Summer time heat

Hi there,

For a month now ive been holding off starting up a paludarium for newts in fear that during the summer months it would get to hot to support the little critters.

for me, using an ac unit to cool down the room was ruled out by the old lady, and any thing that required regular hands on maintenance like ice was out of the question. so in my search for other methods, nothing i read would seem to help.

i endeavored to find my own solutions.. i think i have found/come up with something that may work..

here i will briefly explain my solution and i would like some feed back from the community here,

do you think it will work?
what kind of flaws can you think of?
or did i nail it? haha



i have a custom built 55 gal aquarium, wood on 3 sides and glass for one viewing side.. very easy to modify this puppy.

using a semiconductor from a mini fridge (found many on amazon) i mount that to one of the sides of the tank, so that the cooling fan is inside and the rest of the unit is outside.
i hook that guy up to a power supply and the power supply plugged into a temp. controlled outlet with an external thermometer probe, (like a timer but with temperature)

thats pretty much it, if the temp gets too high in the tank, the power is kicked on and the tank gets cooled down..

I keep my tanks in the basement, where it's cooler.
Welcome and good luck!

Unfortunately the basement is not worth it, i live on the upper unit of a duplex. so the thought of my neighbors having access to my tanks/animals is unnerving and id prefer not to go down there unless i need to ha.

Is there a reason why an AC for the room is being ruled out? Does your wife/girlfriend like it warm? I live in Minnesota and grew up in the Midwest, and we have such awfully hot summers that it's hard for me to imagine anyone who is against having indoor AC.

OK; that was just a question out of curiosity.

If you cannot have AC, I recommend putting your tank in the most northwest room or location in your house. The "office" in my house is in the very most northwest section of my house, and it is always so much cooler than the rest of my house.

Atop of that, keep the curtains drawn and other heat-emitting electronics at a minimum in that area. Keep low light plants in your tank so you don't need a super strong bulb to keep them alive.

I keep my three alpine newts in my dining room, and keep them cool in the summer with central AC. But even when AC is not on, my house tends to stay cooler due to the shade of my neighbor's tall-*** house, which blocks a lot of direct sunlight.

Good luck.