Coldwater aquarium, Extremely hot room

[Anonymous]

My air conditioning unit is busted, and even with fans, my aquarium is still 80-82 degrees. It needs to be 65-70 degrees. The tank is 2.5 gallons, and is set up and ready for fish. However, I feel unsure about buying fish for my tank because of the high temperature. If I do end up buying the fish, I'll probably have my boyfriend babysit them for a while (his house is much cooler than mine, and his tank was set up much longer).

So I guess my question is: Is there any safe way to cool down the water in the tank without hurting the fish?

I read somewhere to put an ice cube behind the filter pad so it would circulate throughout the tank, but I'd like to have a second opinion on that. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

[Incredulous_Ed]

Put some ice in a plastic bag and float it in the aquarium until the ice melts.

[William]

That works but it is very hard to keep an even temperature that way and to hot is better than an unstable temperature that goes up and down.

There are cooling system that can be bought but those are rather expensive.

I recommend that you start by taking a look at what temperature your local fish store keep their coldwater fish in. If they to suffer from the heat it is likely that the fish has gotten used to the higher temperature and will tolerate it at your place as well untill you can get the AC working.

[Anonymous]

Thanks, guys. You're life savers. I really appreciate it.

[Full3R]

or you could buy warm water fish

[Juannie]

The best way too cool goldfish (that I've found) is too fill up plastic 2 litre bottles with water, put the lids on and freeze them - it cools the water down slowly.

[PaulasPets]

Thats the same way I have done it in the past. Freeze some water in plastic bottles and then float the bottles in the tank.

Paula

[turbomkt]

What kind of coldwater fish are you going for in a tank that size?

Anyway...the Ice Probe chiller is a safe bet for a tank that small. They even have one built into what looks like an AquaClear mini filter.

[Lady Hobbs]

I have no air in my apartment, either, and during a heat spell last summer I used frozen bottles as well. I finally put a blanket over my window (I have blinds) but that helped keep the room cooler. Also stopped opening the doors and windows and just kept the fans going. Keeping the heat out helps but I did use the frozen bottles with no problem. My tank was a 30 gallon tho.

[Juannie]

I live on the Gold Coast (Australia) and we hit high 30degree temps. My tropical tanks & american tanks have hit 34C degrees (recently), I have lots of 2litre and 1.5 litre plastic bottles in my freezer and it cools the water temps down slowly. We keep the blinds pulled close during the day and ceiling fans going - . When it's really bad I've put a pedestal fan above the tanks so the fan is cooling the water down that way esp for my goldfish - it's worked so I'm lucky. My fish have adjusted to the temps over the few years I've had them otherwise I'd been in all sorts of strife.

[jeffs99dime]

you could get an aquarium chiller, something like this-- http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/NavResults.cfm?Ntt=aquarium%20chiller&Ntk=All&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial&Np=1&pc=1&N=2004&Nty=1
not sure what your budget is but, they work extremely well for the purpose.