Question: Best option for a cooler tank?

ThisFish

ThisFish

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My tank is about seventy - seventy one degrees fahrenheit all the time with Ive read is to high for an Axie. Its winter here now and will get to eighty - ninety degrees in summer. I need some sort of chiller. I don't have a very high budget so I will need something on a lower level of cost and hopefully not to big and loud. I do want to buy a desk fan and possibly a mesh lid and set that on the tank but Ive herd this only helps lower the temperature a few degrees.

If you have any questions feel free to ask!
Thanks.
 
Evaporative cooling: The number of degrees depends on humidity - the drier it is, the more cooling you will get.

Unfortunately, I don't have a chiller recommendation. I'm looking for a solution myself, since last summer it got too warm in my basement. :sad:
 
Yes, screen lid and a fan. 70 is definitely too warm. Shoot for 64. It helps that it's winter time, and it helps that my basement is naturally cold, but I have simply a screen lid and a bubbler, and my tank is usually about 60 degrees with no fan OR chiller. When it gets warmer, I may have to get a fan, but I'm pretty sure that'll be enough. It can make a pretty big difference. Just don't get duped into buying an "aquarium fan" like I did. It did nothing so I returned it for a refund.
 
NaterPotater said:
Yes, screen lid and a fan. 70 is definitely too warm. Shoot for 64. It helps that it's winter time, and it helps that my basement is naturally cold, but I have simply a screen lid and a bubbler, and my tank is usually about 60 degrees with no fan OR chiller. When it gets warmer, I may have to get a fan, but I'm pretty sure that'll be enough. It can make a pretty big difference. Just don't get duped into buying an "aquarium fan" like I did. It did nothing so I returned it for a refund.
Click to expand...

I live in an apartment so I don't have a basement. I don't think a fan will be enough. It will get up to 90 in the summer.
 
Gotcha. Well, as long as the interior of your apartment doesn't ever get up to 90. haha. Assuming you keep your apartment somewhere near 70, a fan to help with evaporation can definitely lower the tank temperature by a couple of degrees. Some people report of a difference of up to 10 degrees, although I think most cases would show a difference of maybe 4 or 5. It's better safe than sorry though, so it wouldn't hurt to look into different types of chillers. Most store-bought chillers will be pretty pricey. There ARE do-it-yourself options though. Start with YouTube. People rig up all kinds of contraptions using water coolers (like office water coolers), refrigerators, etc. Less pretty perhaps, but much cheaper than buying a chiller.
 
What about buying a chiller second hand? I have a really good quality, fancy chiller that I got for a really good price second hand - it would have cost a fortune brand new though.
 
What about something like this? Is this the kind of fan you where saying not to use? It says lowest temprature would be from 2-4 degrees, what does that mean? It also says it's for a 40 gallon, 30 gal. is the tank size I have.

Sorry I'm kind of a beginner at this kind of stuff :cry: Thank you all for being so helpful!

Link:
Aquarium Chillers Cooling Fan 4 Fans 160L Fish Tank Power Adapter 12V 0 48A | eBay

I like to open the windows in summer so the apt. does get up to like 90 at some points. My family lives with me and would be opposed to having the windows shut all the time. It will get hot, there is no avoiding it. Im 99.9% sure. Please try to understand :(
 
Unfortunately, that fan is junk - I bought one and was very disappointed. I haven't seen any good aquarium fans in this country, but I see some in European web sites that look to be of better quality.

"Real" fans work much better, but the problem becomes, how to mount them over the tank without risk of them falling in? I bought some cheap $10 clip-on fans and connected them to square dowels that I could secure more easily to the side of the tanks. Very ugly, but it works. The fans are starting to wear out though, so I need to replace them soon.

One of these years I am going to design a really nice fan that hangs over the edge of the aquarium and provides lots of airflow using replaceable computer fans. :happy:

You will have to get some sort of "chiller" solution, or maybe an alternate home during hot periods. Or can you air-condition just one room? That is probably cheaper than a chiller. :)
 
I've bought an aquarium fan similar to that, but I actually have had pretty good fortune with it. I have a rather cold room on its own, but definitely not the 62 degrees my tank is kept at. One of the 3 fans is actually out (I have accidentally gotten water in them multiple times), but the success of the fans still seem to vary. A chiller isn't really in my budget, but the fans, though ugly, have worked. I have a smaller tank (20gal), though. I'm sure the success of aquarium fans goes down as the volume of water goes up
 
Hmmm ... I wonder if the one I got was a cheap clone of a better made one ... But if so, how to tell the good from the bad? (I couldn't find a fan locally so I bought it on-line.)
 
I'm not trying to be a jerk, but no matter how I word this I'm going to sound like a jerk:

When you were thinking about getting an axolotl, did you consider how warm your apartment gets?
 
I would 100% get a chiller, whether its second hand or new. Can't put a price on an Axolotls life
 
I bought a 2nd hand chiller on ebay, the Aqua Euro 1/13 HP. It works very well. And it was much less expensive than brand new.
 
In the summer I arranged to have my aquarium in my mom's basement. It should be cooler there. In the mean time Im going out to buy some desk fans and clip them on to my tank.
 
Hopefully it is, not all basements keep cool. Your going to have to do a total tank move and do it correctly so not to crash your cycle.which depending on how long it takes you to move everything, you may well crash it, to then find out the basement isn't much cooler. Id just save the money for a second hand chiller, keep my Axolotls in my own home, and be in full control of my water temperature
 
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