Malta Aquarist Society

HI all, I've been gradually lowering my aquarium heaters since air temperature is increasing. Should I switch them off in Summer? What temperature does your aquarium water get to in Summer? Any tricks how to deal with this? Thanks

Hi brincatmark. If you want you can switch off the heaters but you can switch them off when the temperature begin to increase more than the temp of the tanks. It's depend were the tanks are because if the tanks are on the roof the temp will increase more than when the tanks are in a basement. Some tricks for decrease the temp are increase the air, make tins of mosqito net and not tins of glass because when you have tins of glass it will works like a greenhouse, made a small fans on the top of the tanks,do not switch on the tanks lights and if it's possible make daily water changes. Hope that I gave you some ideas.    

 Hi mark you can keep your heater thermostat at 24 degrees now so that during the night it will not drop beneath that.

As Brandon told you, one has to see where the aquarium is situated to see how heat is going to effect it. 

Usually in May I remove all the heaters from my tanks & clean them well.

From May to September you don't need any heaters in Malta, but in some tanks, you'll be needing a "cooling" system to control the excessive heat that we have. I use "fans" for the smaller tanks & a "chiller" for the big tank I have. This way, I don't have any problems, but only more work to do, as the tanks with the "fans" on, will lose more water due to condensation, as the top will be open.

hi there Mark

  Well the problem in summer is to keep the water cooler. To say the truth at the begining of this month, I put of the heaters. Trying to save some money from the electricity charges. So far no side effects. And to say the truth last year i did not switch on the heaters till November. I thought i would try it out and see what happens. But i guess it all depends on what kind of fish you have. Mine are malawis , silver dollars, scats.

 However as regards my discus tanks, those defintely i do not swith off. So if you are still keeping discus, i would prefer to leave the heater there. Once summer comes the temperature will rise and the heaters will not switch on. The good thing about discus is that the water can never be to warm for them, and in summer they really thrive

One final point at work we have a small tank, and it has been without a heater for two years now. So i always wonder and think, can our fish survive here in malta without a heater.

frank

 From my experience, if the temperature is lowered slowly, the fish will tolerate it. You will have adverse effects if the temperature is changed drastically suddenly. Cikkus, if you have the less delicate fish, yes they will survive in an aquarium inside the house/office as the temperature even in winter will not drop to an unacceptable level. In fact the fish will get use to those temperatures although their metabolism will decrease. Again, be careful as this depends on the species of fish you keep in your tank.

 

martin