Habitat - Indoor :: basking, water temp question.....already read sticky

[JnK Acopan]

first off, i have read the sticky and i still have a question. well let me explain my situation, i live in hawai'i and our tank water has never been below 80, especially recently. its been so humid here that its hard for me to regulate the temperature of my water. I would like to know if their is a water coolant device made to regulate temperature. i have a warmer but what would that do for me? i am assuming that it won't drop my temperature level down, or will it? i have never tried because i bought a aquarium kit for my RES, and it came with whisper filter (not adequate enough for the tank), the hood, some fish food (doesn't pertain to the RES), and the warmer (with only installation instructions). If there is anyone from Hawai'i that can guide me through the care for my RES please help me. The RES is my son's given to him by a friend leaving for college. it is about 1.5 inches, was cared for by a very kind person, but was never placed in a great enviroment. so i believe it has not developed its swimming muscles (or something) because it doesn't look as if it swims very well. It usually hugs the ground level and up the slope for air. sometimes it perches on a drift wood i have and/or perches itself on the ledge of the basking area. I AM VERY NEW TO THIS, fish i can do, but turtles (esp. RES) don't have a clue. im glad i found this site, it has helped me and wife out a lot. pleas help, i don't want our son's first pet, or his own, to get sick or worse..........THANX
JNK

[soopermum62]

Yes, they make water coolers.. Just check the fish section of your favorite pet shop or go to a Aquarium Store.. They are actually for reef tanks. I am very sure with where you are at you can find a water chiller pretty easily..

2 places to check online are Big Al's and Drs Foster and Smith..

Good luck

[jenaero]

If you're worried about his ability to swim, just add water gradually. Up it by a couple inches every other day and he'll do just fine

[marisa]

www.bigalsonline.com has a selection of chillers. I've also read of someone who tried packing the filter in ice to keep the temp down, but I don't know how well it worked (if you come up with something creative, let us know).

[GouzlanTheAmerican]

chillers are very expencive just to tell you . Try using ice cubes if you cant afford a chiller.

[punkiemichelle]

I don't think ice cubes are a good idea. I'd imagine they provide too much fluctuation(sp?) in water temp, and thats not good. Right?

[steve]

the ice cube idea can be very clever i think.

if you had a canister filter and put it into a cheap styrofoam cooler, and drop in a few cubes everyday it might work.

you might want to check the location of the tank... do you have a basement where it should be cooler? can it be in an air-conditioned room? just some ideas.

[JnK Acopan]

We have no basement, and no AC... Basically in Hawaii, the only thing that will cool down a room is AC.

Right now we have a Whisper® In-Tank PF-40i... How would we do the cooler thing?? I assume that we would need a different kind of filter. Because the one we have now sucks the water from the base and kind of pours it from the top. Any recommendations??

[marisa]

Yes, that was the idea. The canister filter was in a container with ice packed around it...

[steve]

how big is your tank? i'm not sure of what kind of supplies you bought, but you should start off with a larger tank, greater than 15 gallon. the little guy will grow fast and you will also need a better filter, heres how the fluval 304 looks like



and if you got those very inexpensive coolers like this one


make a hole on the styrofoam lid for in/out tubes to come out and put a few cubes in there it might work. you will need a water heater to make sure the water doesn't get too cold... but this is just an idea. wondering what else can be done.

[punkiemichelle]

Ah, that may be a easy solution Steve. When I said it wouldn't be a good idea I was referring to just dropping ice cubes in the tank.

[JnK Acopan]

We currently have a 20 gal tank with a 40 gal filter, and Turquoise (we named him that because that's Blue's turt's name in Blues Clues) is maybe an inch and a half at the biggest. We have another 20 gal filter we will be setting up shortly.

Just tried putting in more water, maybe that will help.

Am going to try a styrofoam cooler for our in tank filter - make our own with styrofoam sheets and make a slit at the bottom so the water can filter in and a slit at the top so the water can pour out - will let you know how it goes and what it looks like. Wish us luck!!!

Oh and we just bought some feeder guppies for him with hopes that they will breed - it's so much fun watch him TRY and eat them, the operative word being TRY. lol