water chillers?

[coco1200]

does anybody have any idea on how to make the tank cooler by long term?
its at about 23 degrees!

can you use dry ice packs straight in the tank?
thanks

 

[Daniel]

Hi,

If not done already, you might want to have a look at Caudata Culture, there are some helpful suggestions:
http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/cooling.shtml

 

[ianclick]

Have a look at the site Daniel has mentioned. There are coolers available and many ingenious ways to cool tanks.

I would not use dry ice packs directly into the tank for fear of breach or rupture but im a bit on the paranoid side.

Good Luck

 

[Abrahm]

Definitely check out the site Daniel listed for ways to cool down your tank. There are a lot of little helpful hints.

If dry ice packs are dry ice (frozen CO2) then I would say no, don't use them. They will acidify the water and they are far too cold if the newts come into contact with them

IIf by dry ice packs you mean the things you buy in the grocery store and freeze in your home freezer I would still say no as I wouldn't want it to rupture and leak things into the tank. Those packs eventually break especially with all the freezing and thawing we put them through. The better solution would be to just partially fill a few plastic bottles with dechlorinated tap water and use those as ice packs.

 

[tkromer]

I just did a ton of research into this as I didn't like the idea of putting ice bottles in every day, moving to a cooler room was not an option and fans are noisy.

If you have the money: buy a very smaller in-line chiller. From what the manufacturers tell me a 1/15hp chiller running at >100GPH will drop a 40 gallon tank at least 7-8 degrees (I'll verify that when I actually get it all set up). The upside: it's perfectly stable, essentially automatic and nearly maintenance free, and it's able to keep your tank down below 65 degrees. The downside: the 1/15hp ones seem to run over $200 and it gets worse if you have a huge tank. Anyway, if you don't have the money agreed with the earlier post, check out the article on cooling.

--Tommy

 

[bukowsky]

I just did a ton of research into this as I didn't like the idea of putting ice bottles in every day, moving to a cooler room was not an option and fans are noisy.

you won't hear good quality computer fans driven with 9 instead of 12 volts.

If you have the money: buy a very smaller in-line chiller. From what the manufacturers tell me a 1/15hp chiller running at >100GPH will drop a 40 gallon tank at least 7-8 degrees (I'll verify that when I actually get it all set up). The upside: it's perfectly stable, essentially automatic and nearly maintenance free, and it's able to keep your tank down below 65 degrees. The downside: the 1/15hp ones seem to run over $200 and it gets worse if you have a huge tank. Anyway, if you don't have the money agreed with the earlier post, check out the article on cooling.

its not just the money ... another problem would be the high flow rates these coolers need for more or less efficiency and the non ecological power consumption.

 

[dvsgal]

I use a desk fan, it maintains a 20deg temp in the summer.