Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm putting this under a new topic because it is a different matter then my previous post.

I just set my aquarium up about a week and a half ago. I've been monitoring all my chemistry quite carefully and everything is in it's optimal range. My ammonia levels are non-existant and the tiny nitrite spike I saw several days after initial set up has faded completely. Everything else is within the optimal range for the fish I have, with one exception: the temperature.

The problem is that it is too warm. I've never had this issue before as I used to live in a basement apartment and cold water was the big issue. The ideal temperature to satisfy all the inhabitants in my tank is around 78 degrees according to all the literature I've put together on the various species. Unfortunately, my tank keeps spiking off the thermometer during the day time. I've been keeping the lid open and the light off, which helped knock the temperature down to just over 80 on cool days, but it still rises several degrees during the heat of summer.

The heater hasn't had cause to kick in since I put the tank together, and the tank is no where near window. It's simply an issue with the ambient home temperature I believe as we have no general AC. Is there any convenient ways I can knock the overall temperature down a few degrees, even in the warmest of weather? Or should I simply point a fan at the tank and hope that does the trick?

Thank you,
- Lucy

Hi Lucy. Here's a link to some chillers, but they are rather expensive so I don't know if it's an option for you. Perhaps they have cheaper ones at your lfs.
Otherwise, I would say AC, but since you don't have one - a fan would probably help cool it off a little.
Other than that, ice cubes are really the only other thing, but I wouldn't recommend this unless it's completely necessary because then there will be icy cold water portions of the tank. The fish won't like that.
Chillers

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Phishie

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."