped up. MAKE A LOW COST AQUARIUM COOLING COOLER SYSTEM - YouTube you'd need to modify it slightly to accomodate two tanks but it looks to be cost effective. I just wonder wether you have the space for this kind of set up being in a dorm?

Our house can get up to 26.C but luckily the fan brings it right down to 20-21.C.

Anyway, hope that helps, hopefully you can look at getting a chiller in the future =]

 

[charliendarwin]

Thanks for the ideas! I'll try what you have suggested and hopefully get a chiller sometime in the soon future because I really care for these little guys. I don't think I have room for larger things now but over the summer I can try some things out at home and hopefully have something better for next year (moving out of the dorms into an apartment because this no air conditioning deal is ridiculous).