what should I keep my ten gallons temp at? It is between 78 and 82 degrees each day, it gets a little hotter when I leave for school. How can I keep the temp lower if I need to. i only have one lemon peel cichlid.

Yeah your temp is a little high, shoud probably be about 78 or so. Is the tank near a window the sun can heat up the tank. Turn off the light on the tank when you leave. Make sure that the tank is in a cool room that has a nice consistent abient temp otherwise the temp will flunctuate. I live in Texas and keeping my tanks cool can be a minor pain in the summer. Ive seen them go as high as 83f before!

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Paula Neswick

Well, 82 is a little warm. the only way to cool it is to keep your room cooler. If that can't be done, then keeping your heater set at 82 would be your only option. Like I said, 82 is a little high, but it would be better to keep it a constant temp, than to have it fluctuate on a daily basis. Try to cool things down in the room first of course, but if all else fails, this will be your best solution.

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Janet Linamen
FW Forum Moderator

Evaporation will help to keep the temp down also. Try propping the tank lid open an inch or two so that some of the humidity can escape (not recommended for escape artists [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]). Maybe directing a fan at the water surface will help. I agree with Paula about turning the light off also. You'll have to try different methods to see what combination maintains the most stable temp. Good luck [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]