temperature help

[coryherby]

With no answer in the reef section thought i would try here.



I have 180 gallon tank with a sump/fuge. Lights are 3 250MH with two 6 ft actinics. I have two hood fans that are heat sensitive and get faster as it gets warmer. I also have a fan over the fuge during light period. I have a chiller and pinpoint temp controller keeping the tank right now between about 79 and 82.5. The heaters very rarely come on and the chiller runs about every half hour during the light period for about 10 minutes. The tank will generally level out at 86 degrees if left alone.

The question I have is how high can i safely set my temperature controller without affecting the occupants. I have sps, clams, fish and inverts. I want the chiller to come on less. It is in my living room and although not overly loud it is loud enough to bother me and puts out additional heat into the room which in the summer is annoying. I will probably move it some day into the laundry room but will have to put some holes in the floor etc to do it. So will be a bigger project and postponing it for now.


Thanks

[rshimek]

Hi,

There is no problem with your temperature as it is. Normal reef temperature's average about 82 F, and swings up to 86F or so are fine. I generally keep my system at about 84F, as that is the temperature that most corals grow best at.

[coryherby]

thank you,

With the chiller i have it set to not exceed 82.5 right now. With this info I am going to raise it to about 85. I will probably set things to stay between 79 and 85 so as not to run heaters and chiller more than necessary. Heaters rarely come on anyway as the temp tank rarely gets below 80. If that sounds good to you.

thank you for the response.

[charlesr1958]

I sure can back up that temperature average, I have taken a thermometer out to the reefs here (philippines) and was able to relax after seeing temps on the reefs from 88 + in the shallows to 82 at 25 feet deep. My tank also maintains between 82 to 86 and is doing just fine.

Chuck

[mikeatjac]

charlesr1958 is right. In my trips to reefs have seen the same thing. Did not know that they grew faster at higher temps.

[coryherby]

cool ty guys...going to set my tank a bit higher than. I really don't like the chiller to come on as much as it does.