Temp in a aquarium

[Leo2o915]

So want to try a experiment with one of my 40 breeding trying to trigger my L134s to spawn people say to let it drop to 75s around that unplugged the heater temp tonight for my city is 60s but sure the house will stay in the 70s the tank should drop that much in less then 24hours right ? I got a Aquaclear and two sponge filters running in it and the fluval 3.0 turns on at 7am every day keeping the heater off should keep it in the 70s right or possibility if can get under 70s in a few hours since outside it’s in the 60s around 12am

[AllFishNoBrakes]

My 20 gallon long with no heater stays about 72-74 with no heater, and I keep my house at 70. 
 

That being said, you’re working with twice the amount of water volume. Unplug that heater and see how it goes! Half the fun of this hobby (for me anyways) is the “I wonder what happens if” or “how long will this take if I”. 

[TheSwissAquarist]

I checked out a couple of YouTube channels (KeepingFishSimple) who have had success breeding rare plecos, and they recommend to do a quick temperature drop, which then triggers spawning behavior.

[mountaintoppufferkeeper]

@Leo2o915 I run wifi temperature probes inkbird, grill probes, etc as permanent fishtank monitors, and use either a heater with external controls, like the coop heater has, or run heaters through external controlers like inkbird Temperature Controllers. Those even have wifi and can do alerts and allow for remote monitoring and control. 

This is the natural pattern of temperature rise and fall over 3 days here with just sunlight heating and overnight cooling in approximately 50 gallons of pond with a cap of live plants to retain some heat.

Full disclaimer my air is thun and normally dry so likely doesnt hold heat nearly as well up here at high altitude. My drops and rises are probably a but more drastic here than lower elevations would be.

If I did that up here I would expect a similar gradient from pleco heated water temperatures down to mid 70s in room temperature air over probably 12 to 24 hours. There are tons of variables that would make that gradient shorter or longer in a given tank like cover, flow, decor holding and releasing heat, glass vs acrylic tank. etc .

With external control of a heater I would just set the temperature for my desired low in the tank and not worry about it then just adjust thst temperature back up when desired. It would be easier on the breeding process for me to not disturb the process messing with a heater in a tank vs pushing a button to adjust temps less invasively 

[Leo2o915]

On 10/2/2022 at 6:34 AM, mountaintoppufferkeeper said:

@Leo2o915 I run wifi temperature probes inkbird, grill probes, etc as permanent fishtank monitors, and use either a heater with external controls, like the coop heater has, or run heaters through external controlers like inkbird Temperature Controllers. Those even have wifi and can do alerts and allow for remote monitoring and control. 

This is the natural pattern of temperature rise and fall over 3 days here with just sunlight heating and overnight cooling in approximately 50 gallons of pond with a cap of live plants to retain some heat.

Full disclaimer my air is thun and normally dry so likely doesnt hold heat nearly as well up here at high altitude. My drops and rises are probably a but more drastic here than lower elevations would be.

If I did that up here I would expect a similar gradient from pleco heated water temperatures down to mid 70s in room temperature air over probably 12 to 24 hours. There are tons of variables that would make that gradient shorter or longer in a given tank like cover, flow, decor holding and releasing heat, glass vs acrylic tank. etc .

With external control of a heater I would just set the temperature for my desired low in the tank and not worry about it then just adjust thst temperature back up when desired. It would be easier on the breeding process for me to not disturb the process messing with a heater in a tank vs pushing a button to adjust temps less invasively 

Yeah got a inkbird on it might just drop the temp to not let it get below 76 

[mountaintoppufferkeeper]

Looking forward to your sucess with those 134s

[Leo2o915]

Thanks me too. 

[gardenman]

There are a lot of variables in water temperature change in an aquarium. If the tank has lots of substrate, large rocks, etc. the temps will tend to stay more consistent as the rocks and substrate will radiate stored heat out when the water temp starts to drop. An acrylic tank will cool slower than a glass one.  A squarer tank will have less exterior glass surface than a more rectangular tank so it'll cool slower. A nine foot long but one-foot-deep front to back tank will have nine sq feet of space but 20 feet of exposed glass (two nine-foot-long pieces and two one-foot-long pieces. A three-foot square tank will also have nine sq feet of space, but only twelve feet of exposed exterior glass (four 3-foot-long pieces.) The same thing applies to homes. Build a squarer home and you'll gain less heat in the summer and lose less in the winter. And also save on home construction as exterior walls, footings, foundations cost a lot of money. A covered tank will cool slower than an uncovered one. If you want a tank that's very quick to change temp in response to air temp changes then an all glass, uncovered, bare tank that's very rectangular and not so square is ideal. Having a fan blowing on the tank will also speed up the cooling process.

The thing to remember with plecos in the wild is that temperature swings tend to come with heavy rain. Cold, heavy rain will stratify and the cold rain will sink to the bottom of the river, lake, or pond fairly quickly, which is typically where the plecos are. With large heavy rains comes an abundance of food as stuff washes into the rivers and whatnots. To recreate a heavy rainfall in an aquarium you typically want to do a large water change with cooler water and let that cooler water stratify in the tank to recreate a rainfall. Upping the feeding program so there's always some food available is wise also. In a perfect world, you'd add the fresh, cooler water lower in the tank to try and recreate the stratification the fish would find in the wild. If they got too chilly, they could swim up higher. Maintaining stratification in an aquarium is challenging though due to flow. We circulate the water a lot in aquariums and that water circulation kills stratification. A false bottom on a tank, say a large piece of slate elevated two inches from the real bottom of the tank with minimal waterflow in that submerged isolated area, might help to recreate a stratified layer in an aquarium, especially if you had an auto water change system feeding cooler water into that area on a constant drip basis.