Habitat - Indoor :: Keeping Water Cool in the Hot Summer

[Crazy Girl Turtle]

More questions from this new baby RES owner (she is about 1.5 inches!

We live in So Cal, where it tends to get quite hot in the summer! I don't use my A/C very often though b/c it is not efficient. We usually use fans to keep ourselves cool, but I am worried about Tanga.

I have the Stealth heater, which works great at keeping her water temp at 78 - 80 during the cool evenings/nights (and up until a couple weeks ago, during the day). But what can I do to keep her tank cool enough when the temps in the house soar?

Is there something like a water cooler I can buy? It has gotten to 83 in her tank lately and it is making me nervous. (As we move into July/August, it is only going to get hotter!!) I throw in a few ice cubes to cool it down, but when I am not home I obviously cannot toss in ice cubes (not to mention it is a very temporary solution.)

We are buying a 100 gallon tank this weekend, so can get whatever would work best for maintaining the temp in there best then too, if you have ideas.

One last thing, I considered blowing a fan into the water, but that seemed risky on many levels.

Thanks for the help!

[DavidY]

Getting a bigger tank will definitely help reduce temperature fluctations between day and night time. 83 degrees isn't too bad but since this is only the beginning of summer...it's good that you're thinking of solutions now. A lot of folks freeze plastic water bottles and let them float in the tank which should help for a few hours. I wouldn't do that in a small tank though as it would drop the temp too quickly.

If you can get a room fan that is mounted on an adjustable stand like one of those oscillating fans, you could position it a few feet away from the tank and then have it blow across the top of (not necessarily into) the tank. That works best if the air isn't too humid since it increases the evaporation rate of the water which in turn has a cooling effect. Also you can add more cool water to make up for the evaporation.

Aside from that, the only other option that I know of either air conditioning or a chiller like the one pictured here...


Those suckers are heavy, expensive and use a lot of electricity to run. Plus you have to buy a separate pump to pump the water through them. Personally I would rather spend the money and electricity on a room A/C so we can all benefit from the cool air.

If you're interested in a chiller, you can get some ideas of what they cost here...http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/NavResults.cfm?N=2004+113768

[Crazy Girl Turtle]

Thanks for the ideas and feedback! I started looking at chillers and yes they are expensive! So it seems that for the couple months I would need it, it would be better to use the room A/C. Maybe on a timer or something.

Also, I will go look at some floor fans tomorrow.

Thanks again!

[marisa]

Try partial water changes.