Baos Posted June 16, 2009 Report Share Posted June 16, 2009 (edited) Ok, these fish are very cold australherlos red ceibal, longfin albino bushynose pleco, corydoras sterbai. They have no heaters in with them. Are currently 62 degrees. I'm worried they could be adjusted too fast due to room temperature. Any advice? Oh and they have small pieces of drywall/stucko in their tank. I'm not feeding them either. Edited June 16, 2009 by Baos Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shai Posted June 16, 2009 Report Share Posted June 16, 2009 (edited) 62F = 16.7C. That is pretty cold! I've always been told you should not raise or lower water temperature more than one degree per hour. None of the heaters I have go below 70F so if yours are the same, for the next eight degrees you're going to have to do it manually. Once you have them settled in somewhere you'll be keeping them for a while, I would turn the thermostat in the room down to 18C (64.4F) and let the water adjust to this temperature overnight. Put in an airstone or a very gentle filter to keep some of the water circulating so you don't end up with leftover cold spots. Tomorrow, as the house starts to warm up naturally as the sun comes up, the water will also start to warm up naturally. Forecast for Edmonton says by tomorrow morning it will be 19C. By that time you could probably do a few partial water changes with lukewarm water to get the temperature up a bit more. Once you hit 72F (22C) then you could put in a heater and start increasing the temperature that way. Edited June 16, 2009 by Shai Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darkangel Posted June 17, 2009 Report Share Posted June 17, 2009 I had a heater crap out on me about a month ago in my african tank. I did'nt notice it until I stuck my hand in the tank to check water temp for the W/C. When I checked the thermometer it was at 65 degrees F. All I did was put a new heater in set at 20 and it took allmost 2 days to get up to that temp, then I set the heater at 26. I never had any problems after that. Even if you use a 300 watt heater set at 20 it will take a long time to come up to that temp. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oneiroid Posted June 17, 2009 Report Share Posted June 17, 2009 Fast rising temperatures are normally less stressful than fast dropping temps. At the auctions, I worry more about the fish whose bags get stored right on the concrete floor under the buyer's chair than if they'll survive coming back up to temp when they get floated in their new tank. Let the tank come up to room temp by itself. Then think about adding a heater after a few hours if you think it needs to be warmer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ishkabod Posted June 17, 2009 Report Share Posted June 17, 2009 If you are worried about it heating up to fast today then I recommend frozen/chilled tank water . For the drywall/stucco wrap a bag around a net and scoop it up. If you get anything more than the debris then you can pick it out after. Use the water in the bag for the chilling. If it's really loose and floating around baby brine shrimp nets work wonders and so do nylon stockings. From what i have experienced and understood three degrees every couple of hours is okay. If it's not going fast enough you can always add dechlorinated water boiled in the microwave to a bucket of tank water. Stir then add to the tank. This should help speed up the process. Good luck L Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oneiroid Posted June 17, 2009 Report Share Posted June 17, 2009 Just a quick thought... did you add any prime to the water? If you've got stucco and drywall floating around in there, the tank might also have gotten a good dose of chlorinated water from the firehoses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baos Posted June 17, 2009 Author Report Share Posted June 17, 2009 (edited) The tank has been heating up at a reasonable rate of 1 degree per hour without extra chilling. I removed most of the stucco with the net. Found some of my fry dead, some alive. I adjusted the taps on the sink for about 20 minuites before I got it to exactly 63 degrees and added water to their tanks. Also bought a bottle of prime and added 2 drops per pitcher of water (assuming 2L) The cichlids which are alone in a bucket received 1 tablespoon of salt which is what they had in their original water. The cichlids are naturally cold water fish so they may be in hibernation mode. I also added two charcoal filters that are air driven. Edited June 17, 2009 by Baos Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ishkabod Posted June 17, 2009 Report Share Posted June 17, 2009 Sounds like they are well taken care of. I don't see what else you can do to make sure they get over their ordeal. The only thing i might be worried about now is disease. If you had a UV sterilizer I'd use it to kill off anything that might be in the water because of the Fishes depressed immune system they might now be susceptible to. Keep a close eye on them as if they were in QT. Good luck L Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baos Posted June 17, 2009 Author Report Share Posted June 17, 2009 I'll be feeding them some thera-a Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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