# Tetra neons and temperature?



## roadmaster (Nov 5, 2009)

Way too warm for most tropical's.


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## 0xDEADBEEF (Aug 22, 2014)

Well, waterblock, peltier, tubing etc will be all here on Thursday so they have to suck it up and wait till then. I hope most will survive until then.


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## HDBenson (Jan 26, 2015)

roadmaster said:


> Way too warm for most tropical's.


Neons aren't even true tropicals in my opinion. More like subtropicals honestly! 75f is my personal high temp for Neon tetras anything else seems to shorten their lifespan in my experience.

OP, you honestly may not have any left by the time the equipment arrives. What size tank, how many neons did you start with/ how many now, how old is your tank etc. Are they're other species in there? Is this temp with or, w/o a heater. Can you run a fan across the surface of the water for some evaporation?


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## Betta132 (Nov 29, 2012)

Yes, the temp is killing them.
Can you possibly put them in a small holding tank with a filter and bring them inside? They won't need anything elaborate, a 10g or so should work fine as a temporary tank.


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## HDBenson (Jan 26, 2015)

Betta132 said:


> Yes, the temp is killing them.
> Can you possibly put them in a small holding tank with a filter and bring them inside? They won't need anything elaborate, a 10g or so should work fine as a temporary tank.


+1^^^ Solid advice.


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## 0xDEADBEEF (Aug 22, 2014)

Well, no losses overnight. I had some cold packs floating in the tank during the night and dumped in two packs and a bottle of frozen water in the tank this morning. I will start rotating through plastic bottles of frozen water till I can build a cooler.


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## Oso Polar (Apr 22, 2015)

Hmm, how big is the tank? Commercial 50W Peltier cooler (Ice Probe) claims to be able to cool 10 gallon tank just 6-8F. And you need 15F.


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## 0xDEADBEEF (Aug 22, 2014)

30 gallons. I will build a cooler based on 60W peltier so it will be probably not good for much.
So far I have been using bottles of frozen water and picnic cooler cold packs and the temp stayed at 29 deg C today and during the day when it was the hottest I lost one neon and one guppy. 
So things are stabilizing, or the weakest ones are dead. There is also less heat in the garage since today I parked POS rental Jetta instead of my fire breathing Caddy which is in service, so there is only 1/4 of the engine and heat coming from the car.

Today I have discovered around 20 guppy fry in my 3G tank at work, so I rescued them before they were eaten and brought them home and put them in my 2.5G bladder pond snail tank. I will move them to the big one when they grow up a little in couple weeks.

I have to research building some better cooler later. The prices for this stuff are riduculous. Ice Probe is $130ish,
Chill Solutions CSXC-1 is $230 and better stuff goes way up from there. I am pretty sure I can build something much cheaper myself.


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## roadmaster (Nov 5, 2009)

I once saw someone who fashioned a cooler/chiller of sort's out of portable fridge and some copper tubing.
Trick was to coil enough tubing inside the fridge to give longer dwell time for water passing through the coiled tubing = cooler than water passing through not so much tubing = too short of dwell time for water passing through .
Would take an hour or more I should think maybe to realize cooler water but eventually one might realize desired effect?

Just googled DIY aquarium chiller ,and saw something similar to that which I described using two fifty foot garden hoses which would work better than maybe copper and cheaper to boot.
No worries about copper and effect's on tank inhabitant's.


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## 0xDEADBEEF (Aug 22, 2014)

Well, I think you guys are right, half assed peltier based solutions are probably to week. So I went ahead and ordered Hamilton Max Chill thingy Amazon.com : Hamilton Technology Aqua Euro Max Aquarium Chiller, 1/13HP : Pet Supplies


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## BigJay180 (Jul 20, 2014)

I have a better short term solution, Let me post something helpful:

Grab a fan and run the output across the top of your tank. A nice size clip-on or two would be nice, I used a Vornado on a large reef tank.

Assuming you don't live in a ridiculously humid place, Evaporative cooling should be good for 4-5 degrees F below ambient. It's more consistent and reliable than ice packs.

You'll have to replace water, but you're already doing water changes daily. 

Also, throw in an extra air stone so that you have plenty of dissolved O2 in your tank. When it's hot, fish have trouble breathing. You want the water surface turbid and agitated to help with the gas exchange until you cool the tank off with a real aquarium chiller.

Good luck.


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## 0xDEADBEEF (Aug 22, 2014)

BigJay180, That is something I can do tonight ;-)

Well, old 12V power supply + 120mm computer fan+ little soldering + painter's tape:










The good news is, no fish loses anymore. They all seem to be happy now, and the temps are now lower around 29 degrees C.

The chiller from Amazon will arrive before Thursday evening. The weather looks good till Sunday (when it is supposed to be 31 deg C during the day) and by then the chiller will be set up and working already.

And holy cow this ghetto fan works! now water temp is 1.5 deg C below room temp!


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## Veritas (Aug 9, 2013)

why don't you just move the tank inside? I don't understand the point of spending tons of $ on a cooler when you could just move it indoors where the temps are more stable? 30 gallons is pretty small all things considered


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## 0xDEADBEEF (Aug 22, 2014)

My wife does not want aquarium in the house. So I have built cabinets from plywood and prepared nice spot for it in the garage. I did not consider the temperature there. For now the tank is stable (27 deg C this morning) and tomorrow the chiller will arrive and the problem will be solved and I will be able to keep it at constant 26 deg C.


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## 0xDEADBEEF (Aug 22, 2014)

Well, this thing definitely works:










It took like 2 hours and the temperature in the tank is down to 80F.

Now I have to start to battle algae that started appearing in the tank, green hair and green-blue slime.
I know, I know, the photo period is too long (like 13 hours) and light too strong - judging from Finnex charts PAR is probably around 75 at the bottom of my tank.


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## pmvaldon (Feb 20, 2012)

your temps way too high. 

i find 70-72 is perfect for tetras. long life, good color, cooler temps keep o2 high and diseases low.


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## 0xDEADBEEF (Aug 22, 2014)

Well, SeriouslyFish recommends 21 - 28C http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/paracheirodon-innesi/ . The chiller is set to 79F (26C) but it has about 2degF hysteresis. So it may be on the upper side of the range. I had Neons in my old Fluval Edge with Fluval heater permanently set to 26C and my neons did grow big and fat and they looked quite happy. I think temperature may affect how fast their metabolism is.


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