Over the last few weeks, we have been having the hottest weather we have had in years around here. It is supposed to get to 100 degrees today.

Unfortunately, this has been playing havoc on my fish tank temperatures. The water is always warmer than I want it to be. I am pretty much ignoring the problem since I don't have any fish in at the moment, but before the only thing I could do to keep their temperature in the appropriate range was to make small water changes every few hours.

Still, that doesn't help much when I am at work.

I am wondering if anyone has any ideas that could help me keep my tank from overheating.

Oh, and putting in air conditioning in the room or moving the tank to a room with air conditioning are not options.

how hot is your heater set to? How hot is the tank usually? What temp. do you want it to be? With the fish you want it should be 72-75 degrees.

How hot is the tank? Most fish can take short-term warmer water. Can you run a fan that blows over the water? If not, then float some ice cubes in a ziploc bag in the tank. If money weren't an option, you could buy a chiller for the tank but I think air conditioning would be cheaper!

I have in the past kept my tank between 76 and 80, though usually I try to keep it at 78.

I think that temp is best here too as it is within the range of both types of fish I intend.


As for temp, it has gone as high as 85 before. All my fish survived since I caught it right after getting home and did some water changes.

A fan would be an option, but I wonder if it would be effective with the lid on. I wouldn't want to remove the lid for long since plecos are great jumpers and I intend to acclimate my guppies to lighting.

i dont know what to tell you. My house has central air conditioning so my tank is perfect temp. The guppies and plecs prefer 72-75 degrees. They dont need it to be that high.

I guess you are right. I thought Plecos required warmer water though. I suppose I will try to go for a cooler tank then.

most south and central american fish require that temp. Asian and african fish require 75-82 degrees.

Guppies and plecos like it around 75 degrees F. Short term, they can survive 85 degrees F just fine with adequate aeration. The fan won't do much good with the lid on. If you have a pleco, it would be better to keep on the lid then as they love to jump. You could perhaps replace a glass lid with a mesh (hardware cloth) lid but then you'd have to cut holes for filtration, heater, etc.

i would wait to get fish untill this problem is solved.