Why do you keep your Temp below 80?

[ouling]

I've never understood why some people keep the temp of their tank at somewhere between 74-78. Why do you need it so low during the summer? I rarely see the water temp at reefs in the carribean or Keys fall below 80, and other places may be even hotter. I'm pretty sure natural temperature that is about 80-84 makes everything matabolizes faster, including ich and other protozones.

If keeping a tank is all about being natural, with all those live rock and sand, why not save some energy and keep the temperature natural too?

During the winter I keep my 800-1000w light 5'' off the water to help heat things up to 80-82.

Summer I pull the lights 15'' off the water to keep it at 81-83, sometimes 84.

I have never had a coral die on me before, and i never acclimated anything.

 

[george]

Less battle with the HVAC system in the summer.

 

[ouling]

well i keep the ac at my house at 78 and my tank is 84-86 depending on humility. If im not home and no A/C then the chiller gets to work.

 

[glxtrix]

your corals actually like the warmer temps. I keep mine around 80-82 with a fan on a controller that pops on at 83.

 

[flyingarmy]

I have found all my corals thrive at temperatures between 79-82. but anything higher they tend to start to bleach (combo of light and heat).

 

[cameron]

No bleeching at least for most... stoney corals can get used to far higher temps so long as they aren't thrust into them. Temps above 80 do incourage growth as well best I can remember.

Personally, I run mine lower for safety reasons. I have more wiggle room if my something malfunctions also my heaters don't have to work nearly as hard and running fans is cheap.

 

[jessezm]

Over the years I have become much more comfortable with higher temps. Stability is key--yuo don't want to be going down to 78 at night and up to 84 during the day. In the hotter months if I don't have a chiller, I see what my temp maxes out at--say 84 degrees--and I set fans and heaters to keep it close to that--maybe 1-2 degree swing. There are some fish that people are inclined to keep that just don't do well in hotter tanks (like the catalina goby, for instance), but other than specific fish like that, I haven't found any reason to keep lower temps aside from simple peace-of-mind, as Cameron mentioned. It took me several years to relax around higher temps, but I really haven't experienced any negative effects that I know of at least...

 

[johnqx4]

I live in a bit of a more rural area. Electricity outages are relatively common.
I keep the main sump on a ups system (Will last for more than 12 hours). However, heaters would lower athat to ~4 hours. Therefore, in the winter, I keep my tanks to 80+ degrees and in the summer I lower them to 72-75ish...

it works in concert with the normal heating and air and those 8 degrees or so can mean the difference of a day the event of a loss of power.

 

[vettesarebest]

Whew 72!! I as well live in a more rural area, But thankfully I have not yet had a power outage long enough to break out the generator.

 

[cameron]

I use the AC3 table to set my temp:

<span style="font-family: Fixedsys;">Date Sun Moon Temp </span>
<span style="font-family: Fixedsys;"> rise/set rise/set </span>
<span style="font-family: Fixedsys;">Jun 01 06:39/19:34 20:23/08:23 14 77.5 </span>
<span style="font-family: Fixedsys;">Jun 02 06:39/19:34 21:12/09:12 12 77.5 </span>
<span style="font-family: Fixedsys;">Jun 03 06:39/19:34 22:01/10:01 11 77.5 </span>
<span style="font-family: Fixedsys;">Jun 04 06:39/19:34 22:50/10:50 10 77.6 </span>
<span style="font-family: Fixedsys;">Jun 05 06:39/19:34 23:39/11:39 09 77.6 </span>
<span style="font-family: Fixedsys;">Jun 06 06:39/19:35 00:27/12:27 07 77.6 </span>
<span style="font-family: Fixedsys;">Jun 07 06:39/19:35 01:16/13:16 06 77.7 </span>
<span style="font-family: Fixedsys;">Jun 08 06:39/19:35 02:05/14:05 05 77.7 </span>
<span style="font-family: Fixedsys;">Jun 09 06:40/19:35 02:54/14:54 04 77.7 </span>
<span style="font-family: Fixedsys;">Jun 10 06:40/19:36 03:43/15:43 02 77.8 </span>
<span style="font-family: Fixedsys;">Jun 11 06:40/19:36 04:31/16:31 02 77.8 </span>
<span style="font-family: Fixedsys;">Jun 12 06:40/19:36 05:20/17:20 02 77.8 </span>
<span style="font-family: Fixedsys;">Jun 13 06:40/19:36 06:09/18:09 01 77.9 </span>
<span style="font-family: Fixedsys;">Jun 14 06:40/19:37 06:58/18:58 01 77.9 </span>
<span style="font-family: Fixedsys;">Jun 15 06:40/19:37 07:47/19:47 01 77.9 </span>
<span style="font-family: Fixedsys;">Jun 16 06:41/19:37 08:35/20:35 00 78.0 </span>
<span style="font-family: Fixedsys;">Jun 17 06:41/19:37 09:23/21:23 01 78.0 </span>
<span style="font-family: Fixedsys;">Jun 18 06:41/19:37 10:12/22:12 01 78.0 </span>
<span style="font-family: Fixedsys;">Jun 19 06:41/19:38 11:01/23:01 02 78.1 </span>
<span style="font-family: Fixedsys;">Jun 20 06:41/19:38 11:50/23:50 02 78.1 </span>
<span style="font-family: Fixedsys;">Jun 21 06:41/19:38 12:39/00:39 02 78.1 </span>
<span style="font-family: Fixedsys;">Jun 22 06:41/19:38 13:27/01:27 04 78.2 </span>
<span style="font-family: Fixedsys;">Jun 23 06:41/19:39 14:16/02:16 05 78.2 </span>
<span style="font-family: Fixedsys;">Jun 24 06:42/19:39 15:05/03:05 06 78.2 </span>
<span style="font-family: Fixedsys;">Jun 25 06:42/19:39 15:54/03:54 07 78.3 </span>
<span style="font-family: Fixedsys;">Jun 26 06:42/19:39 16:43/04:43 09 78.3 </span>
<span style="font-family: Fixedsys;">Jun 27 06:42/19:40 17:31/05:31 10 78.3 </span>
<span style="font-family: Fixedsys;">Jun 28 06:42/19:40 18:20/06:20 11 78.4 </span>
<span style="font-family: Fixedsys;">Jun 29 06:42/19:40 19:09/07:09 12 78.4 </span>
<span style="font-family: Fixedsys;">Jun 30 06:42/19:40 19:58/07:58 14 78.4 </span>


Don't know if it matters from a spawning standpoint though.

 

[vettesarebest]

Is that for like a Controller or something?

 

[cameron]

The Aquacontrollers have a built in table for sunrise, sunset, lunar cycle and temp variants.

 

[vettesarebest]

Owww That looks WAY to complicated for me, maybe I should have payed attention in Tech class.

 

[cameron]

It isn't complicated. You just tell the controller to use the seasonal temp.

 

[justonemoretank]

Heaters are pretty expensive to run to push the temp higher. Fans are pretty cheap to run to push the temp lower. I guess that I am also kinda a wimp and having the tank running "hot" still scares me. My tank is set to run between 78.0 - 80.5 If it gets any hotter the AC Jr controller will shut off half of my lights. Any hotter than 81 and the other half of my T5s go off. Now that summer is really starting to get rolling maybe I will tweak some of the controllers settings and allow the temp to range from 79-81 ??? What does everyone say???

 

[matttvi]

If anyone is interested, here are a few good studies on heat stress and PCD (programmed cell death).

<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Dunn, S. </span></span><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">R.,</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> Thomason, J. C., Le Tissier, M. D. A., and Bythell, J. C., Heat stress induces different forms of cell death in sea anemones and their endosymbiotic algae depending on temperature and duration. </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;">http://javascript:__doLinkPostBack('detail','mdb%257E%257Eaph%257C%257Cjdb%257E%257Eaphjnh%257C%257Css%257E%257EJN%2520%252522Cell%2520Death%2520%252526%2520Differentiation%252522%257C%257Csl%257E%257Ejh','');">Cell Death & Differentiation</a>; Nov2004, Vol. 11 Issue 11, p1213-1222, 10p</span><span style="font-family: Arial;">.</span>
<span style="font-family: Arial;"></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Kemp, Dustin W., Cook, Clayton B., LaJeunesse, Todd C., and Brooks, W. Randy,</span>[B]<span style="font-family: Verdana;"> [B]A comparison of the thermal bleaching responses of the zoanthid Palythoa caribaeorum from three geographically different regions in south Florida.[/B] </span>[/B]<span style="font-family: Verdana;">[IMG]http://javascript:__doLinkPostBack('detail','mdb%257E%257Eaph%257C%257Cjdb%257E%257Eaphjnh%257C%257Css%257E%257EJN%2520%252522Journal%2520of%2520Experimental%2520Marine%2520Biology%2520%252526%2520Ecology%252522%257C%257Csl%257E%257Ejh','');">Journal of Experimental Marine Biology & Ecology</a>; Aug2006, Vol. 335 Issue 2, p266-276, 11p.</span></span>

 

[nishant3789]

I try to keep mine below 80 because cooler water holds more oxygen. The biggest issue with tank crashes is usually low oxygen levels. This itself will kill things very quickly. If you can somehow areate the water well enough supposedly you could keep a tank at 87-88 although i would think you owuld litereally have to turn your entire tank into a skimmer.

 

[cameron]

Good point... more rep for Nish.

 

[nishant3789]

thanks bud, and rep for matttvi, It is always really helpful when people offer solid scientific studies for support. and cited mla style too! i have alot of respect for citations after writing about 4 or 5 reserach papers this year.