# Aquarium Chiller for Axolotl??



## FreeScot (May 21, 2010)

Hey people am sure everyones enjoying the weather at the mo. But im just gathering some info before getting myself an Axolotl. Ive read on a few occasions an ABSOLUTE max temp of 24c(day or so) is mentioned. But ive yet to see any reliable solution for chilling a small tank. My tank is 60cm x 30 x30. right now its at 26c. Any chiller in the UK ive seen is for large tanks 

Cheers Everyone


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## x_firefly_x (Sep 18, 2009)

FreeScot said:


> Hey people am sure everyones enjoying the weather at the mo. But im just gathering some info before getting myself an Axolotl. Ive read on a few occasions an ABSOLUTE max temp of 24c(day or so) is mentioned. But ive yet to see any reliable solution for chilling a small tank. My tank is 60cm x 30 x30. right now its at 26c. Any chiller in the UK ive seen is for large tanks
> 
> Cheers Everyone


Hmm difficult one, you could try one of those small air coolers next to the tank, which would keep the air cooler and in theory the water should stay a bit cooler...not sure on that though. Although maybe you could find the smallest aquarium chiller you could and somehow adapt it for a smaller tank?

Or you could just do the good old manual method, currently we are freezing bottles of water and placing them in the tank to lower the temps as our axie gets REALLY narked off if the temp is above 16c. (apparently ideal temps are between 16-18c from what I've read, but I just adjust temps according to my axies behaviour and what he seems happy with) But the only problem with that is obviously the bottles need changing over every now and then and if you work all day its not really a practical solution  (I'm a student and terms finished so currently in most of time)

I guess another option would be a small portable air con unit to keep the room cool, but that would probably only really be feasible if you have other animals in the same room that need to be kept cool-ish...sorry not been much help have I lol! :blush:


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## madelene (Aug 24, 2006)

I use freezer blocks for my salamanders..not much help but an alternative to water bottles


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## pollywog (Oct 6, 2005)

There are several steps you can take to keep a tank cool, the most important being location, find the coolest spot in your house away from direct sunlight and keep it as close to the floor as you can, if you have a basement, or a garage / outbuilding in a shaded position they would be your best options.
Keeping the room cool by leaving windows and doors open and curtains/blinds partially closed will help.
You can also keep them outdoors if you can find a shaded spot where they are away from the sunlight all day.
Some people run fans over their tanks but fans work off evaporative cooling so don't really do much for water temperature.
As mentioned frozen bottles work well.
You can also make you're own chiller using a pump, pvc pipe and a mini-fridge from a caravan. Coil the pipe up inside the fridge and pump the water through it and back into the tank, the more coils of pipe you can get into the fridge, the longer the water takes to pass through it and the more effective it will be.

Remember suden temperature changes can bring on fungus quite quickly.

So follow the first step find the best spot and setup the tank to monitor the temperature for a bit, you might not even need to chill it if you've got the right position.


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## FreeScot (May 21, 2010)

*Chiller*

Ok cheers for the input. Im thinking on getting a mini chiller. Anyone got any ideas for which make and where from? Its for about 55L.

Thanks ppl


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