Son of a .....

[pleaselaunchme]

So, I wake up this morning, to a lovely temperature of ~40 in my bedroom. First thought- I hope the tank is ok. Long story short, somehow or another the central heat got turned off last night . It is 52 degrees in the room with the tank, and the tank has dropped from its normal low of 79 to 70. I ran to meijer to grab a heater, grabbed the first submersible heater I could, got home fast. Currently, the heater is acclimating to the tank temp. This afternoon, I will run to petco or something when they are open, and grab a different heater, as this "submersible" heater is actually not submersible :mad2: . Oh well. When I get this running shortly here, this will be 300W of heat in 29g of water (plus sump). Right now, I have a whole lot of ticked off coral frags and cleanup crew. I plan to raise the temp back up slowly. My wonder-
Will the corals recover all right? I know in shipping they can lose more temp than this (Not that this is ideal).

Ben

[LegoZ81]

I'd think you should be ok my tank has dropped to low 70's (73F)quite a bit as of late and everything has ended up being ok.
Good luck getting the tank back up to temp.
I am getting a pretty big swing right now as well. I need to get a temp controller i think...

[GreenBay1]

Everything should be fine in your tank. Didn't you already have a heater in there? Your inhabitants should be able to handle a short term swing like that.

Sorry to hear about this, if it makes you feel any better I don't even have a heater right now. Ours is being replaced and it is on back order. Last night was a rather chilly sleep. Good luck with the tank, I am sure everything will pull through.

[brad23]

You better not try and keep any SPS with those type of temp swings.

[Horace]

So you didnt have a heater prior?? No telling what the result is going to be. I have found in general that our corals are much more resiliant than many will have you believe.

[GreenBay1]

I remember a special on Discovery one time talked about the Bahamas and they showed that during extended storm seasons the water temp can have swings of 20 degrees. They showed an area where the temp fell down into the very low 70's and a couple hours later it jumped into the high 80's. It did that for something like a week and the reef pulled through. I will try and find a link to the show for you.

[LegoZ81]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8325710#post8325710 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by brad23
You better not try and keep any SPS with those type of temp swings.
duh :P

[LegoZ81]

I have 600w+ of heat in the 125 tank and it has a hard time keeping up when it gets really cold in the house.
Something I need to figure out prior to winter....

[pleaselaunchme]

I did have a heater (150W ebo-jager). The big problem was somehow the house heat got shut off, and when I went downstairs this morning it was 52 in the house. The second heater I threw in there this morning is apparently DOA, but after getting the house warmer, the tank has climbed up to 71. So, we'll see how it all goes I guess. I have my main heater in the tank right now (in the flow of the Seio, it seems to give a more stable temp than in the sump this way). I will be returning this heater I bought this morning and getting a truly submersibile one to throw in the sump as a backup precaution, in case something like this happens again.

Thanks for the replies, guys. I do have two SPS frags in there (Hammer and candy cane), hopefully they will pull through all right.

[brad23]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8325935#post8325935 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by LegoZ81
I have 600w+ of heat in the 125 tank and it has a hard time keeping up when it gets really cold in the house.
Something I need to figure out prior to winter....

Turn the heating on.

[Horace]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8326212#post8326212 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by brad23
Turn the heating on.

Part of your problem is your sump is in the basement too...its probably colder down there?

[Horace]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8326182#post8326182 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by pleaselaunchme
[B I do have two SPS frags in there (Hammer and candy cane), hopefully they will pull through all right. [/B]

Btw, these are LPS corals, not SPS.

[LegoZ81]

Actually it's hotter in the basement, have not figured that out for sure yet.

[hounddog01]

I have a heater that I am not using at this time. If you would like to borrow it to get you thru your situation that would be fine. I only have a 200 watt heater on my 90 and never have a problem keeping it above 76.5. but my heat is on in the house.

[hounddog01]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8326693#post8326693 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by LegoZ81
Actually it's hotter in the basement, have not figured that out for sure yet.

The concrete floor is cooler that would cool the sump and keep the temp down. This is good for the summer not the winter.

[LegoZ81]

The 75g (sump) is sitting on a 2" thick piece of styrofoam.

[pleaselaunchme]

D'oh, I knew that- I blame calculous for my mental defects as of late. I'm sure statistics isn't helping much, either....

Ben


<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8326581#post8326581 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Horace
Btw, these are LPS corals, not SPS.

[pleaselaunchme]

Also, while I'm thinking about it....
Tank is up to 75 again, I am slowly kicking up the heaters every so often to get it to where it needs to be.


Ben

[ChemE]

Well so far I haven't needed a heater. I set the house for 71F and it stays exactly at 71F (new house) which I must admit makes it a lot easier. I changed out my MJ1200 return for my old Rio 2100+ return to see if low flow really is as good (it is) and to add a few extra watts of heat to the tank. Running those sweet 5100K spiral PC bulbs on a reverse photoperiod helps too. Temp right now is 76.4F and the lights will be on in an hour. The temp just before lights out is around 77.6F. So I have been able to avoid both a chiller and a heater with smart equipment choices.