Aaaargh! Its hot

[TyroneGenade]

Hi all,

For almost all of last week it was a lovely 40+ degC here in Cape Town. My herzogi and punctatum where suffering and eventually I instituted emergency measures and moved the herzogi into the bathroom onto the tiled floor and draped the tank in a wet towel. Water temp down to a more suitable 26 degC from the horrible 28--29degC. Still way to warm... The punctatum are on there way out and I don't have much hope for the herzogi unless temps subside...

But that is not the worst of it. I was amazed by my cameronense that were seemingly taking the heat well. No sign of stress at 28 degC... But 30degC seems to be the limit. For less than 1 day the temp topped 30 degC and that was all it took. Next day, 15 fish dead. I am very upset.

For those of you struggling with heat, wet towels draped over tanks do seem to help a bit...

[RonWill]

Tyrone,
Contrary to your subject heading, "Aaaargh! Its chilly" here in SG!! Windy indoors, if I didn't close the windows, is 26C but my shaded outdoor tanks average 23~24C... benefits of an extended Monsoon season, I think.

BTW, the wet towel method was affectionally nicknamed "Grandmother's Coolers" that Malcolm talked about in this thread. [Hey Malcolm, you still with us??]

If the heat wave remains persistent, I believe it's time you give some thoughts to those DIY Henri filters. Hang in there and good luck.

[Happy Camper]

The temps in Johannesburg are not as hot as they've been in Cape Town for the passed 2 weeks or so but it is still scorching hot. I actually don't think I've ever experienced a South African summer this hot before

Sorry to hear about your loss Tyrone, adding a fan to blow air on the wet towels should also help to lower it an extra degree or 2, but you may find yourself wetting the towels more often due to the increased evaporation.
If you want to send eggs up (in an effort to save whats left over) to a slightly cooler JHB you are more than welcome to, just say the word.

@ Ronnie: Could you supply a link to the diy filters you mention, and how do they keep the temps down? I would be interested in this info for sure, thank you.

Regards
Cameron

[RonWill]

Cameron, here 'ya go;
Henri deBruyn mini wet/dry filters Should be self-explanatory with lots of pics (although I'll need to edit the Angelfire image urls since they no longer allow hot-linking)

You can also incorporate Hamburger Matten Filter & Styrene tank covers as a pre-filter to work with the Henri.

Let me know if there's something you don't understand or if you have a better approach/modification. Have fun.

[As an aside, I'm glad this forum exists for I surely would have forgotten how fast time flies. In case no one noticed, Bill got the Henri thread started on March 7th 2004... in cyber-time, that's ancient! Right, Farang?]

[keehoe]

Hi Ron, i am thinking whether it is possible to rig up a tubflex culture, a daphnia culture, a few fish tank and have the water cycle back through an Henrii filter. The most important result is: totally hands free maintenance and the dirty water from tubiflex culture will feed the daphnia.

Daphnia population would be controlled by overflowing to juvenile killi tank which eventually flow to other breeding tank.

[RonWill]

Kee Hoe,
Keeping daphnia alone is challenge enough already, let alone rigging up a re-circulating system with fry and other tanks involved. I suspect that maintaining the water quality will not be easy since the daphnia and tubifex can readily foul things up.

Perhaps you can post up some pics or ideas (follow-up on the Henri thread), so we can all chip in to see what works best within space constraints. I hope you have the plumbing and other drainage issues worked out before you moved into your new place.

[keehoe]

Thanks Ron. Already have those small issue sorted out. Now.... let me take out a map and see how to navigate to your place.