What are you doing to keep your animals cool?

[steven1969s]

Hello everyone.

I keep all my newts and salamanders in a room down in my basement with an ac on for them 24/7. The room is a 10'x10' room and I'm using an 7k btu portable ac unit and I can't seem to keep the room cooler than 69f.
I lowered all my tanks and containers to the ground as this is where the cooler temps remain. Anything at my head level is at 73f.
Temps here in NJ have been over 90f for almost 5 days now with no relief until probably Sunday.

My electric bill for this month was $350. The room is well insulated but somehow temps are not cool enough. According to the specs, this ac should cool off a much bigger room. There's only 1 window in this room and this is where I connected the exhaust for the ac.

What are you guys doing to keep your animals safe?

Steve

 

[Newtontrick916]

Hey there! A little history about my newt and her water. I have a CFB and they tend to enjoy water temp around anywhere between mid 40 to 68 degrees. Even though she lives in my basement with me, her water still warms up faster than I'd like. Even though I probably shouldn't, I have found two ways to keep the water somewhat regulated. I have a spray bottle with her type of water (spring water) that I keep in the refrigerator. On extra hot days, I spray the land area with a nice cold mist. As far as the water goes, I have two ice trays that I keep in the freezer with her spring water in it. Then with the temp is hot, I put about four in the water and it melt within minutes but chills the water. Hope this helps.

 

[speckles]

I've been keeping my salamander in my living room with my ac set for high cool, it's a 5k btu air conditioner it cools just my living room down at 70 degrees, a little on the warm side for him but it's better than last year when i had to keep him in the fridge all summer.

 

[steven1969s]

The spray water bottle in the fridge is a great idea. I'll just have to keep a big bottle and refill the spray bottle since I have a lot of newts and salamanders.

Thanks.

 

[JoshBA]

Start with increasing evaporation in the tank. This can be accomplished by using a screen top or providing more ventilation. You could also use an air pump to create more surface agitation in an aquatic setup. This can cool the water by a few degrees.
Rotating frozen water bottles in and out of the tank could be somewhat effective. You could also move the tank in front of the air conditioner or direct the airflow towards the tank.
I have seen some people have used plastic coolers and filled it with cool water or used frozen water bottles. I was almost going to use this method until I bought an air conditioner that solved my problems.
Go to the Caudata Culture articles and read their article on tank cooling; its very informative.

 

[Bellabelloo]

Here is the aquarium cooling link :-

Caudata Culture Articles - Cooling