High temp with current weather

[cherryglue]

So here is washington state, its been ridiculously warm over the last two nights, almost in the 90, mid 80s fer sure. We noticed our tanks spiked to about 70-74 this afternoon, but I came home from work and our main guys 55gal tank was at nearly 80. I freaked out and threw some frozen ice bottles in there and did a 5 gallon water change of very cold water and got the temp down to 70ish, did the same for our smaller tank and our little guys has been a stable 68 for the past few hours. Big guy needed more frozen bottles because after a few hours he was up from 72 to 77.

Anyway, the temp here locally is supposed to go down tomorrow and over the next week, so we have a bit of time to figure it out, but we are looking for advice for two ideas we had, and im nervous that we will pick the wrong choice because we dont have the money to try both.

1.) (BOYFRIEND really wants to try this one because its his idea) set up an air pump on the back wall of our big guys tank rigged to a insulated picnic cooler woth frozen gallon containers of water so it pumps icy cold are into the tank, thus cooling the tank.

2.) Saw a tutorial for making a mini fridge into a makeshift cold water circulator. Only thing is that it doesnt really say how to get it pumping and we are noobs. All we know to do is gut the unnecessary racks from the fridge, get some hoses for the water to flow through, then set up a pump system (we dont have any clue how).

As I said, we dont have a ton of money, we both only have part time jobs and im started classes up soon and have little to spare, so we are leaning to the first option because its cheaper, but I need to be confident it will cool our tank...halp lol.

 

[HayleyK]

You shouldn't really rush the temperature change, it's better to let it cool down slowly to avoid temperature shock.

I live in Australia and heat waves can get up to 45 degrees in the day (roughly 113F) and my guys have done well with a fan or two with ice bottles rotating throuought the day (I have my mum to thank for being diligent enough with bottles ) .. each fan cost be $40AUD. The highest i think it got was 23ish but usually maintains it between 18-20. Thats still not the BEST outcome but it works when your budget is tight.

As for the first idea I've read and seen this before but I don't know how to do it or what it requires, same goes for the second idea.

 

[Boomsloth]

So here is washington state, its been ridiculously warm over the last two nights, almost in the 90, mid 80s fer sure. We noticed our tanks spiked to about 70-74 this afternoon, but I came home from work and our main guys 55gal tank was at nearly 80. I freaked out and threw some frozen ice bottles in there and did a 5 gallon water change of very cold water and got the temp down to 70ish, did the same for our smaller tank and our little guys has been a stable 68 for the past few hours. Big guy needed more frozen bottles because after a few hours he was up from 72 to 77.

Anyway, the temp here locally is supposed to go down tomorrow and over the next week, so we have a bit of time to figure it out, but we are looking for advice for two ideas we had, and im nervous that we will pick the wrong choice because we dont have the money to try both.

1.) (BOYFRIEND really wants to try this one because its his idea) set up an air pump on the back wall of our big guys tank rigged to a insulated picnic cooler woth frozen gallon containers of water so it pumps icy cold are into the tank, thus cooling the tank.

2.) Saw a tutorial for making a mini fridge into a makeshift cold water circulator. Only thing is that it doesnt really say how to get it pumping and we are noobs. All we know to do is gut the unnecessary racks from the fridge, get some hoses for the water to flow through, then set up a pump system (we dont have any clue how).

As I said, we dont have a ton of money, we both only have part time jobs and im started classes up soon and have little to spare, so we are leaning to the first option because its cheaper, but I need to be confident it will cool our tank...halp lol.

The first idea won't be that effective because while the air pumped into the tank might be cooler, warm air still has to go back into the cooler (or it will create a vacuum) which will be quickly sucked back into the tank. Air cools and heats up much quicker than water and since its just air going into the tank I doubt it will be cooling the tank much.

The second idea has worked for some people but it requires buying a fridge and making sure the tubing you use has high heat transfer abilities (vinyl/pvc are not good options). Then you would need a water pump. The more coils or loops of tubing in the fridge the more time it has to cool down the liquid, but it also requires a more powerful pump. For a 55 gallon tank you'll need it to be moving more liquid through to keep it cool and you'll find that between the cost of the fridge and the right pump you could've bought an actual chiller.

If you can't buy a chiller use fans and wrap the bottom and sides of the tank with insulating material. It doesn't look pretty but give you some time to save up for a chiller.
The other option is keeping the AC around 70F and using a fan to bring it down to the right temp.

 

[ladygodiva35]

I'm originally from Washington and geez that is hot and if I recall a lot of homes don't have AC! Here in Texas my axie tank is hitting 68-70F with one 2 liter bottle and 2 of those little personal soda bottles. But each week I do a water change it gets to 74-76F so I have to wait to but my axies back in there while the frozen bottles get the temp down. I keep them in a little plastic bucket with a mini frozen bottle so they don't over heat.

Good luck of getting your tank temp down! I hate spring and summer! lol