Bob replies...

Hi Mr. Evens,

Since summer temperatures in my hometown of Tucson Arizona occasionally reach 115°F I can certainly understand your desire to prevent your aquarium from over heating. In fact, a chiller is a must in my area. Most of the time I use a small desk fan blowing directly on the water surface, which lowers aquarium temperature about two degrees? Of course there is increased evaporation and because of that use an automatic doser to replenish evaporated water. During a summer power outage last year I floated plastic bags of ice cubes along with a battery powered aerator to control the systems peak temperature period.

If you're using a trickle filter, a couple of airstones under the trickle section will help reduce water temperature by a couple of degrees. Should that or a small fan not suffice then a chiller is needed and the Fritz Pet Products company may have just what you need. While at the Marine Aquarium Conference of North America (MACNA) in Ft. Lauderdale last September I had the opportunity to look at their new line of Teclima chillers, which provide refrigeration and heating in one unit if desired. They have a precise digital thermostat-thermometer, are extremely quiet and energy efficient, and easy to install. Their smallest unit takes only one amp, which is about 115 watts, weighs only six pounds, uses no refrigerant, and has a pulldown of 10°F for a 32 gallon aquarium. You may want to visit their web site at www.fritzpet.com or email them at ksenkevech@fritzind.com and checkout their entire line of chillers.

Hope this helps,

Bob Goemans