summer cooling issues

It got up to 90 in my apartment today. I have my Notos here with me (my T. karelinii are at my parent's house). My female was out of the water breathing really fast like they do when they get stressed (male acted like he didn't care it was hot). I had some frozen water bottles in the freezer for just this sort of situation, so I put one in. Throughout the day the temperature inside the tank went from 84F to a now cold temperature of 66F. the newts spent most of the time in the water after I had started putting water bottles in (a good sign I thought). However, my female is back out of the water acting stressed. could it be the swift drastic change in temperature? (I was quite surprised at how much the temp went down myself).

My question is, what should I do now? Try and keep the temperature that low and see if the female gets used to it? or find some other way to keep a slightly higher, more constant temperature?

the way I see it, the water bottle method will always result in a fluctuating temperature because I cannot keep rotating bottles when I am asleep or at work. do you think that the stress caused by fluctuating temperatures is worse than that caused by a constant heat? I don't know, hopefully this heat ends soon.

http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/cooling.shtml

you can check out that page for more information on how to keep your tank cool

I would say don't take the temperature down that much. If you reduce it from 84 to 75, that's probably enough. I would recommend putting the ice bottle in in the evening, which will mimic the natural fluctuation of day/night temperatures.