Summer Outdoor Aquarium

deadhorrorfan

So last week I set up a 20 gallon High on the porch with Flourite substrate (leftover from another tank from 2 years ago), and planted Hygro corymbosa and Water Sprite in the background with a heavy carpet of Cryptocoryne lucens everywhere else. This tank also has two pieces of Malaysian driftwood which has given the water a nice dye job. Filtration is a Penguin 150 HoB. The current residents are a pair of fancy guppies and about ten very small "feeder" guppies. This is the problem though....starting 2 days ago it began getting REALLY hot here ( Columbia, SC). Current temperature outside AS I TYPE THIS at 5:49 pm is 103 degrees F. The water temp in the tank is 90 degrees. The Crypts went into 'melt' mode starting 2 days ago and are almost all absent of leaves at this point (this doesn't really bother me, as I have YEARS of experience with them, and I almost expected as much coming from tank water at my LFS that was 74 degrees). But I'm worried about the fish themselves. It's supposed to be 100 F here again tomorrow with an overnight low of 75dF. Does anyone have any opinions or experience to say whether or not I'm probably going to lose these fish due to the prolonged exposure to higher than average temps? How hot can these little guys take?

Romad

Can you move the fish indoors temporarily ? If not, the only thing I can think of that might help is to increase aeration in the tank. Set up an airstone asap or increase the filter flow.

And shade the area as much as possible. Hope you don't end up with a fish fry :(

1077

I agree with Romad,aeration is important at higher temps. Could maybe shade the tank somehow?
i have a 40 gallon tub set up on patio with water hyacinth,and pond lillie's (dwarf), and a handful of guppies.I rigged up a beach umbrella that shades a portion of the tank during the afternoon when temps are at their warmest.
I also placed a Hydro sponge filter in the tub to help with low oxygen levels that often occur at higher temps.
Guppies have been doing well for three or four weeks and temps avergae 80 to 86 degrees with the umbrella between 3 and 5 p.m.
Now if I could just get the raccoons to stop pulling the sponge filter out
I believe next year, I will set the tub ,maybe larger one,,down in the ground where earth will help keep the water a bit cooler. Temps on the concrete patio are much higher than I anticipated.

deadhorrorfan

I didn't get off of work until after the LFS had closed, so no aeration today, BUT....the tank temp has dropped 3 degrees since yesterday, and the fish at least SEEM fine. Everyone is swimming around and acting as if this were a normal inside the house tank. I'll be adding an air stone ASAP tomorrow, and we'll see how it goes.