Question: How to reduce water temp safely

[Jenna]

Hey All,

I'm hoping someone can help me, I want to reduce the water temperature in my baby axolotl tank from 20 degrees Celsius to room temp (approx. 16 deg Celsius). The lowest setting on my heater is 20 deg Celsius so I can't use that to reduce the water temp. If I just turned the heater off would that be gradual enough or would it cause them to stress?

Thanks,
Jenna

[Leanne]

They dont need a heater, take it out and let the temp go down. They can live quite happily in very cold water.

Summer time is when you are going to be having problems keeping the tank cool.

[Jenna]

I work in a school so I used the heater to speed up the hatching process so the students could see them hatch before the school holidays. Now that they have hatched and are growing well I want to put them back to cold water so they can grow at their natural pace. Thank you for the reassurance that just turning off the heater will be gradual enough not to stress them out :)