Keeping tank cooler

[AllHailRain]

I posted this on repticzone but i'm looking for more suggestions.

[FONT=Lucida Sans, arial, courier]Tank cooling- please read[/FONT]

i’ve tried a few different things for keeping my fire salamander tank cool.
there is a fan above the tank, and the room is well ventilated.
it seemed to be staying in the low seventies, and though it needs to be in the sixties i would just make sure the doors were open and it would generally make the the tank a bit cooler.
but as i was cleaning out his water dish this mourning the tank was at 79 degrees.
and, i’ve been to germany and seen these in the wild. though it CAN get up to those temps on occasion, it’s not common nor good for my salamander who’s captive.
i pretty much covered the dirt in the tank with ice cubes making sure not to put any on top of where he was buried and it’s making the temperature go down slowly, but i really need to find a better plan.
i live in florida, so the temps are starting to drop for fall but i need a fix now so he’s not being baked anymore.

so, what do you guys use for tank cooling? any special fans that seem to work wonders without drying the tank out when i’m at work and school all day? my current fan is one from walmart that’s suspended a few feet above the tank.

thank you everyone!

 

[i_love_necturus]

Air conditioning was a life saver for me this summer. Although it can be pricey I think its worthwhile.

Are your fire salamanders captive bred? I assume they are, but if they weren't...

 

[Jennewt]

I agree, AC is the most effective solution. Could you put the sal into a relatively small room of the house and add a small window AC unit to that one room? And perhaps place the tank in front of the outflow (but not in the sun). If your house has a central AC system, you may be able to rig it up so the air flows directly at the bottom or side of the tank.

Placing the tank on the floor in the lowest room in the house will help by a couple of degrees.

There is a chiller device called Ice Probe, which can be used in terrestrial tanks.

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

If all else fails, you'll just have to move north:lol:

 

[AllHailRain]

if you mean those window A/C units, then i think i'll look into that. because that seems like it would work. because i know i've seen those, and fans at walmart that are called 'power fans' and you put them in windows and they're supposed to do the same thing.
good thing my boyfriend likes his room cold ^^
(it's my salamander, but he lives 3 houses down from me and i have a 2 tank max in my room so it's living with him, haha)
the tank is only about 2 feet off of the ground, so it's not that high.

>< it says on there not to use regular fans as they'll dry out the tank.
but the dirt is always moist, and it's always pretty wet in there. so i think i'll keep it up until the winter time because it doesn't seem to be drying out much. it's about 4 feet above the tank.



i think i'll do a combination of the widnow unit and ice packs, something someone told me to try on repticzone.
thanks so much!!

 

[i_love_necturus]

I would say that an electric AC with a compresser (your normal window appliance) would probably have better cooling capacity and be more effective than a window fan. Electric AC cools the air and pumps in air of the desired temp.

Jen's right, moving North works too.

 

[Jennewt]

Right, a window FAN won't do much good. But small window AC units are pretty cheap, you can get one for less than $100.

 

[AllHailRain]

under 100..hm.
i might need to save up a bit for that..it wouldn't take a very long time though.


well, i WANT to go to transfer colleges to London..haha, but that won't happen for a few years and until then i need bright futures which means i have to stay in florida =P


okay, but i'll look into pricing a small A/C unit.
i think that would work for the summer months, because quite honestly i don't think i'll even need the fan in about a month or so.
thanks for your help! :]

 

[J A M]

I need to keep my tank cool as well,
didn't know that fans can cool before coz i thought the air is the same temperature......
i read that people put ice bottles in tank, and swaps them, but is the fluctuation of temperature alright or dangerous?
Now i just got it in a dark place.

 

[i_love_necturus]

AllHailRain- My AC unit was farely cheap, I think it was around $120, it gets the job done well.

J A M- I use frozen ice bottles like you said. I swap them either when I remember that the other one melted, or once the temp gets to high. The temps did flucuate, but not drasticly, my mudpuppy showed no stress or other problems from the temps.

 

[J A M]

oh thanks...
if you are using it and it works it must work....
going to do that now... this option seems cheap

 

[i_love_necturus]

Haha, yes its very cheap. Good luck keeping it cool! I'm not using ice anymore now though, its starting to cool off *whew*.