HELP! Beating the heat (X-P alt.aquaria)

[Erin (Eugene)]

Going out of town for three days, and the forecast is 85F which could
see my two tanks climbing to that heat. So far during our heat wave
we've regulated the temperatures by freezing tank water and dropping
this tank-water-ice-cube into the tanks several times a day, and that's
worked to keep the tanks around a max of 81F thus far. Obviously we
can't do that when we're out of town.

My one tank has neons and a zebra loach.

Other has only two apple snails.

I can see the tanks possibly reaching a max temperature of 85 degrees,
and I'm panicking! What can I do? We don't have AC.

[dc]

"Erin (Eugene)" > wrote in
ups.com:

> My one tank has neons and a zebra loach.
>
> Other has only two apple snails.
>
> I can see the tanks possibly reaching a max temperature of 85 degrees,
> and I'm panicking! What can I do? We don't have AC.

Keep the lights off and the top open. Place a fan next to the aquarium
blowing a strong breeze across the open surface. Add an air pump and
bubbler to facilitate good O2 gas exchange at the surface.

Available O2 is one of the main concerns for hot tanks. Luckily the fish
you are keeping are well adapted to high temperatures. Loaches are
tolerant to high temperatures and have adapted a method of obtaining oxygen
from the air using their swim bladder--if they need it they will get their
O2 from the surface. Your neons may not fair quite as well as the loaches,
but depending on the quality of their genetics they should be okay. They
are Amazonian in nature and so are very accustomed to high temperatures in
the wild. If you keep your water aerated they should be fine too.

Three days is not that long. Any live plants you may have will easily
survive living in darkness for that period of time.

[Erin (Eugene)]

dc wrote:

> Keep the lights off and the top open. Place a fan next to the aquarium
> blowing a strong breeze across the open surface. Add an air pump and
> bubbler to facilitate good O2 gas exchange at the surface.

Thanks, I will do that.

> Available O2 is one of the main concerns for hot tanks. Luckily the fish
> you are keeping are well adapted to high temperatures. Loaches are
> tolerant to high temperatures and have adapted a method of obtaining oxygen
> from the air using their swim bladder--if they need it they will get their
> O2 from the surface. Your neons may not fair quite as well as the loaches,
> but depending on the quality of their genetics they should be okay. They
> are Amazonian in nature and so are very accustomed to high temperatures in
> the wild. If you keep your water aerated they should be fine too.

Sounds good. I did not know loaches behaved that way; we used to have
cories until a freak disease killed them off, and they also sipped from
the surface. We will turn the bubbler on.

> Three days is not that long. Any live plants you may have will easily
> survive living in darkness for that period of time.

The hornwort grows like, well, like weeds. I'm sure it'll survive. Much
obliged for all your assistance!