The Summer Heat.

Lately, despite the outrageously warm (hot) weather we’ve been having, I’ve been attempting to keep the house on the cool side. Like around 74 to 75 degrees. Not cold by any means, but cool – I do, after all, have fish tanks and lots of Inherited Fish.

The cool temperatures all came to a screeching halt Sunday night when I checked my electricity bill online and found that, dude, for this past month the bill came to a whopping … WAIT FOR IT … $345.80. I tell ya, it’s that eighty cents that kills a person. Now I’m on a budget to pay for my stupid electricity bill.

On behalf of the fish, I do have to say that for the last several months, they have been paying for their own food and filters (nothing like selling your kids for food), but an electricity bill that size? Yeah, no. Suffice it to say, we now have eight fans running to keep the air moving throughout the house and sincerely hope that I won’t be eating any poached ornamental fish for a snack (they’re not big enough for a meal).

I guess my wish from the other day (link) is kind of coming true.

I did call the fish store and asked the owner about tank temperature. He speaks from experience. Unfortunately, his air conditioning unit has stopped working several times this summer and the store has just had to make do with fans. He said his tanks have gotten up to 90° and while he hasn't lost any fish, he has lost some coral. He said the most important thing is to keep the temperature, whatever that is, steady. It's the fluctuations (say 82° during the day, to 76°) that can kill them.

For the last couple days, I've been keeping the air conditioner at 78° during the day and turning it off completely at night. Running fans 24/7. The tanks are all up around 79° to 80°. So far, the fish seem to be doing okay.