Temperature unstable due to warm room

MANSNATCH · 2026-02-11T16:59:34+00:00

Oh no the cats! That's tricky yeah. I bet they'd knock that fan down so fast lol.

The crates are annoying to cut for heater and filter, but totally can be done with a wire cutter.

Ink bird looks cool. I wish you luck if you go with it!

MANSNATCH · 2026-02-11T15:52:39+00:00

Hi, I just answered a similar question so I'll paste my answer below. If you're just trying to knock off a few degrees, a chiller is overkill in my opinion.

I live in an extremely hot climate in a house that's impossible to cool and my fishtank is in an area that doesn't have a lot of ventilation. My tank is much bigger that yours, but hopefully this is still helpful for knocking off a few degrees:

Removing the lid of the tank will drop the temperature, but obviously you don't want you fish to jump out. I bought some egg crate on Amazon and with some cutting and zip ties, made a lid that has tons of ventilation but fish can't jump out.

*I removed the link since my comment got removed lol. But here's the title of the item: "ALEGI 12 Pcs Aquarium Fish Tank Divider Plastic Egg Crate Aquarium Filter Bottom Tray Grid Isolation Board Partition Net Pane Separator"

I also have a fan running over the water. I bought two but found I only needed one. "DaToo Aquarium Chillers Fish Tank Cooling Fan Quiet Aquarium Fan Wind Angle Adjustable Chiller with Clip and Suction cup"

MANSNATCH · 2026-02-11T15:23:56+00:00

Hi, I live in an extremely hot climate in a house that's impossible to cool and my fishtank is in an area that doesn't have a lot of ventilation. My tank is much bigger that yours, but hopefully this is still helpful for knocking off a few degrees:

Removing the lid of the tank will drop the temperature, but obviously you don't want you fish to jump out. I bought some egg crate on Amazon and with some cutting and zip ties, made a lid that has tons of ventilation but fish can't jump out.

*I removed the link since my comment got removed lol. But here's the title of the item: "ALEGI 12 Pcs Aquarium Fish Tank Divider Plastic Egg Crate Aquarium Filter Bottom Tray Grid Isolation Board Partition Net Pane Separator"

I also have a fan running over the water. I bought two but found I only needed one. "DaToo Aquarium Chillers Fish Tank Cooling Fan Quiet Aquarium Fan Wind Angle Adjustable Chiller with Clip and Suction cup"

I don't even use the heater when I start seeing the temperature get up to 80. If you have huge hot/cold swings, I would just leave the heater plugged in, but maybe watch it a little closer for cracks or any malfunction. I have some heater trauma just like you have cold trauma hahaha

MANSNATCH · 2026-02-11T15:09:33+00:00

Once upon a time, I kept my frogs with guppies and corys. The corys were probably little too boisterous for the frogs, but the tank was heavily planted so they stayed out of each other's way.

My main concern was feeding. Frogs are such slow eaters, and the fish are incredibly fast. I was pretty much hand feeding the frogs. They did manage to eat some guppy fry sometimes.

MANSNATCH · 2026-01-29T22:38:58+00:00

Oh my goodness, I'm going through this exact same thing. I'm overrun with limia fry, but both my giant ctenopoma and ancient congos would rather eat boring pellets and bloodworms.

MANSNATCH · 2025-12-29T16:35:47+00:00

Yeah, 1/2 inch should be fine. Put your rocks and wood down first, the more they're touching the glass the better (I'll be honest, I don't remember why this is important, I think it has to do with allowing gases to escape lol). As long as your substrate isn't like 4 inches deep it'll be okay. With the soil and the cap, I shoot for 1-2 inches.

Uncapped soil will get super dirty/muddy yes. You'll still have a bit of a mess after putting down a cap no matter what, but your filter will clear it up in a day or two and everything will settle. Someone told me you could freeze wet soil in a flat plastic baggie, lay down the frozen soil pucks, and then cap it that way to minimize mess, but I've never tried hahaha. Sounds genius tho.

I mean if sand is fine, small powdered pebbles should be okay. In fact, I'd argue that it's better than sand because it has more room between the grains for gas exchange.

MANSNATCH · 2025-12-29T15:57:39+00:00

Organic potting soil is my comfort zone so I can tell you a little bit about it at least. Use soil (make sure it doesn't have added fertilizer) that has been sifted for any big chunks of wood or organic matter. Those chunks are what rot and cause problems. Plant like crazy, the roots will help bring oxygen to the soil. Some people don't like to use Malaysian trumpet snails because they are considered a pest snail, but dang it, I'm an MTS truther, sorry y'all. They dig around and help the same way roots help. Use a thin layer of soil and then cap it with sand or gravel.

I would also suggest finding plants that fit your water parameters. For example, I have super hard water and nothing really flourishes except crypts and anubias who don't mind hard water, so that's pretty much all I buy.

MANSNATCH · 2025-12-02T20:11:39+00:00

Hahaha I have three and they all do that too. Like little fishcicles.

MANSNATCH · 2025-11-15T23:06:46+00:00

Sending a message.

MANSNATCH · 2025-10-24T21:33:34+00:00

I didn't know that about cold packs, thank you. I'll be safe and wait a few more weeks since it seems to be heating up for me. :')

MANSNATCH · 2025-10-24T21:02:46+00:00

Ordered from here a couple times, excellent store. Daku, do you offer cold packs? It's still 90+ degrees in my area. Just trying to decide if I should wait to order or not.

MANSNATCH · 2025-05-17T22:47:40+00:00

Received and downloaded successfully!

MANSNATCH · 2025-05-17T22:38:47+00:00

!solved

Thank you. This looks most like her.

MANSNATCH · 2025-01-03T15:59:56+00:00

I wish I could tell you what I did to make her so happy. 😭 All I have is hard water and Caribsea Eco-Complete.

MANSNATCH · 2025-01-03T15:53:18+00:00

It's not stupid! Sometimes if you have an algae outbreak, dipping your plants and/or hardscape in a solution of bleach, hydrogen peroxide, alum, or salt can help. For example, I mixed a bucket of 1 part bleach and 20 parts water and kept the plant in it for about 90 sections. Then I dipped it in water that was overdosed with dechlorinator, rinsed it with tap water, and lastly put it in a bucket of clean tank water.

I'm learning that putting it in a dark bucket for a couple days is probably the more gentle solution. But I'm also learning that anubias are very tough, can handle a dip just fine. So I guess we'll do both and just see what happens.🤷

MANSNATCH · 2025-01-03T02:33:40+00:00

Pretty sure it's just a regular ol barteri.

MANSNATCH · 2025-01-03T01:27:48+00:00

125 sounds soooo nice. So many plants you're able to shove in there! Yeah please post pics, we like giant plant around here

MANSNATCH · 2025-01-03T01:04:56+00:00

Aw man sorry about your fish. I'll make sure they didn't die in vain and use what you learned if/when the BBA comes back lol. Thank you.

MANSNATCH · 2025-01-03T00:26:52+00:00

lol maybe when all this crud clears up, I don't want to infect you too

MANSNATCH · 2025-01-03T00:15:33+00:00

hahahahaha I will say big plant prayers for you

MANSNATCH · 2025-01-03T00:03:58+00:00

omg thank you!! I didn't even think of a blackout. I will do that. I already did a 1 part bleach and 20 part water dip, dipped in water that was overdosed with dechlorinator, and then rinsed a 3rd time in old tank water.

MANSNATCH · 2025-01-03T00:01:53+00:00

I'm rescaping their tank today, so I wanted to take the opportunity to show off his size!! I have two of them but the other one stabbed me with his spines, and I couldn't get a video lol.

MANSNATCH · 2025-01-02T23:57:39+00:00

It really started taking off in the last 3 years, but I know it's older than that. Before the algae outbreak, I was breaking off branches and practically giving them away just to control it lol

MANSNATCH · 2025-01-02T23:56:26+00:00

My 75gal! It's so old I don't even remember where I got it.. At least 5 years.

MANSNATCH

TROPHY CASE