# Summer heat in my garage so at what temperature does my fish



## Playdirty714 (Apr 16, 2011)

I live in Sounthern California and summer is coming.

This will be the first summer my fishes will be living in the garage. As heat rises in the summer my garage gets to around 90 to 100 degrees.

Unfortunately, I do not have air conditioning in the garage and installing one is not an option. This brings me to the last question.

Summer heat and temperature rises in my garage so at what temperature does my fish die from the heat? Does anyone house their cichlids in their garage and have survived through several summers?

I have a 100 gallon fancy goldfish tank in our house and moving the 135 gallon into the house along with two 55 gallons is not an option.

What are some of you pros suggesting for me to do? Besides installing A/C and cranking it up during the summer?

Can my South American cichlids endure the heat of around 100 degrees?


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## adam0444 (Apr 16, 2011)

ummm 100 degrees no way. you need to do something to cool the tank off and keep it at 78-80. maybe move the tank into your house with the a/c. i assume you have a/c in your house


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## shellies215 (Jan 7, 2011)

Even if the temp in your garage is 100, the water shouldn't get that hot, get a couple fans to keep air moving across the surface of the water, and you should be OK. Keep in mind, you (or someone) will have to check on the tanks every day. You will have a lot of evaporation, but remember topping off the tank is not a substitute for water changes, the nitrates don't evaporate.


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## adam0444 (Apr 16, 2011)

shellies215 said:


> Even if the temp in your garage is 100, the water shouldn't get that hot, get a couple fans to keep air moving across the surface of the water, and you should be OK. Keep in mind, you (or someone) will have to check on the tanks every day. You will have a lot of evaporation, but remember topping off the tank is not a substitute for water changes, the nitrates don't evaporate.


if the garage is constanly above 80 the temp in the tank will rise and will rise alot, i think its risky. blowing fans over the top cant really keep the tank 10-20degrees cooler.

if the tank starts to get really hot you could always do a water change with cold water but this may also harm the fish


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## PfunMo (Jul 30, 2009)

I don't like to mention it but southern California is considered cool by some folks! The tanks will get warm but the bigger the tank, the slower to warm. Evaporation is one of the best ways as it takes the least work. Setting most any type fan to move air across the surface will help a lot. Keep any canopies or tops open if you can without fish flipping out. What does the nighttime temperature go to? If it dips at night, it will be a lifesaver. Local temperatures are running low 90's but the night only cools into the 70's so we would get little relief if there was not A/C to cool things. The SA/CA group will be able to take it prety well. When treating for ich, I found severum, rainbow cichlids and angelfish could take 94. I'm not sure how long they would be healthy at that temp but for two weeks, they showed no distress.

Evaporation to cool and top up with cool water in the hottest part, if it fits. Adding anything to get water movement will also help somewhat. Lights off when it's hot as they add heat.


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## adam0444 (Apr 16, 2011)

PfunMo said:


> I don't like to mention it but southern California is considered cool by some folks! The tanks will get warm but the bigger the tank, the slower to warm. Evaporation is one of the best ways as it takes the least work. Setting most any type fan to move air across the surface will help a lot. Keep any canopies or tops open if you can without fish flipping out. What does the nighttime temperature go to? If it dips at night, it will be a lifesaver. Local temperatures are running low 90's but the night only cools into the 70's so we would get little relief if there was not A/C to cool things. The SA/CA group will be able to take it prety well. When treating for ich, I found severum, rainbow cichlids and angelfish could take 94. I'm not sure how long they would be healthy at that temp but for two weeks, they showed no distress.
> 
> Evaporation to cool and top up with cool water in the hottest part, if it fits. Adding anything to get water movement will also help somewhat. Lights off when it's hot as they add heat.


good points. yes if it get cooler out at night the would help of a ton as you could lower the temp in the garage and such.


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## PfunMo (Jul 30, 2009)

This is not an area where summer is coming! It is here! My 15,000 gallon tank out in the yard is running 82 degrees today. I've got to get out there and get in it before it gets too hot.


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## drbunson (Apr 25, 2011)

Here is something I saw someone had built once and I thought was pretty neat.

Basically built a mini cooling system. Minimal parts and effort. He used:

A power head or some form of pump
25' of tubing
a piece of pvc the length of your tank
misc fittings to connect PH to tubing to pvc
a cheap cooler
timer of some kind (preferable digital with multiple on/off settings

Concept
Have the power head/pump pull water from the tank into the tubing. run the tubing into the cooler and coil as much inside as you can. then run the tubing back out to the pvc. Make a spray bar set up out of the pvc with several small holes to equally distribute the water across the tank. Hook the pump to the timer (or switch or whatever) and fill the cooler with cold/ice water. The pump will circulate the tank water through the chilled water to reduce tank temp.

You could have the timer do like 5 min shots or only when you check it or get fancy with a switching temp gauge. Does your garage have a "Beer Fridge" you could maybe use that instead of a cooler.

Im sure this is risky but anything short of an expensive chiller would be.

Just my 2 cents
hope this helps


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## frank1rizzo (Mar 14, 2005)

I got along just fine with a tank in the garage.

I ran a small fan pointed at the surface. 
Keep the tank level low so the canister filters output really splash the water around. 
I put 2 2-liter plastic bottles almost filled to the top with water (leave room for expanding) into the freezer.
Everyday when I got home from work I took them out and plop them in the tank. Before I went to bed I took them out, dry them off, and put them back in the freezer for the next day. This was only needed during the really hot weeks.

hth


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## cantrell00 (Oct 30, 2010)

> ran a small fan pointed at the surface.
> Keep the tank level low so the canister filters output really splash the water around.
> I put 2 2-liter plastic bottles almost filled to the top with water (leave room for expanding) into the freezer.
> Everyday when I got home from work I took them out and plop them in the tank. Before I went to bed I took them out, dry them off, and put them back in the freezer for the next day. This was only needed during the really hot weeks.


frank1rizzo...

I assume this would work on a centrally plumbed sump running multiple tanks?.. Say 6 - 20 long grow out tanks?

What do you do about heating the water in the winter? Heating the water seems exponetially easier than cooling it to me. Just a matter of how many heaters @ whatever wattage. Maybe not necessarily easier but more scalable...

Thanks-


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## frank1rizzo (Mar 14, 2005)

Im in southern Cali, so heating is never an issue. Garage is insulated so it never gets below 60 in there. A couple standard 200W heaters did the trick.

"I assume this would work on a centrally plumbed sump running multiple tanks?.. Say 6 - 20 long grow out tanks?"

For sure... just plop the frozen bottle in the sump.


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## PfunMo (Jul 30, 2009)

If you guys want to go to some trouble the old evaporative coolers have always made me think about cooling tanks. They were called swamp coolers and worked better in areas where the humidity is low but it has been an idea of mine to somehow work out a system to run the tank water through a coil inside the grid of a swamp cooler. Too many other more important projects.


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## cantrell00 (Oct 30, 2010)

Phunmo,

I had considered something similar except using a small refrigerator...


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## PfunMo (Jul 30, 2009)

The frig would get you a lot more cooling. The main and possibly only advantage that I saw in the swamp coolers was the low electrical bill. Rather than a compressor, all they had was a small pump to run the water to the top of the media and a fan to blow the air through. They did a lot of cooling for a pretty low price in areas where you could get lots of evaporation. Not good in high humidity areas where you couldn't get much evaporation going. They also tend to raise the humidity in the room a bunch. Sometimes you were cooled but still sweating!


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## Playdirty714 (Apr 16, 2011)

frank1rizzo said:


> I got along just fine with a tank in the garage.
> 
> I ran a small fan pointed at the surface.
> Keep the tank level low so the canister filters output really splash the water around.
> ...


Thanks for the suggestion. This is the most cheapest solution that I can do. I have a 30 gallon sump tank and will be putting the 2 2 liter frozen iced bottles into the sump on really hot days before I go to work. When I get home the ice in the bottles should be melted and I will put them back into the freezer (rinse and repeat next day if necessary). Plus at night the temperature should be cooler so there's no need to put frozen iced bottles into the tank to cool it off.

Thanks again for the awesome idea. This is cheaper than putting swamp coolers or building an A/C system for the garage that will run the electric bill high. Also, I don't think fans will be necessary because if I put fans to fan off the surface of the water I would need to open the lids and there's a chance my fishes will jump out. Fanning the surface of the water is not an option for me.

If 2 2 liter of frozen ice water does not do the trick I'll add in more frozen iced bottles and will add enough to meet the right temperature on really hot days.


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## dotbomb (Jan 5, 2011)

Man this is a good excuse to go buy some Dr. Pepper!

I have 3 tanks in the garage. I think about 12 liters should be good... glug glug glug.


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