tank temperature

[Mappelbaum37]

I have a 75 gal. mixed reef with 7 fish and a couple of corals. I had my temperature at 79-80 degrees. I was told it shouldn't be that high, so I lowered it to about 77 degrees last night. Is that somewhat right? What do you keep your temperatures at?

[mg426]

I target 79

[Purple Penguins]

I keep mine about 78-79 degrees

[Mappelbaum37]

so if i try to raise mine to 78 degrees again how long should i wait to do it? I dont want to consistently be changiing the temperature of the tank

[boxerzz]

mine is higher 80-82 and everything is fine.

[m2434]

I shoot for 82.

[BigEasyReef]

Anywhere from 77 up to about 82 is fine. The important issue is not what your temp is ( within that range), but that it is constant at all times. The tank cannot take swings in temp of more than 1- 11/2 degrees in a given 24 hr period. So decide what temp you want, and then through your heater, chiller, light cycles, etc,,,
work to get it constant, the biggest challange is of course at night when the lights go out & that heat is not radiating into the water, so set your heater to compensate for that.

[bassettmd]

The RULE of keeping a constant temperature is a large myth in my experience... I along with many of my friend's tanks see large swings in temperature especially during the summer time. My personal reef fluctuates from 75 - 84 on a daily basis in the summer time and all my coral (LPS, soft, SPS), anemones, clams, etc have been kept long term and are in perfect health with no changes in growth patterns, etc.

[BigEasyReef]

constant temp is very important for fish, and your corals will do 10 times BETTER with a maintained temp. Proper temperature is not a myth, it is a crital requirement of correct reefkeeping.

[justdrew424]

Consistent temp is not as important as most make it out to be. There are fluctuations on the reef as currents bring in cooler and warmer waters all day. Temps are not constant on the reef and large fluctuations are fairly common.

[bassettmd]

Thanks for backing me up! Even in your First post! Welcome to Reef Central!

[Justdrew]

Whoa, don't know what happened there, but wasn't first post. Been doing this for a long time. Anyways, with the heat here in Vegas I run 2-3 degree swings regularly and everything is fine.

PS Can a mod delete justdrew424?

[bluetmax]

My tank is primarily SPS and fluctuates between 75-82 depending on whether or not the halides are on. Check out the thread on Common Misconceptions In The Hobby - http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...readid=1187329 - a lot of people have found that trying to keep the temperature at continuous stable temperature can be detrimental when that (what I feel) inevitable swing does occur one day. I'm just speaking from my experience, and I think the arguement is definitely worth a read; its in there amongst many others. Temperatures fluctuate on the reef all day every day with tides and currents...

[josephatmbibank]

Mine , night time is 75 and with all the lights 82 in summer and winter 75 and 80 when light go out.

-Joseph

[rsw686]

Mine runs 80F at night to 83F during the day. Personally I would rather run it around 80 than in the high 70s. If you have a power failure, etc you have a longer time before the temp drops.

[chrismunn]

i keep my tank at a thousand degrees!!! the fish love it! its like a fish jaccuzi! with bubbling rotten fish.

[tank o tang]

Good rule that I heard is to keep it at 80 in winter and 76 in summer so if power fails it can have room to fluctuate in the direction most likely for that season.

[mxett]

Was involved in a thread on this topic a month or so ago. A marine biologist had some very interesting thing to say, including the fact that corals regularly receive large swings in temperature in the ocean, both from night to day, season to season, and even current to current!

He went on to say that they have an in built way of dealing with this swing, which can be lost if they are acclimatised to a narrow range of temperatures in aquaria. Then when the temperature goes up suddenly, due to say a chiller failure, the corals suffer because they have lost their ability to cope with the sudden fluctuation. Then we as hobbyists say "see......, a stable temperature is vital"! Little do we know that we are wrong, and in fact are the actual cause of the problem, by unnaturally acclimatising our corals to sterile uniformity.

[greenbean36191]

Exactly mxett!

constant temp is very important for fish

Do you have a non-hobby reference for this? AFAIK the only support for this idea is inferred from studies done on FW fish. The factors like upwelling, tides, and currents that are responsible for short term variation on the reefs don't occur in most bodies of FW and you wouldn't expect fish there to be adapted to deal with them. It's not a valid assumption that marine fish under normal conditions (i.e. not acclimatized to unnatural stability) would be stressed by the same types of changes too.

We know enough about the temp regime on reefs to say two general things and make predictions from them. 1.) The water temp on the reef is not uniform. There are patchy areas of high and low temp all around and they're constantly moving. 2.) Short term variation increases with depth.

Knowing those two things, if it was true that variations of 1-1.5 degrees were stressful to fish we could make some predictions on fish health patterns on the reef. There should be an increasing gradient of disease with depth. We don't see that. Fish should either be swimming around the reef making deviations to following the temp isoclines or fish that follow straight paths or stay in small areas should be prone to disease. We don't see that either. There are fish that live their entire lives within a few square feet, yet they aren't more disease prone than more mobile fish. It's been shown that it's not uncommon for half of the yearly variation in temp to occur in less than 1 minute at a fixed spot. These fish seem unaffected by changes 10x what some authors state as the safe limit. There are fish that make daily migrations, literally within inches, twice a day everyday for years at a time. They don't make deviations for temp changes and they aren't more disease prone either.

With virtually no rigorous studies done on reef fish, there's no way to say for sure that it's false, but I certainly see no reason to believe it's true and simply based on what we do know I would be extremely surprised if it was.

your corals will do 10 times BETTER with a maintained temp.

I've seen no evidence of this either in the wild or in captivity. The corals look the same and the growth rates aren't noticably different IME. People have shown experimentally that corals have better growth at higher temps and they withstand thermal stress better when they're used to higher temps and unstable temps. I can't think of any strong argument for keeping them at lower or more stable than natural temps.

My tank runs 78-86 and houses everything from zoas to Acropora.

[kslick]

Thank you greenbean3619, I don't understand where certain people get their info...or let me repharse, why people don't keep up with their "studies". I feel us as hobbiest need to keep current and not hold onto old myths. Thanks again.

[LockeOak]

Yeah, a steady swing of a few degrees a day is fine. I hate hearing about reefers wasting huge amounts of electricity using huge chillers to maintain a constant temperature. It's not necessary. I've seen my tank as low as 72 and as high as 88 (though not in one swing, of course!) I try to keep a daily 78-82 temperature cycle.

[sirreal63]

In my experience temp swings are vital to health. As stated above temp swings are a natural occurrence in the wild and my tanks have always had swings as well. To those that say you must keep the temp low and stable need to stop and think about where they got that information and question the validity.

Proper temp. is not a myth...keeping it constant is. If a coral has survived for millennium's with a variation in temp then under what guise do we expect that keeping it constant is the correct thing? I am not sure how that got started but it isn't natural and can be detrimental.

Your mileage may vary but mine has always had temp swings and always will. :-)

[flameangel88]

I don't have a chiller so I try to keep the temp close to 79-80 and when summer time comes it'll be around 82-83 which will not be that much of a swing for them to acclimate to.

[BigEasyReef]

OK, I guess I have been blasted enough for my thinking on constant temps. Ever since I got into this hobby, all of the local reefers in this area have preached about the bad outcomes of temp. swings, & that your tank must stay constant, I guess they & I are wrong based on all of the info in this thread. I'm going home & turning my chiller off.........

Thanks.

[sirreal63]

I would let the temp swing happen gradually if your corals have always had that constant temp. Sudden large changes are not good...acclimation is the key. I had my chiller set to come on at 83 and my normal variation was 78-83 daily. In my opinion the chiller should only be used to keep the temps from getting too high, not to keep the temp constant.