Keeping the water Cool!

S

stipe

Guest
hey guys,

Ok its summer now in sydney and the temprature ourside had know to hit the 40's but is mainly at the 35's (degres celcius) and this is a extreemly stressful time for both me and my axolotls (mainly me because its so hot and i feel all sludgy and sticky, lol
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).

i want to know ways of getting the water temp from 25, yes 25,back down to 18. I've tried bottles of ice but that only works for about 2 hours and plus i heard that the constant change in temp ( from warm to cold then back to warm again) was bad for the little guys. I've also tried a fan at the top but this was to noisy and un-effective.

Please does anyone know of a gud method besides those two and a chiller (as that would be too expensive).

thanks in advanced, stipe.

message and thread title edited by cynthia


(Message edited by cynorita on November 09, 2005)
 
well there really aren't many other ways if you can't go with ice or fans or chillers.
 
Hi Stipe,

I'm in syd too and been having similar issues. However I've found that if I use the floating bottle trick, plus I keep two dry freeze packs (these are the ones used to treat injuries) in the freezer and I place 1 Ice bottle and then pack the tank side with at least one of these freezer packs it works quite effectively. I normally put them on in the morning when I get up and then change to the second ice pack and second ice bottle when I get home.....

This way too once the ice bottle has melted the axie doesn't get so stressed cause he still gets the coolness coming from the ice pack and the temp change isn't so severe.

I'm sure it doesn't work in all situations but it seems to be okay at the moment...In all honesty I think a chiller is the best way to handle it but as you already said it's such and expensive option...I guess I'll be saving my pennies for a while! lol.
 
Go with the chiller, even though you said it was too expensive. Its your best bet in the long run.
 
Yeah, that really is the ideal solution, but I have been using water bottles over the last few days cause it got up round 30(celcius), and my little guy seemed content.

The coolers are really expensive, especially when you can't work enough because you are too young, or are a full time student.

Just go with what works and be imaginative. Some people on here have built their own coolers, which would be fun (if I knew how).
 
(quote)Some people on here have built their own coolers, which would be fun (if I knew how)(quote)

if u do try to make ur own be careful cause water and electricity dont mix !!! recon ud'e be better off hitting the oldies up for a nice christmas present
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Totally agree!

I have a friend who does electrical engineering at uni and we were talking about it on the weekend. Even if you get your own parts, to make it work as well/efficiently as the real ones, and to be as safe will cost approx. $200!
 
I heard that you need sumthing like a bar fridge to make your own and thats not that expensive but does take up alot of room.
 
If anyone comes up with a simple design that can be built at home I would like to know about it!
 
Hmmmm... if the instructions in that book are simplistic enough, i might get it.
 
I think I have seen that book here. I'll have to check again. Might get it
happy.gif
 
That does help. Wow you're putting in a lot of effort to find these sites now aren't you?
 
Have you thought about insulating your tank?

I live on the sunshine coast - north of brisbane so i'm also having temperature probs.

I think the ice packs are a waste of time on big tanks, as you said it only cools for two hours or so.

That it why i have insulated the back and both ends of my tank with 6mm black foam from clark rubber.

This combined with three computer fans (at 14v hehe)blowing onto the water keep the temperature at about 25 without any fluctuations and is definatly worth the effort.

plus i'm also building a chiller with three 75watt peltiers (thermo electric coolers), the main cost is in the power supply. At 15v these babys draw 8.5amps each. (3x8.5)=25.5Amps which means very big power supply!

When i've finished i'll post a thread on it and everyone can comment on design/get ideas etc.

Here are a few pics of my fan setup, the foam on the tank and my prototype tank cooler.

47447.jpg

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Well, lowering the water to 25 c is not that good. 25 is not a good temperature. 20 is what it should be max.
 
Andrew, that sounds very creative, but 25 degrees C is still very hot for an Axolotl. about 75 degrees should be max.

Can you get it to cool anymore than that?

Back in the days, my mom when she was a little girl had an ice box house. I think if I remember correctly she said that one side was made out of ice and sawdust and the other side I don't remember for sure. I think she said it was Pyramid shaped, but I also don't remember that lol and they lived in it during the summer and the winter for a while. She said that in the hot summer the cool side with the ice stayed very cool.

Have you tried anything else? I would like to try the computer fan method if I know it can get the tank down to 20 degrees C during the summer. In the winter I have no problems keeping it around 18 - 20 degrees C.
 
Unfortunately with 35 degree days this is the best i can do. even in winter the coolest i managed to get it was 15 degrees.

This is the reason why i'm building the cooler.

My axolotyls were actually bred and raised in these temperatures. With Australia being such a hot country i think maybe they are a little more aclimatised and can handle it a bit hotter..

My fist (and only at the time) made it through last summer ok and that was before i knew anything about them. I hate to think what the temps would have been.

All in all, with water temperature out of the tap being hotter than the theoretical maximum, i can only do what i can do. I know for a fact that the people round here that breed them dont even worry about the fans.

I was talking to one of them a while back about how to keep temps down and he said all he did was put his tanks on a plain concrete floor.
 
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