Fish Tank Water Cooler

[Joe549]

Is there a product available for cooling the water in a fish tank? The water in my gold fish tank is up at 29°c. The tank is in the basement, no heater, but the weather has been so hot and humid lately that the water temp in the tank keeps rising. The only thing I can think of is water changes, but I don't want to change the temp so quickly that it hurts the fish....

[Bina]

How about filling a couple of small plastic bags with proper temp water (22c) and floating the bag in the tank?

[clm]

The fish will be fine at 29C, just remember that warmer water holds less oxygen, so if you can hook up an air pump and a few air stones that'll help with the oxygen levels.

clm

[MyBirdIsEvil]

There's a device called a chiller but they're very expensive. If you don't mind spending the money then look up "aquarium chiller" on google and see what I'm talking about. I think there's also some DIY ones if you're able to do something like that.

Otherwise put a powerhead in there pointing slightly towards the top of the tank to turn the water over and oxygenate it (it's true that warmer water holds less oxygen, the circulation will also help to cool it) and you can also float bags of ice in the water.

[CearaQC]

Or another option, if you don't mind not being able to look inside the tank from the sides.

Recall your childhood science education and what happens when it gets hot. You sweat. The evaporation cools you. And when it's damp, you feel cooler. Just like the old "swamp cooler" idea of a large squirrel cage fan air conditioner that is fed with water drops.

So taking that idea, set basins of water around the tank and put towel around the tank, making sure that the towel is sitting in the water which acts like a wick, drawing the moisture up.

I found this explanation from a beer/wine making website. Pretty much the same concept because you are wanting to keep liquid at a certain temperature.

Everybody knows that as a liquid evaporates, its temperature drops. Why? Philadelphia refrigeration engineer Ike Ehrlich explained it this way: "Liquid evaporates in the presence of heat. But as it evaporates, it takes energy - in the form of heat - away from the surroundings. So the area very close to the evaporation will be cooler than the surrounding area."

It's why we get cold when we are wet. And why we sweat when it's hot. As the sweat evaporates, it uses this trick of nature to cool the surface of the body. You can use nature's tricks to keep your beer cool, too.

You will need a basin, bathtub, or even your brewpot, if it's big enough for your carboy to fit inside. Put a few inches of water in the basin, wrap the carboy in a big beach towel, place it in the basin, wet the towel, and let nature take its course. It helps to tie or rubber-band the towel in place around the neck of the carboy to keep it from slipping off.

The towel wicks the water up from the basin and it evaporates, lowering the temperature of your fermenting brew, depending on the relative humidity at the time.

[Joe549]

I'm going to try filling some balloons with water and freezing them and then put them into the tank, this should allow a slower temperature change.......