Brown on my fish?
I would just like to mention, that this is a common mistake made by many newcomers in the hobby. Unless the thermostat part of your heater is faulty, it should turn off at your preset heat setting after your aquarium water has reached and gone above that temperature. If you have the heater(s) set at 76 o, and the house (and tank water) heats up to 84 o from the outside or room temperature, there should be no need to turn the heaters down. They should turn off automatically as the tank water reaches 76 o. If you see the heaters remaining on up to 84 o, by noting that the neon pilot indicator light remains on, then either you did not have the heater set correctly in the first place or there is something wrong with the thermostat in that heater.
If your heaters do not have pilot indicators to let you know when they’re on or off, it just may be that either they were not set right to begin with or they may be too large (in Watts) for your tank. But, its very unlikely that ALL of the thermostats are faulty, although I don’t see where you mention how many tanks and heaters you’re referring to. If the tank temperature continues to rise above your settings of 76 o when your room is 84 o, its not the result of the heaters, but rather the direct result of the ambient temperature causing the water to heat up excessively. Turning the thermostat down in that case will not result in the water cooling off. What very often MAY happen though, is that you forget the thermostat was turned down and when the first incident of colder weather comes, your heater is set far too low to prevent the fish from being chilled. BTW, as already mentioned, there are “air conditioners” for tanks in the form of devices called chillers.
You do not want one of these however as they’re mainly meant for hobbyists maintaining cold-water fish and those who have mini-reef aquariums with their high intensity lighting requirements (and subsequent heat) necessitating the use of one of these units to keep the tank temperature in a “liveable” zone for the fish. Each tank needs its own separate unit — and each unit throws out heat into the room. Best method is to use a room air conditioner in your case, just to get the room down to 78 o or so. Ray
Category: Philippines Internet Koi Society
