# How do you deal with water evaporation?



## paintsforyou (Aug 8, 2006)

Hi I Have a 30 gal tank that houses 2 fancy goldfish, a pleco and a dojo loach. Lately due to our weather I loose approx 1 inch a day of water...with out thinking I just replace it with fresh treated water....no I think I may have crashed my tank, One of the goldfish is sitting on the bottom and the other is at the top in the corner...the pleco and dojo seem un effected. the temp stays pretty much the same at 74 degrees as I have a fan blowing on the tank. Any suggestions on how I should handle this?


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## sazzy (Oct 20, 2006)

do u have glass or a cover on top of the tank?

i have heard of adding ice cubes to water to cool it, but have not tried this method personally, due to our cold weather :lol:


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## shavon (Feb 3, 2007)

I used to make distilled ice cubes to put in my goldfish tanks. Summer temps can reach over 100 around here. It seemed to help but it requires constant watching to keep the temps low enough for the goldfish when using ice.


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## Matt (Jan 20, 2007)

shavon said:


> I used to make distilled ice cubes to put in my goldfish tanks. Summer temps can reach over 100 around here. It seemed to help but it requires constant watching to keep the temps low enough for the goldfish when using ice.


Same here...I live in Florida so I need to.


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## paintsforyou (Aug 8, 2006)

Hi Yes I have a cover...here is a pic of the tank. Its not so much that I am having trouble keeping it cool...its just that its so dry here the water evaporates quickly...about an inch a day and with me adding new water everyday I thought maybe Im crashing my tank....I did a filter cleaning and 25% water change last night, the Nitrites were reading .08 and the Nitrate was 80. No ammonia showed. Any ideas on how to keep my water level up...or is that not much of an issue if it doesnt get below my under water power head? Thank you all for your replies!!


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## FDStation152 (Jan 20, 2007)

You will harm the tank due to the heavy evaporation. Dissolved solids in the original water (tap I assume?) will continue to reach higher and higher concentrations due to the evaporation. Do your regular water changes with tap water but make up for evaporation with distilled water.


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## paintsforyou (Aug 8, 2006)

Thank you so much for the info! I think I will also replace the water more frequently rather than letting it get down so much that Im adding alot of the replacement water at once. Just do little bits at a time.


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## ttiger72 (Jan 15, 2007)

I noticed that when I went from the plastic hood that came with my tank kit to an all glass hinged top that my evaporation is pretty much stopped. You may want to try getting an all glass top.


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## herefishy (Dec 14, 2006)

Rather than using distilled water, RO water should be used. Distilled water should be your second choice, with de-chlorinated tap water third. This should be tempered by me adding this, if you cannot get ro or distilled water, and your tap water is not chlorinated, use tap water.


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## FDStation152 (Jan 20, 2007)

Why should RO water be used instead? It generally needs to be reconstituted for trace elements anyway just like distilled and generally isn't any cheaper. And with the heavy evaporation it is the dissolved solids in the tap water that will build up (they don't evap out with the water) and cause problems so something like distilled water that doesn't contain dissolved solids needs to be added. When you think about it distilled water is essentially exactly the same as the water that will have evaporated out of the tank...nothing but pure water!


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## paintsforyou (Aug 8, 2006)

That makes total sense...thank you so much I will use that water as a replacment and I like the glass top Idea...makes so much sense..It holds in the water and may even add a bit more!! Thank you every one for the great advice!


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## fish_4_all (Nov 13, 2006)

I let it evaportae over the week and simply refill it at the end of the week. I never lose more than 1/2 gallon in my tanks and I do a 50% water change weekly so I let don't top off.


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