Temperature for reef tanks?

[gordob]

I know it depends on what kind of corals are housed, and even then, people differ on their opinions of what temp. to keep their tank, but I'm wondering what the general consensus is. What is the maximum temperature a tank should be kept? Minimum? I'm thinking I need to get a chiller, but I want to be sure first. My tank has been staying at 80 degrees and above, ever since I added the halide to it.

By the way, I have a mixed tank, with leathers, softies, LPS, and SPS.

Thanks,
Brad

 

[slayer]

i wouldnt worry... my tanks been staying at around 85 during the day and 83 at night.. im not saying that you should let your tank run that high, but 80 degrees is fine...what you want to avoid is a sudden change in temp of a few degrees,,,this will do more harm then running a tank at a consistantly high temp. i still use my heaters in the summer to make sure the temp of my tank does not drop below 83.... i do this because it keeps my ich down in the tank and also the coral have grown tremendously with the higher temps...

 

[gordob]

Hmmm...ok. My temps have actually gotten above 85 at times, and then back to around 80 at night. Should I bump my heater up, so I don't have such a fluctuation?

 

[gordob]

I see fans on tanks all the time, and that thought never occurred to me. DOH! Thanks for the advice! The fan will hopefully help bring my temps down, and in turn, slow down my RIDICULOUS evaporation rates.

Thanks again,
Brad

 

[dkelly]

Fans may make your evaporation rate higher since they cool via evaporation!

 

[darren24]

My display is mostly LPS and Softies. In the summer (now) mine goes from 81 in the am to 84.5 in the late afternoon / early evening. In the other seasons it goes from 78-80. I have seen no ill effects. If it gets over 84.5 which it rarely does I just shut the lights off.

 

[ouling]

slayer77;58385 wrote: i wouldnt worry... my tanks been staying at around 85 during the day and 83 at night.. im not saying that you should let your tank run that high, but 80 degrees is fine...what you want to avoid is a sudden change in temp of a few degrees,,,this will do more harm then running a tank at a consistantly high temp. i still use my heaters in the summer to make sure the temp of my tank does not drop below 83.... i do this because it keeps my ich down in the tank and also the coral have grown tremendously with the higher temps...

Exactly. I keep my stuff at 82-84 and use 300w heater controlled by my chiller. Don't let it slide more than 3 degrees.

 

[mattrg_2000]

My chiller is set to 81 with a 2 degree range, so it hits 83 and runs until back to 81. Based on the Kill-a-Watt the past couple of weeks, it's on about 2 hours a day for a total of about 26 kwatts, or $5.25 a month at 11 cents a kwatt.

I don't think it drops below 80-81 at night. I'll have to start checking.

Julian Sprung recommends 72-80 with 74-78 being ideal (V3 of 'The Reef Aquarium'). Variation during the day shouldn't be more than +/- 1 or 2. There are at least 30 pages on the subject. He gives several different points of view and several reasons not to run above 82 in a captive reef. Consensus from most is to avoid fluctuations during the day.

Here's a link to the book: http://www.amazon.com/Reef-Aquarium-Science-Technology-Vol/dp/1883693144/ref=sr_1_1/002-6609522-7412855?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1184812129&sr=8-1">http://www.amazon.com/Reef-Aquarium-Science-Technology-Vol/dp/1883693144/ref=sr_1_1/002-6609522-7412855?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1184812129&sr=8-1</a>

There's also a lot in the ARC forums. Search on evaporation or cooling. Mojo and others have some good comments on the benefits of evaporation over chiller / electricity use. I've learned a ton from the forums. I think I've learned that there's no one answer other than keeping the temp consistent as possible and trying not to exceed 82 in a reef. My tank goes to 83.

- Matt

 

[dannybradley]

Slayer77 is completly right about consistant temperature being more important than actual temperature, to a point of course.

I forget from which book I read it, but corals kept at higher temperatures bleach at higher temperatures than corals kept at lower temperatures.

 

[zanski]

Not to steal this thread but my tank is only running pc's for now and its steady at 83.3 doesnt move much at all. But, where should the sensor be to get an acurate readiing because I have mine the the top close to the lights? Any sugestions?

 

[ouling]

it's going to be the same temp throughout your tank if your water moves.
If you're going to MHI you WILL need some fans and probably a chiller.

Without a chiller and fans mine get over 90 easy on a hot day.

 

[slayer]

just cause a book says to do something, does it mean its a gold standard? i hope not... many of the advancements in reefing today would not have occured over the last 10 years, since i've been in the hobby, if someone didnt say "hey you know what im not following the norm and im going to do this instead".. i go against many "norms" in reefing , which most people think i would be crazy to do, but then looking at my tank, i dont regret it one bit... because for me it works..

 

[simon_kruger]

Slayer77, Rep point added. enjoy.

 

[cameron]

Agreed most of the books present far out of date material, but at the same time most of the people who run out of the norm are just proving the one simple facts about corals which are that change is bad and consistency is good. Corals adapt very well but they don't like the change. Once acclimated to their environment, you can mistreat them (not saying you do) by book standards and they will still thrive. There are of course some things you can't do, but as a whole I find that people who tend to quote an ideal environment for a coral leave out the most important... consistency.

 

[gordob]

Thanks for the input and advice! I need to figure out how to maintain some consistency in my tank. I think the fan just might do the trick.

Thanks again,
Brad

 

[dannybradley]

I forget that you guys don't know me that well. I don't just pull advice out of nowhere. With every book I read, I take the copyright date into consideration. Every bit of advice I give comes backed up with real world experience.

I've been maintaining between 6000-8000 gallons worth of aquariums between my former (as of Tuesday) store and my clients' 16 aquariums (ranging from 15 gallons to 220 gallons) for the past 6 years.

Any book that ever made it into my store I read first. I don't take a single thing as truth because it's printed.

A few of my clients tanks run around 82-83 and have for years with no ill results. In one of them, a 120 gallon, a frogspawn has gone from 3 heads to 16 over 4 years, even dropping polyps to reproduce. That tank hit 86 a few times during summer 2 years ago.

One client, who sits about 83, bumped her heater on her 75 reef and cooked the tank at 93 all night long. The only losses were her shrimp, which need a much higher level of dissovled O2 than the fish and coral.

If you would like all my posts to be novels, let me know, I'll drown you with knowledge, references, and experience. But I'd prefer to keep things concise.

 

[ouling]

This is how I look at stuff.

Follow the instruction and getting advice from novice books= High School Dip in fish

Reading and understand advanced books = B.S in coral husbandtry

Researching your own methods and adding strange non reeftank chemicals = M.S in Coralology

Breaking the standard and mothods give by those advanced books and go your own way which you've researched to work best = Ph.D in reefology

 

[cameron]

I will add my degree to that list... learning to leave things the hell alone:

zen mastery in reef keeping

I think it is the hardest thing to do IMO.