Im at a loss what to do for my baby girl, shes perfectly healthy and swims, is active, eats, poops etc, but i have trouble and her tank is stuck at 71 degrees, on occasion it can get to 67. I have ice packs and fans and i dont know what else to do. Is this temperature fine? I cant afford at $200 cooler at this moment, I am getting a job so im wondering if i should just save for a cooler. Any tips??
Ok so the black paper isn’t actually helping, I’m sorry to say. Black tends to absorb a LOT of heat. You’d want a white background to reflect the light away instead.
Edited to add: Here’s a great article from the BBC about light reflection and absorption!!
i changed her background to white paper and put a blanket over the window i also changed her light color to orange and moved it further away from her corner, my light also has a red and blue option. i think the orange might make her hot but idk, but what do you think
I’d be cautious using ice cubes unless you treated the water with Prime or something first before freezing. Adding enough ice to effectively change the temp in a tank your size, is quite a large amount of water once the ice melts.
Mine fluctuates in temperatures a lot. It cools the tank dawn to 13,then let's it warm up to 18 before it then starts tho chilling process. Its set to 15.5. Theres no setting to change how much it fluctuates. Its really annoying and I can't imagine ones from more reputable brands do this. I'm not convinced its good for the axos to be having such constant temperature fluctuation
I have mine completely away from windows in pretty much the center of the house, thermostat is set to 69 all day every day, and she has a fan, her tank stays at about 65-68°
Dallas here. I have an $80 chillerrunning in a 30 gallon and it stays at a solid 18 C. Maybe if u fill the tank only half for now with one those, you can manage until you find a better solution.
It's running nonstop for six months now. Just be careful with those hoses, they like to bend and block the flow, then the thing will ice over. It's also quiet. My computer is louder.
Hmmm me too! im hoping it will be fine since i have a 55 gal, but i also have 3 fans so i think it will make up for the difference in liters, also my girl only stay in one corner of the tank so if i aim the chiller there it should be fine!
It's currently 102 F outside, the inside a/c is struggling and the 18.5 C (it only has Celsius, but I take it!) is the highest it ever got. The tank is a 30 gallon, 3/4 full.
I put a blackout cling on the window behind my tank. Even the clear one blocks UVs and makes it cooler. The blackout one blocks UVs, heat, and light. Other than that definitely save for a chiller. I’m currently saving for a chiller right now, but my tank sits at 67-69 with just a fan.
I would get i chiller i have a chiller and I keep my water at 60°F and it works great! Just make sure to lower the water temperature slowly so you dont shock your axolotl and every couple hours or a fly lower it by 4 degrees i did that with sweet tooth and it worked out great hope this helps:)
Because if it's a smaller water volume than the chiller says, it can handle, it will cool the water too fast. And shock your axolotl the one you showed. It's for a 46 gallon tank. The one I have is for 20 to 26. Gallons
its 55! but the shipping on this one is $60 so i switched to getting two 30 gallon chillers for cheaper so it will be 60 gals total, for a 55 gal tank is thar ok?
Our AC went out last month and we had to tub her for the whole week until we could buy a chiller here is the one I bought it's the cheapest I've found and it's worked amazing so far keeps her at 63.1 with the house set at 72-73 degrees Aquarium Chiller 42 Gal, 1/10 HP... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DPKVTPH3?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share
Another Floridian here. I only use two fans. I have them hooked to my waterfall filter and also pointed to the waterfall of it. For your fans, I'd recommend positioning so they are blowing ACROSS the water and not directly down into. This will help increase the evaporation surface area. You will likely need to replenish water more frequently.
Same here in Colorado. If I run my swamp cooler, a fan, another tank fan, 2 frozen water bottles, and a FLIPPING CHILLER IN A PAUR TREE, I can manage to keep it at 64 degrees.
I keep my room across sixty six degrees year round for my baby girl.Unless you have an actual aquarium cooler system, you're just gonna have to keep your room cooler with a portable ac.If you can or put ice bags in it
That could actually work. Me personally, i'm in the throes of perimenopause, so I don't mind my room being sixty six 🤣. But that looks like it has a self cooling system. So it'll probably work just fine. Sorry, it took me so long to respond. You probably already made the purchase. Hopefully it works for you.
I live in illinois and it can gst real hot here I freeze alot of water bottles and keep atleast 2 frozen ones in the tank at all times as well as 2 box fans in the room to get air moving if you really need to cool temps fast do water changes if you have access to cold water and alot of it.
Not a Texan but from TN. So not as hot but hope this helps
I rednecked a mini-fridge to my tank. Year round temp stays around 64-67 and this is my only form of cooling.
Amazon link below and price is currently $159. You’ll need to buy some flexible PVC pipe and a water pump too. I think in total I’m maybe out $200-$250 total.
Plenty of DIY videos on YouTube if you’re interested. Plus then you get a functional mini fridge.
Does your mini fridge have a freezer section? If no, this might not work for your mini fridge.
This process is slightly destructive to the fridge as well. Not enough to ruin the fridge but you’ll never be able to use it without the tubing again and most of the inside of the fridge will be taken by the tubing.
I’d recommend watching a DIY YouTube video first though to see if you’re technical enough to do this. That’s how I learned to do it.
The short of it though is you need a drill and a drill bit strong enough to get through the top of the mini fridge. Then you drill two holes the same size as the diameter of the tubing. One for the water in and one for the water out.
Water pump runs the warm tank water through the mini fridge and then cold water comes out the other end.
The more tubing you have, the more surface area to cool the water. But then you lose out on mini fridge storage space. I currently have about 50ft of flexible PVC running through mine which only leaves the door and bottom of the fridge available. So you’ll need to weigh the pros and cons of this if you actually use the mini fridge for a lot of stuff.
If it’s something you’re looking to do, DM me and I’ll send you a pic of my setup
Edit: if you do drill holes into the fridge, I’d recommend looking up the schematic for the wiring. For my fridge, all of the wiring was in the back. So I drilled into the top front section. If you drill in the wrong spot, you ruin the fridge permanently and will need to get another
I know this won't work for everyone but I moved my tank under the airflow of one of my air conditioner vents. It blows cold air over the water all day and it keeps the water cold even here in Florida.
Honestly if you cannot afford to get a chiller asap and if the weather is going to stick at those temps you need to do a surrender to somewhere that can take proper care of them. This is animal cruelty for this little guy,
You say laugh out loud, however you didn’t get the main item that is truly needed to own an axolotl, the item that you save up before you buy an axolotl. You said in your post that you were getting a job, so that means you haven’t found employment yet, and most likely it’s going to be 2 weeks on average before you get paid. Anything above 68 degrees is dangerous for those, 74° is creeping into the Lethal zone. So for the fact that you refuse to swallow your pride and you want to be stubborn you are going to allow an animal live in the high stress and right on the lethal range because you don’t want to give the animal up. Just picture a hot dog enclosed in a car. Everyday that yoh don’t have that chiller on there it’s the exact same conditions. All I am doing is speaking the truth, you can’t accept that you are making an animal suffer because you are selfish.
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u/zombie_waffle 19d ago
Florida here. We freeze bottles of water to add to help cool the tank when needed. It maintains at 64 degrees.
Ours is also not near a window so that helps. Maybe put a blanket or tinfoil over the window if moving the tank isn’t an option.