Chillling

[chris]

I live in New England and was looking to get some Japanese Fire Belly Newts, now during the summmer my fish tanks get up to 80 F and I know that cant happen with Newts, what are your secrets to keeping the temp down, A/C is out of the question as were not allowed to have it in my college apartments. Thanks for all your help

 

[jesper]

Hi!
Well, chilling is rather difficult if you are not a rich man, I take it you arent
Cynops pyrrhogaster can tolerate these temps for short periods I would say. Try to put the aq in the shadow and all that also you can chill the water by adding bottles of cold water from your refrigerator or freezer but this will only lower temp a couple of degrees at most and its a pain in the <font color="ff0000">&#149;</font><font color="ff0000">&#149;</font><font color="ff0000">&#149;</font>. Be sure to only have a net on top of the aq., the evaporation will cool the tank no glasslid!!

 

[chris]

thanks

 

[samuel]

you may want to consider other temp hardy newts like T. verrucosus.

 

[jennifer]

I recommend using a screen lid instead of a hood. More evaporation means cooler. Avoid motor-driven filters. This page has a whole list of suggestions:
http://www.caudata.org/caudatecentral/FAQhou.html

 

[chris]

another way to do it is to put gel packs (the same kind you put inside a cooler) instead of frozen water bottles. also, depending on what kind of filter you have, you could try putting a frozen water bottle/gel pack on the reservoir and putting it at a higher elevation than the tank, the idea here is that water is moved out of the tank by the filter, passes by the water bottle and the heat is transfered to the ice , and the cool water is then rushed back into the tank..placement of the tank would help to. remember these important principal, they will help you come up with more ingenious ways to deal with hot temperatures...heat rises/energy moves from warm to cold (as in COLD ABSORBS HOT)

 

[mike]

If you're going to try to manipulate the temperature of the tank, keep it as constant as possible. The cycle of:

- ice goes in, temperature plummets
- temperature rises slowly
- ice all gone, temperature rises quickly
- ice goes in, temperature plummets
- etc

is really stressful for the animals. Best to manipulate the temperature of the room (or house

) they're in.