# Water Temp too high?



## thriftygranny (Sep 3, 2012)

I normally like to keep my tank at 78 degrees but am having issues keeping it down. The temp has crept up to 82. And I'm worried that if I don't do something now the temp will just get higher and higher. I have not turned on my heater for the past month and the water temp is always 79-81. When the light is on the temp starts to rise. I just pickup up new T5 light (coralife 42watt 36" and has 1-6700K and 1-colormax bulb.) 2 things about the light I don't like are...1) it seems to get warmer to the touch, than my old T8 lights and 2) it sits directly on the glass top)

I have the light on a timer so it is on in the morning, off during afternoon, and on again in evening.

So back to my problem... At first I thought it was heat from my powerheads keeping the water temp high. They are older ones. But now I think it might be because I have the top of the tank too "sealed" and am not getting enough evaopration. I have a hinged glass top with a plastic strip at the back. There are no large holes or gaps in the plastic strip because I have an UGF and only needed to open it up for the power head cords and the heater.

Here is my plan... Remove the plastic strip and make some additional cutouts in it. Use aquarium silicone to glue nylon window screen over the holes to keep fish from escaping. Put back on tank.

Do you think this will work or do you have any other ideas?

this is a 46 gal bowfront - fish are: 2 gold veil angels, 1 Bolivia Ram, 6 guppies, 3 dwarf coral platys, 8 neon tetras & 5 assassin snails.

Thanks for your advise.


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## FishFin (Jun 26, 2012)

Just to let you know, Tropical fish like it around 84F.

82F is perfect temperature for your fish. Turning off the lights in the afternoon can cause some stress to plants/fish because they're not getting there 10-12 hour cycle. Keep your lights on until night, don't turn them off inbetween. And the reason why your T5's are heating your tank up is because they're probably higher wattage then T8's. And produce more heat.


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## thriftygranny (Sep 3, 2012)

FishFin said:


> Just to let you know, Tropical fish like it around 84F.
> 
> 82F is perfect temperature for your fish. Turning off the lights in the afternoon can cause some stress to plants/fish because they're not getting there 10-12 hour cycle. Keep your lights on until night, don't turn them off inbetween. And the reason why your T5's are heating your tank up is because they're probably higher wattage then T8's. And produce more heat.



Yes the T5's are higher wattage so that makes sense to me. But if you look at the fish I have, 82 is the high end of the temp range. Average temp of 78 -80 would be best. So I'm trying to figure out how to lower the temp.

As far as the lighting goes... I get up at 5:30 am and want to see the fish and feed them before I go to work. I dont get home till 5:30pm and go to bed at 9pm so it is important to me to have the lights on when I am home. 5:30 am - 9pm is 15 1/2 hrs. Is there a good compromise I could do? Like 2 hrs in morning, off for 2 hours and then have them come back on till 9 pm?

The lfs said that breaking up the 10 hours would keep me from getting algae. Were they just blowing smoke? Or is that true?


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## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

Your lighting schedule is fine. You really don't have any jumpers in the tank, Personally I would remove the glass and add a computer fan to blow over the top of the water. The only tanks I keep lids on are the betta tanks and killie tanks as they are jumpers.

And yes splitting light times does help keep algae at bay.


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## thriftygranny (Sep 3, 2012)

susankat said:


> Your lighting schedule is fine. You really don't have any jumpers in the tank, Personally I would remove the glass and add a computer fan to blow over the top of the water. The only tanks I keep lids on are the betta tanks and killie tanks as they are jumpers.
> 
> And yes splitting light times does help keep algae at bay.


Thanks Susan. I thought of removing the back plastic strip and leaving the back of the tank open. I need the glass top to set the light on. That may give me enough open space to help with cooling?


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## coralbandit (Jul 29, 2012)

try raising light off glass(stack coins,lego's ,block of wood) so air can flow between heat source(light fixture) and tank lid.If this does not help then you could blow fan across light and lid with out evap.issue.The ballast to light are in the fixture and thats the real source of heat (more than light bulbs).


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## thriftygranny (Sep 3, 2012)

i love the lego's idea. I have a whole tub full of those for the grandkids to play with. I'm sure they wouldn't miss a couple of them. I tried a couple other things and light just scooted off of them but with the ridges I bet legos would work perfect....

I'm off to play with the legos

Thats why I love this forum. You guys have the best advise!!!!

I'll pick up a small clip-on fan today and see if that helps too.

Thanks a bunch!


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## navigator black (Jan 3, 2012)

The other issue is your air temperature - I don't know what it's like where you live (I saw snow last week) but you sound like you are having what to me is a summertime problem.

I agree with the advice you got, with the exception of the recommended temperature. The tropics are a complex ecosystem. The year round temperature in equatorial West Africa is 26c (78f) and any fish from the shaded forest prefers cooler water than that - a mountain stream flowing through rainforest will be around 72f. Tropical West African killies will often stop spawning at 75 and die off at 82. The Amazon is warmer, and angels will like 26 (78f).So will Bolivian rams. Neons are good at 74f. Fancy guppies need warmth but wild ones don't (I have guppies from Trinidad that stayed healthy in my pond until I removed them when it was 35f outside. They're just great in their tank now - most colourful guppies I've kept). 
Platys come from shallow Central American waters - they can thrive from 66-85, but do best around 74-76. I keep and breed them in unheated tanks - they thrive around 70f. I've seen them in the wild in water measured at 75, at noon. I caught mexicana mollies in 73f water...
You can save some money on heating tanks by going species by species...


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## thriftygranny (Sep 3, 2012)

I'm in wisconsin and our outside temp is in the 40's now. My apartment temp inside is set for 72 F.

I wrote down all my fish and their preferred temps and a good middle ground is 78F. That's why I'm trying to get it back down. This morning after lights off for 9 hours temp was down to 81.0F 

Not sure why it stays so high without a heater other than I don't have enough evaporation going on. Or could it be the powerheads? That was my original suspect. 

I'm slowly (as money permits) upgrading and next change will be filter system. But probably that won't be till end of year when bonus check comes in.


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## ImBrovvn (Oct 10, 2012)

Hm. I don't think I can contribute to this topic but I have a question refferring to this topic. I have a 30 gal tank that's in the process of cycling. I dpnt have a heater but the temperature stays in between 71-78 F. Im planning on getting platies as my first fish so I was wonderimg if this is ok for them. Or do I need to get a heater to keep it at a more constant temperature. ?


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## coralbandit (Jul 29, 2012)

You're right trying to keep temp lower than where you're at.Stick with elavated lights and clip on fan to see if that helps.Power heads can contribute heat (I know you siad yours are older) but that usually happens when they are run to a hose and have head pressure on them which makes them work harder than how you use yours.And reaching a little more ;do you trust your thermometer( I think they're almost as cheesy as heaters today)?It will take some time to cool down as water is a superior insulator(tanks only flucuate quickly when we don't want them to.)This all started with new lights right? The ballast in your fixture is really the heat source(touch and see, I'll bet you can find the ballast by moving your hand along the fixture{it will be the hottest 6-8". ImBrovvn your temp is ok Nav is money for fish facts ,but the flucuations(if rapid or constant might be stressful{might}).


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## ImBrovvn (Oct 10, 2012)

Hm alright cool, thanks!!


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## navigator black (Jan 3, 2012)

coralbandit has a real good point about thermometers - I've made unnecessary changes because of wonky measurements. Now, I always have two on hand to double check. 
It's probably your ballast. It would be interesting to check with a thermometer with a probe - a digital. I wonder if the bottom of the tank is the same temp as the surface.
Water is heat conservative. When we lost our electricity here for eight days in january, in Canada , a decade back, we only lost 3 degrees a day in our tanks. Even when my house was 4c, my tanks were 8.
If you have 71f as a base temperature, it will go up and down slowly. Platies can handle that.


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

Assuming it is getting cooler in your area also, I would think you are fine right now. Summer time rolls around and it may become an issue. Raising the light off of the tank will help. Powerheads shouldn't cause a problem if they are making surface movement in the water. Big powerheads could become an issue but most people don't have the size tank for those.

In the Summer all of my planted tanks run 81-82 because of the lights that I have....some elevated, some not. Never been any issue for me. I agree that running your light longer than 8-10hrs a day is just asking for an algae nightmare. Breaking up your lighting time should help keep it away, but not prevent it.


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## thriftygranny (Sep 3, 2012)

jrman83 said:


> Assuming it is getting cooler in your area also, I would think you are fine right now. Summer time rolls around and it may become an issue. Raising the light off of the tank will help. Powerheads shouldn't cause a problem if they are making surface movement in the water. Big powerheads could become an issue but most people don't have the size tank for those.
> 
> In the Summer all of my planted tanks run 81-82 because of the lights that I have....some elevated, some not. Never been any issue for me. I agree that running your light longer than 8-10hrs a day is just asking for an algae nightmare. Breaking up your lighting time should help keep it away, but not prevent it.


I'll be removing part of my glass top soon to run a HOB filter to get it seeded. I have to put it on side of tank since no room behind tank and wall. I have a large plexiglass sheet that I'll put over the top to set the light on and that will allow me to put the HOB filter on the side of the tank. 

Opening the top up should help a lot with the evaporation. Right now with my UGF tubes and the powerheads my water level is only 1" below the glass. The stupid tubes are too tall and I did not think to cut them shorter before I installed them. LOL Live and learn 

I'll be running both filters for a few weeks. Do you think this will be a problem? And how will I know when the new filter is ready?


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## thriftygranny (Sep 3, 2012)

coralbandit said:


> You're right trying to keep temp lower than where you're at.Stick with elavated lights and clip on fan to see if that helps.Power heads can contribute heat (I know you siad yours are older) but that usually happens when they are run to a hose and have head pressure on them which makes them work harder than how you use yours.And reaching a little more ;do you trust your thermometer( I think they're almost as cheesy as heaters today)?It will take some time to cool down as water is a superior insulator(tanks only flucuate quickly when we don't want them to.)This all started with new lights right? The ballast in your fixture is really the heat source(touch and see, I'll bet you can find the ballast by moving your hand along the fixture{it will be the hottest 6-8". ImBrovvn your temp is ok Nav is money for fish facts ,but the flucuations(if rapid or constant might be stressful{might}).


I run 2 thermometers. A new digital one that has a probe that goes into the tank and a regular hang on the rim one. The digital is usually showing about 1/2 degree higher than the hangie one. But since it is newer I figure it is the most accurate. came home from work and temp down to 80.4. Lights are back on so going to play with the lego's and raise the light up.
Yep the ballast is a lot warmer than the old light.


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## thriftygranny (Sep 3, 2012)

navigator black said:


> coralbandit has a real good point about thermometers - I've made unnecessary changes because of wonky measurements. Now, I always have two on hand to double check.
> It's probably your ballast. It would be interesting to check with a thermometer with a probe - a digital. I wonder if the bottom of the tank is the same temp as the surface.
> Water is heat conservative. When we lost our electricity here for eight days in january, in Canada , a decade back, we only lost 3 degrees a day in our tanks. Even when my house was 4c, my tanks were 8.
> If you have 71f as a base temperature, it will go up and down slowly. Platies can handle that.


I have the kind with the probe and it is 1/2 way down into the tank. I figure that gives me a better reading.


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## coralbandit (Jul 29, 2012)

ok the themometer was a reach but better safe than sorry.I will GUESS that 2-3 weeks should give your hob time to aquire BB.Possibly a mesh bag with a little of the tanks substrate placed in filter will help seed hob.Glad to know you have more than one themometer.Many invest so much into tanks but don't spend extra $10(digital) or $3(glass) to protect there investment until it's to late.


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## thriftygranny (Sep 3, 2012)

coralbandit said:


> ok the themometer was a reach but better safe than sorry.I will GUESS that 2-3 weeks should give your hob time to aquire BB.Possibly a mesh bag with a little of the tanks substrate placed in filter will help seed hob.Glad to know you have more than one themometer.Many invest so much into tanks but don't spend extra $10(digital) or $3(glass) to protect there investment until it's to late.


no problem....I'm glad you thought of it. You are right. It's more than just the tank and filter. We need to invest in the tools we need to maintain the tank properly. Although I have to admit that I got the digital because it is easier for these old eyes to read. LOL I keep one thermometer in the kitchen for testing the water temp during changes and 2 in the tank. I also have a 3rd one in a drawer! Can never have too many I guess.

I like the idea of adding some of my gravel into the HOB to help it seed. I'll be on the lookout for a mesh bag when I'm at the store. You guys alway have the best ideas!


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## coralbandit (Jul 29, 2012)

old panty hose would work without the extra investment as well(thrifty?).


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## thriftygranny (Sep 3, 2012)

coralbandit said:


> old panty hose would work without the extra investment as well(thrifty?).


LOL.. actually I thought of that. Just wasn't sure about the dye used for nylons.


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