Vacation Solutions for Cooling

[Mother of Cats]

Hello, I am new here. And new to being an Axolotl mother. I've had my Axolotls for about a month now. I have a 4 inch albino and a larger copper melanoid in my 20 gallon tank with a divider. I have been using frozen water bottles to successfully keep their tank at a nice 60-64 degrees. I change out the bottles 3 times a day, once in the morning, once at lunch, and once in the evening when I get home from work. Anyway, I put three bottles in there each time I change them out.
Anyhow, I have been trying to think of an affordable way to keep their tank cool while I go out of state for two days. The only thing I can think of is asking someone to come to my house at least twice a day to change the bottles out. I'd rather not do this because this is a rather unusual request to ask anyone I know. Have any of you guys found a good way of keeping tanks cool while out of town? Also, in the near future I will be taking a much longer trip out of state and I am curious to know if anyone has feeding and cooling solutions. Thank you! And I apologize if this is a re-post or is a dumb question.

 

[tundrabadger]

Mesh lid and a fan would be good. You can get aquarium fans pretty cheap on ebay, or if you're able to position desk fan so it blows across the water that can also help although, caveat, once the water level drops past a certain point (and it will, this is evaporative cooling) it is not as good. If you don't have a mesh lid you don't need to break the bank on one, you can get screen at the hardware store and either throw together a frame that fits your tank or just get some adhesive velcro tabs and cut your mesh so there's some excess on two sides of the tank, then use the velcro to keep it secure. On the outside of the tank. That being said I'm thinking of an Ottawa summer when I tell you this, I don't know what Austin is like.

 

[Sablette]

If you're looking for a temporary considerthis fan. It wont last you more than a month of constant use. After that point mine started to struggle pushing air. But the first week it helped out in early summer until I could get myself some proper cooling (AC). Depending on the ambient temp of your room it should be enough. Easily drops my tank about 2-3c on high setting. As long as your tank doesn't jump over 69f/20.5c you should be golden.

 

[tundrabadger]

If you're looking for a temporary considerthis fan. It wont last you more than a month of constant use. After that point mine started to struggle pushing air. But the first week it helped out in early summer until I could get myself some proper cooling (AC). Depending on the ambient temp of your room it should be enough. Easily drops my tank about 2-3c on high setting. As long as your tank doesn't jump over 69f/20.5c you should be golden.

I got something very similar from staples for days when I don't want have the AC on but still want to have pets later on. it does the job.

 

[Hayleyy]

I bought an aquarium fan from ebay years ago when I wasn't able to get a chiller and it is still going strong! It was only $20AUD from memory. I made a mesh lid, for about $5. I was lucky that my tank had a plastic frame glued onto the tank, I just used a razor/scalpel to scrape it off in one piece (mostly), cut out gaps for the filter and piping, and used silicone to glue soft door mesh to it.