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I figured this might happen a few days ago. Went up to change the ice bag in my tank a few minutes ago, all my neon tetras were dead at the surface of the water, as well as two corydoras. Temperature was up to 38C, despite having just added more ice not more than 20 minutes before. I should have realised this would happen when I got it, but I completely forgot how outrageous the temperatures in my dorm get during heat waves. The remaining three corydoras are completely inactive, only moving when I actually nudge them, my seven danio zebras seem okay, albeit swimming solely in the upper quarter of the tank and facing the spray bar, which is spraying onto ice, and the two juvenile aymonieri are alternating between running all around the tank in a panic and lying on top of one another in the most shaded place they can find. This won't end well. I'm changing ice bags as soon as they can freeze, but the temperature is just staying constant. Considering it's still about two-three hours away from what is likely to be the peak of today's high temperatures, and considering this isn't going to be the hottest day of this summer, I'm expecting to end up with an empty tank. I really should have thought this through properly from the start.
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Jun 21, 2013 10:24
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demonR6 posted:In this case I would have recommended buying a chiller either a stand alone unit or the fans that mount on the tank, they can drop temps by 5-8 degrees. I considered this a few days ago, actually. Looked up prices at local/national fish stores, could only find two. One costs about as much as I've spent in total on the tank so far, including other equipment, the other double that. I'm not even sure it's worth it to try and home-brew something together. The other fish, besides the corydoras who continue to be completely inactive unless pressed, seemed to have calmed down a bit. Zebras swimming all around the tank, and the aymonieri are back to eating off of every surface and clinging to the front glass panel. Hopefully I won't have another incident soon..
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Jun 21, 2013 12:05
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Me in Reverse posted:How hot does your dorm get that your tank water was 100 degrees F? Peaked at 40C yesterday, around the same today. It's not that bad, to be honest, as long as we keep the door open to get a draft going. It used to be better when we were allowed to tin foil our windows for some measure of insulation, but that's now forbidden, causing 45C and more temperatures in the middle of summer. This is only really the start of summer. I've got an "air cooler", but it's just a bit more effective than a fan. A portable AC unit would be useful, but it's also expensive as all hell. This budget problem is the reason I said I should have thought it through from the start. I just assumed ice bags would be enough to keep the temperature low. Also, I'll check eBay and the like, but more often than not shipping is going to raise prices immensely. (I live in Eastern Europe, specifically Romania.) The national eBay equivalent we have here doesn't really have many aquarium equipment, besides the occasional canister filter and bags of substrate/ferts. Basically, pro-tip for any student aquarists: if you know your dorm is going to boil over during the summer and you don't have anywhere to take your fish, or any way of cooling the tank, better to not jump in and wait until you have the means to ensure your fish don't get cooked. I'll keep doing the best I can for the next few days, and am already talking to an acquaintance to see whether I could move the tank to their AC-cooled apartment. e: ^ direct sunlight is hitting the windows and the curtains, which are yellowish-orange and thus don't help much. We're not allowed dark curtains, for some silly reason, and aren't allowed to block out the windows otherwise at all. These windows make up the top 60% of the outwards-facing wall, in a 5m x 3m concrete box. The tank, however, is covered in dark fabric on the sides. The top is off to help evaporation, so it does get some amount of light into it, however. Red Mike fucked around with this message at 13:51 on Jun 21, 2013 |
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Jun 21, 2013 13:48
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Update on my heatwave fish problem situation. Scrounged up enough cash to get a portable AC unit and the tank has been at a more comfortable 32C even in the hottest part of the day. My last corydoras and the smallest danio zebra died before I could get the unit, though, so I'm down to six danio zebras and two juvenile aymonieri. They seem fine now, and I'm not risking getting any more fish for a while. Hopefully these will be okay. Once the temperature dropped a bit, the aymonieri started being really active, and cleaned up any trace of algae on my plants and mopani wood in a couple of days. Both are considerably rounder, and a bit bigger now. The fun thing is that for the last few days, my danio zebras have been acting strange, resting on ornaments/plants just like the aymonieri and poking my vals bottom to top just like the aymonieri do when they're cleaning the leaves of algae. It looks almost as if they're imitating the other fish. In the meantime, the aymonieri spook and hide as soon as I start moving towards the tank, so I can't get a really good look at them.
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Jun 28, 2013 12:34
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