10 gallon fish tank in the summer

[ProudGrandma]

My daughter has a 10 gallon fish tank in her room.  Her room happens to be the warmest room in the house because it's on the west side and the sun beats on her windows (we even have room darkening shades and everything)...and until we need to run the a/c for the rest of the house, we can't afford to do that.

 

She has a heater for her tank in the winter...but what should she do now?  The water temp is about 80 degrees.  

 

Do we have any options?   She has neon tetras, a guppy and platys. 

 

thanks.

[Reefgazer]

It really depends on the type of fish she has; tropical fish are likely to be fine, but goldfish prefer cooler water. Guppys are ok at eighty, although their ideal is about seventy five. Platys and tetras prefer warmer, so eighty is closer to their ideal. I would remove the heater though, just so the water doesn't go higher on those guppys. If the water in the tank goes higher than eight two, the guppys might get stressed, so consider moving the tank if that occurs. You should be fine as is though.

[Tap]

It really depends on the type of fish she has; tropical fish are likely to be fine, but goldfish prefer cooler water. Guppys are ok at eighty, although their ideal is about seventy five. Platys and tetras prefer warmer, so eighty is closer to their ideal. I would remove the heater though, just so the water doesn't go higher on those guppys. If the water in the tank goes higher than eight two, the guppys might get stressed, so consider moving the tank if that occurs. You should be fine as is though.

:iagree:   I would also turn off the light to avoid any extra sources of heat.

[ProudGrandma]

that all sounds great...what happens if it goes much above 80? do we need to worry?  Also thinking about when we go on vacation for several weeks in July...we won't keep the a/c on really....and there is no way to move a 10 gallon tank to a cooler location easily....

[Reefgazer]

Monitor the temperature before you turn on AC and if it goes above 82, make contingency plans.  As in, you are having someone come in to feed the fish, I assume.  In which case, that person can do a partial water change with cool water (which should take a while to heat up beyond 82 again).  We have automatic programmable AC, though, and we leave it set on 78 when we go on vacay for the pets.  If you expect the weather to be unbearably hot  for them, could you consider setting the AC on say 82 when you leave?

that all sounds great...what happens if it goes much above 80? do we need to worry?  Also thinking about when we go on vacation for several weeks in July...we won't keep the a/c on really....and there is no way to move a 10 gallon tank to a cooler location easily....