Question: Fridging on account of vacation?

[GazerOfStars]

Like myself, many of you might be stressing about high temperatures in the summer.

Just yesterday my Axie tank was at 80 degrees, which no doubt gave my little guys stress as well as myself. I used my three frozen water bottles in their tank earlier in the day so I had no means to cool their tank other then to aim a fan at it(which didn't do much.)

That's not the worst part.

I'm leaving for a week long vacation in two days. I can get a friend to 1. feed them, 2. Swap out some bottles once a day.

However, I'm not sure that will be enough. The high on Saturday is 94.

Would it be feasible to fridge my two guys for a week? I don't think I can expect my friend to give them water changes though :/

I guess what I'm asking is what should I do? Keep them in their tank and hope that the frozen bottles will do the trick, keep them in the fridge for the week without changing water, or what else? :/

[Mandi]

a fan didn't work for you? How big is your tank? My fan cooled my tank almost 15* F which was huge! It was 73* to start and with the small goose-neck desk fan it dropped to 60*... Granted my tank is only a ten gallon. So if you have a larger tank it may take a larger fan or more than one.

[GazerOfStars]

20 gallon tank. I could give the fan another try. It wasn't aimed at the water, just the side of the tank.

[Mandi]

Oh yeah you have to aim it directly at the water so the surface water moves and encourages evaporation which is what cools the tank. They have some great little fans at CVS right now on sale! That's where I got mine. $15. I sit it right on the corner of the screen cover and aim the goose-neck right down at the surface! :)

[Leanne]

Your friend will need to do daily water changes if your axie is in the fridge.
I found it hard to use a fan...it just didnt work for me
I put my filter in a esky(you know the thing you keep your drinks cold when you are at a party) and filled that with ice...........i found that worked better. I had to repalce the ice everyday and some days morning and night. Start saving for a chiller, life with a chiller is so much easier. I never realised how much time I spent on my tanks until I got a chiller.

[GazerOfStars]

I'm not entirely sure how to perch the fan I have on top of my tank hitting the water. I'll give it a test run today.

[GazerOfStars]

I have my desk fan just laying horizontally on top of the tank right now ( the stand doesn't flex enough for me to aim it at the water.) It makes me feel uneasy, but lets see if that helps the temperature at all.

[Mandi]

Walmart has a few small fans that are easy to set on top of an aquarium and angle at the water. If you need to get one that makes you feel safer. Just a suggestion. I got mine at CVS on clearance. How is the temp looking?

[GazerOfStars]

Well, I still have the small fan perched on the tank, but after talking with my roomie (also on this trip) we decided to run the a/c on low in our apartment while we're gone. So I'm a little more at ease. It'll be much better then my room becoming a sauna in the upcoming heat.