Tank Temperatures

[capper]

I have 3 aquariums which include 41, 15, and 6-gallons respectively. My tanks have mainly guppies and tetras with one 9-inch pleco in the 15-gallon tank.

We live in Tokyo and it gets and stays extremely hot and humid from June until September (sometimes Oct.). For the past few years, we have been using fans that clip onto the top of the aquariums to keep the water temperature around 26 celcius. During the really hot times, it seems to do an adequate job (although the water evaporates very fast!). Fortunately, we haven't needed cooling systems as they are prohibitively expensive.

Here's my concern. I usually keep the fans on most of the time during the summer months. Occasionally, the weather isn't that hot. In other words, sometimes the water temperature of 29 is lowered and kept at about 26 with the fans working well. But when the temperature of the room & water is about 25 or 26 on some days, the fan could lower it to around 22-24. I am concerned about such situations.

One solution is of course to turn the fans on and off manually according to the weather. That is hard to do regularly and can be a bit stressful. The other solution I wanted to get feedback on is: Keeping my heating running and set at 25 or 26 degrees so that in the event that the fans drop the temperature too low, the heater will kick in and raise it to the minimum needed. Does anyone have any experience and/or feedback on this concern?

 

[OrangeCones]

I used to do exactly what you are proposing with my tanks in subtropical Florida, USA. If the heaters are not needed (the temperature is high enough) then they don't turn on, so no harm.

Just be sure to do water changes and not just 'topping off' the evaporated water. Doing just top-offs will concentrate organic solids in the tanks and can cause harm long term to the fish.

Just a side-note...a 9" pleco in a 15 gallon tank? Yikes! He/she needs a much larger tank, really. Just my 2cents.

 

[OrangeCones]

Double post.

 

[anshuman]

Hello capper,

never been there but i lovee japan . I wish i make a holy trip to niigata aquariums.

can you post pics of your pleco ? seems you have small tank for that fish.

 

[stoddern]

you could always use a radiator from a computer liquid cooling system like this Newegg.com - Swiftech MCR220-QP-STACK Dual 120mm Stackable Heat Exchanger - Glossy Black it's around $50usd aswell are most pumps and tubing is cheap and this way you wouldn't have to worry about evaporation, now I'm sure theres a product out there for this but I don't know what it's called but if you had a water temp sensor connected to say a power strip you could tell it to turn on and off with temp. like the power strip I have is digital and has 4 night time outlets, 4 daytime outlets and 4 all time outlets letting me program when things turn on and off but I'm sure there is one that does the same thing only based on temp.

 

[capper]

Thanks for the responses to my post. First, we're planning to re-locate to North America early next year. Unfortunately, it is quite likely that our fish and tanks won't be able to make the trip. So, it wouldn't be worth investing in any type of cooling system at this point. Also, we've managed fine for about 5 years so it should be okay.

In regards to the Pleco... It's an Albino Bushy Pleco. When we bought it, it was about 5cm. It's over 3 years old now and has grown to 9cm. It's been 9cm for a couple of years now. It seems very happy in the 15g tank. The other occupants of the tank are guppies, shrimp, and a couple of small corydoras catfish. I have thought about moving it to our large tank but I'm worried about the move being stressful. We had the exact same pleco in our largest tank for a couple of years but it died several months ago -- after we had to completely remove everything from the tank for a while and change the substrate etc. I am aware of the tank being a bit small for the pleco. My wife got angry at me when I have suggested a couple of times that we move it to the big tank. She thinks that it's doing fine and moving it would be risky. In some ways I agree but I am definitely concerned about the current tank being too small for it. Help please....

I took some pics but I've never posted pics on here and not sure how to do it! Please advise!

 

[lauraf]

There shouldn't be anything that stressful about moving a fish between your own tanks - you have the same water source, and are presumably treating the tanks in the same way in terms of water changes, lighting and feeding since it sounds like they are housing only guppies and tetras.
Even though your pleco seems happy, almost all fish are 'happier' with more room. You might find that he goes through a bit of a growth spurt with the extra space - often the reason their body stops growing is because of the space constraints.
I say move the pleco!
And for me the easiest was to post photos is click on the "Go Advanced" tab below a reply, and then click on the 'insert image' icon - you can then browse your computer to select the image and it will embed in your post.

 

[capper]

lauraf-- thanks a lot for your reply. I agree. The water sources are the same and the conditions should be quite similar. Is there anything special I should do in regards to moving the fish? How exactly should I proceed. Simply catch it in the net and put it directly into the bigger tank?

I keep thinking about the time over a year ago when we had to completely empty and resurface our largest tank. The other pleco (exactly the same breed and size) died a few days later. I had saved a few buckets of water from the tank that I used when re-filling. I am not sure if it was stress that killed it.

Any idea what the average lifespan for most pleco species is in an aquarium and in the wild?

 

[lauraf]

Sounds like the reason you had trouble with your last tank changeover was that you saved some of the water, but maybe not the gravel or filter media - that's what has the good bacteria. Just guessing, but maybe your pleco died because your tank went into a new 'cycle' without any of the beneficial bacteria available, and there was an ammonia spike.
This time around, I really wouldn't do anything complicated - just gently net your pleco, plop him in a bucket or whatnot to transport him to wherever your larger tank is, and slide him into the new tank.

 

[xarumitzu]

I don't know if I'm the only one that caught this. But the original post said the Pleco was 9in, then in a later post he said is was 9cm. Assuming the first post was a typo, 9cm puts the Pleco at about 3in.

 

[lauraf]

Yup, saw that - but a 3 inch pleco is still getting a bit large for a 15g - not an awful situation, but it would be happier in the 41g though!

 

[capper]

I don't know if I'm the only one that caught this. But the original post said the Pleco was 9in, then in a later post he said is was 9cm. Assuming the first post was a typo, 9cm puts the Pleco at about 3in.

xarumitzu--

Thanks for pointing out my error. My pleco is about 9cm, not 9 inches (as I made the mistake of first posting). Having said that, do some of you still feel that I should move it to my larger tank? The previous pleco we had was also about 5cm when we got him. It never got bigger than 10cm in the much bigger tank.

One more point. I fully understand that it is important to do water changes, rather than simply topping off the evaporated water. However, is it okay to top off the water 3 or 4 times in one week before changing the water? I generally do water changes weekly, sometimes every 10 days or so.

 

[OrangeCones]

As long as you are still changing it out as you normally would do, topping off is fine. I used to top off 1 or 2x a week and still do the water changes every 10days to 2wks, depending on the readings of the tests.

The danger is in JUST topping off. If you don't get some of the 'old' water out and replaced with new water, you would just be building up toxins in the water over time.