Tank Temp

[Tiredguy]

Hey everyone. Just thought it would be fun to hear of other peoples methods of controlling Tank temperatures during the summer month, I don't like the swings I get during the summer.. On bad days I've seen my tank at 85 before managing to get the A/C on. I'm sure I'm not the only one that doesn't have an extra $1000 kick around for a chiller.

I Currently have a 50Gal in my upstairs living room.... Even on a beautiful day once the sun hits the side of the house our upstairs jumps an easy 5-6 degrees, I usually have a fan handy near the tank just to get some extra air flow around it, On really hot days of course I throw on the A/C.

 

[scubasteve]

a small fan blowing on the surface helps chill quite a bit. i have to keep my sh tank below 78 which is a pain in the summer but that helps a couple degrees drop

 

[reeferkeeper420]

Do you have a heater running? If so unplug it, and run a fan on each side of the tank blowing between the lights and surface of the water. Also what kind of lights are you running. If this doesnt help you may want to run your ac full time or on a timer or something.

 

[Tiredguy]

Yes heater is unplugged in the summer months, Lighting is LED,, Maxspec Razor not much heat there nothing that my fan doesn't take care of, Basically If i know the temp is going to be above 23 that day I put the A/C on,, But there are days the wife turn that off, and I get home and...... you can fill in the rest,

 

[Skim]

Man I have read quite a bit on this subject. Some say the temps on the reefs are much higher then what we keep are tanks at and swings are good for the corals as it makes them stronger and more robust. I have read where 82-84 is the ideal spot for corals and keeping at lower temps is we get so many corals that do well at first and then die for no apparent reason. It slow the metabolism of the coral to the point that it starves and starts to consume itself ( Algae cells ) and will fade and die, so it consumes faster then can be replaced do to the slow metabolism. I read a University study and they said 77 F is where the most Calcification takes place and anything below became lethal to the corals in the long run and anything much above showed no real benefit, but did say they are not sure for all or the specific species they tested and I believe they did not feed. I have also read that at the higher temps you will have to feed as corals feed on a continuous rate in the wild just as fish if not more.
If you look on the net at coral reef temps around the world the numbers 82 to 84 are spot on for average, could range from mid to high 70's in winter to high 90's in summer but the average works out to 82-84 for the year and the funny thing is much on the salinity numbers where 1.023 and up as high as 1.046 ( Red Sea ) but the average seemed to be the 1.023. It makes you wonder, I watched a Walt Smith Video where they to harvest and add frags in the open Ocean in Fiji at depth of about 15 ft. Now these guys where doing there thing for quite awhile and only wearing Speedo's so that would be hard to do it the water temp was at 75-78. They also did a time laps on the Frags growing and this one Purple Acro Frag was about 4 to 5 inches when out in its place and in 8 months was the size of a Volleyball, just amazing.
Then there is the article I read about Nitrates and Phosphates and where do they go! But that's for another day.
Now there is something for you to think about!

Skim

 

[Jesse biocubebeginner]

I don't have ac. So even with a fan running my tank has been a bit warm this summer. Was at 78.5 all winter. Now averaging around 80.5. And my corals seem to like the heat. Still new to this and no sps yet. Any thoughts?


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[Skim]

If they seem to like it I would not touch a thing, now if you said they are all slumped over then that would be a problem. I think the big thing is make sure the skimmer is working well a is the right size as the the temp goes up the O2 drops but in small amounts so if the fish are not hanging out at the top and swimming as usual then just site back have a cold one and enjoy the scenery.

 

[Skim]

I forgot, just remember as temp goes up the fishes metabolism will also, so you may want to feed a little more often.

 

[kapelan]

Air conditioner to the room plus cooler to surface = replacement of 1000$ chiller

 

[Tiredguy]

Man I have read quite a bit on this subject. Some say the temps on the reefs are much higher then what we keep are tanks at and swings are good for the corals as it makes them stronger and more robust. I have read where 82-84 is the ideal spot for corals and keeping at lower temps is we get so many corals that do well at first and then die for no apparent reason. It slow the metabolism of the coral to the point that it starves and starts to consume itself ( Algae cells ) and will fade and die, so it consumes faster then can be replaced do to the slow metabolism. I read a University study and they said 77 F is where the most Calcification takes place and anything below became lethal to the corals in the long run and anything much above showed no real benefit, but did say they are not sure for all or the specific species they tested and I believe they did not feed. I have also read that at the higher temps you will have to feed as corals feed on a continuous rate in the wild just as fish if not more.
If you look on the net at coral reef temps around the world the numbers 82 to 84 are spot on for average, could range from mid to high 70's in winter to high 90's in summer but the average works out to 82-84 for the year and the funny thing is much on the salinity numbers where 1.023 and up as high as 1.046 ( Red Sea ) but the average seemed to be the 1.023. It makes you wonder, I watched a Walt Smith Video where they to harvest and add frags in the open Ocean in Fiji at depth of about 15 ft. Now these guys where doing there thing for quite awhile and only wearing Speedo's so that would be hard to do it the water temp was at 75-78. They also did a time laps on the Frags growing and this one Purple Acro Frag was about 4 to 5 inches when out in its place and in 8 months was the size of a Volleyball, just amazing.
Then there is the article I read about Nitrates and Phosphates and where do they go! But that's for another day.
Now there is something for you to think about!

Skim

Love it! I'm sure those shallow reefs also get swings between night and day in nature as well. Great post.

 

[Skim]

Just another thing that I read on RC one day. A guy posted in a section on temp. and he is a diver, I can't remember where he was diving but he must have had some serous equipment. He had a wrist band like computer that logged all his dives and all info from time down current temp bla bla bla. He said surface temp. was 84 F and when they hit there depth for the dive 125 feet it was 85 F so the temp went up one degree. Now he said this was a tad warm then usual but in general that was around the temp they had be seeing and then should his log for like last ten dives in this spot and they where all in the low 80's with the 85 being the highest.

 

[Skim]

The spot that Walt was doing the fragging was a GPS spot that he found about an hour and a half boat ride in the middle of nowhere, where the Ocean floor rose to about the 15 to 20 ft mark and it was nothing but sand. He built huge racks and laid them full of SPS. Its kind of funny all you see is sand and all the sudden you see this huge rack full of SPS. I must admit from what I have seen he goes to great length to get a quality product out. I believe it was Bigshow that just got a bunch of live rock from him. I had some rock from him once back when live rock was live rock and was brought in from all over and just covered with stuff we dream about now and just encrusted with coraline algae and stuff would grow out from the rock corals all types of algae and all kinds of critters. I remember one guy came into the store I was at and in a glass jar had a baby Octopus that he found attached to his glass after setting his tank up. Now that's live rock. Ah the good old days. I not kidding we would go and buy a piece of newly arrived rock not big, just to see what would come out of it.

 

[scubasteve]

dont forget the reads about rising ocean temps causing massive issues in some major reef systems. all is good as long as you keep it in safe perameters but swing either way off the extreme edge too far and you will be surprised how fast things go south.

a good reference for what corals like would be great barrier measurements from 15-20 years ago when the reefs were doing great all around the world.... right now most the reefs in the world are dying off at an alarming rate and estimated at this rate in 10-15 years there wont be live reefs in the wild anymore and thats if water temp and quality remain the same let alone getting worse.

Pretty soon we will all be housing endangered species.... my poor seahorses have already made the list and im sure in our lifetimes our corals will be as well. Some already are

 

[Skim]

No doubt, but most of the readings that where taken where before 2000 and I believe started in 1969 a total of just over 1000 reef's and all averaged that 82 to 84 I not saying we should all go and dial are temps up but in the summer time when tanks can get up there and drop at night is something that people should not get stressed over now if your 84 and going into the 90's well ya time to take a little action.
From what I hear and have read its not even the Temp anymore its the CO2 levels and driving the PH down, some of the Oceans have already drop to 8.1 it does not seem like much but when you try and think of the size and mass of the Oceane WOW. There are some Scientists that believe we have already past the point of no return and we the Human race are toast, they figure if we keep going at the rate we are now we have about 20 years. See the people thought if the Rain Forests would go that we are done, but the Coral Reefs are responsible for producing most of the Oxygen. If I remember correctly, the Great Barrier Reef produces more Oxygen then all the Rain Forest put together, So all of you with little ones or semi little ones you should try and put the bug in there ears so they can yell and scream at the leaders when they get older. We as in the world should have done something when the Olympics where being held in China and all the Nations should have Boycotted them and gotten China to take notice and tell them this is not you or I anymore its us and your emissions are killing the planet. Not that North America is much better and I can only see Mexico get worse with all the companies jumping the boarder faster then the Mexicans who know's maybe in the next 20 years it will be reverse and the Mexicans will have to have a boarder control from all the Americans trying to find WORK!
Anyhow TGIF and welcome to the weekend all!

Skim

 

[TORX]

My wife does not let the house get above 72 typically through the summer (so yes, she can never complain about me using to much hydro ). BUT at one point I did have an issue. I rigged up 2 120mm PC fans to a 12v wall plug from some old lost device and when the tank got to warm, my Apex turned on the fans which blew into my sump. It dropped my 120 long tank really quickly actually.

Your LEDs will not put out heat like mH, but if you have a hood on your tank, the LED 'exhaust' will still heat up under the hood by a few degrees.

To fuel the temp debate. I read at one point, that one of the reasons that people and sites recommend such low temps is to lower the metabolism of the fish and corals.

 

[yveterinarian]

To fuel the temp debate. I read at one point, that one of the reasons that people and sites recommend such low temps is to lower the metabolism of the fish and corals.

Another reason is to lower the amount of harmful bacteria that can build up in higher temperatures. I haven't noticed much of a problem with reef tanks but definitely with seahorses, possibly this is why we sometimes lose some of the more exotic fish in our reefs.

 

[reef keeper]

I find my tank goes from 77-81 during a full day cycle. My oh is 8.1-8.4. Corals seem to be doing well so far and my coralline is growing everywhere now lol.

I was just away for 5 days and the apex controlled it. I hadn't cleaned my glass for a few days and now the 5 days and it's still not awful lmao.

I read in a scientific journal that corals are actually changing to adjust to the slightly higher sea temps. They've done some genetic studies and found that a huge number of corals all around the world are adapting and growing fast in the new temps. We are so arrogant to think that we actually control the earth. Nature has developed over hundreds of millions of years to adapt. The seas have been much warmer and much cooler in the millennia before man, and the majority of species survived. New species developed to fill the gaps left by those that didn't.

What we are seeing is a snapshot in time of the current atmosphere, temperatures etc.

Remember the ozone hole? It's 95% closed in under 30 years. They were predicting doomsday on that one. And global temps aren't rising unless you measure in the cities.

I think we will all be amazed at the resilience of the coral reefs around the world.