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I absolutely agree with madweazl. My reef stays around 80F, but is has reached 82-83F for multiple days with no issues. If you can only pick between 76F and 81F, I wold pick 81F.
When I go diving the reefs look their most pristine in the winter months when the temps are around 77-79 deg and they always look their worst in the summer when the reefs are hot in 82-85 range. I have seen colonies of Zoa's just disappear from a reef after a summer and I come back to that same spot two years later in the winter and half of the colony has been restored. I am talking about 45ft across circular colonies.
Anyway no problems with 81 if that's what it always is. My comment mainly has to do with how fast can you prevent it from going up past a limit you are comfortable with. I have already had to do the 1am Bag Ice runs when my chiller failed. I would much rather be notified to an irregularity sooner than later.
When I was in the Virgin islands the water temperature was over 80F but can't recall how high it went, I want to say 82F. The shallow areas were even hotter. The corals looked great, didn't see any signs of distress. I went back over the course of 3 days and the temperature was relatively the same. I feel the goal is gradual change and consistency. I would imagine there would be a lot more damage due to dramatic changes. You may have more experience then I do as this was all over the course of only 3 days.
In the Caribbean, reefs do fine anywhere from 68 to 84 degrees. As water warms up, it holds less oxygen. Metabolic rates increase with temperature. My tank is set to not go below 77.6 or over 78.4. You can run a tank at 80 degrees but you are closer to dangerous temperature.... 86 degrees.
Strongly disagree at 82 all the sps I have bleached and the banghi went crazy and killed everything else in the tank at 84 your getting close to suffocating your tank water movement and agitation will not help oxygenated hot water as the hoter it get the less 02 is able to saturateYour opinion and your right to have it, but....
like I said I see no issues at 84, but my tank typically sits at 80. I can cool it to 78 in an hour with a fan on the sump that kicks on when it gets to 82. If I hit 83 I know something is wrong. In my eyes and where I live, I see no problem with keeping my tank at what it wants to run at with no heater or chiller.
Again you could not be more wrong I'm at 78 whether it's summer or winterYou wont find a reef under 80° in the summer and it isnt an issue; 81-82° are typically where the strongest growth happens in the wild IIRC.
Strongly disagree at 82 all the sps I have bleached and the banghi went crazy and killed everything else in the tank at 84 your getting close to suffocating your tank water movement and agitation will not help oxygenated hot water as the hoter it get the less 02 is able to saturate
Again you could not be more wrong I'm at 78 whether it's summer or winter
saying you won't find a reefer under 80 in the summer is just plain wrong
And some corals grow well that high of a temp mostly shallow water corals
The deeper stuff needs colder water
You need to specify what types of coral grow well at that high of the temp as it's not all coral it's some coral some can survive up to 105 degrees Fahrenheit for a short time
Strongly disagree at 82 all the sps I have bleached and the banghi went crazy and killed everything else in the tank at 84 your getting close to suffocating your tank water movement and agitation will not help oxygenated hot water as the hoter it get the less 02 is able to saturate
Again you could not be more wrong I'm at 78 whether it's summer or winter
saying you won't find a reefer under 80 in the summer is just plain wrong
And some corals grow well that high of a temp mostly shallow water corals
The deeper stuff needs colder water
You need to specify what types of coral grow well at that high of the temp as it's not all coral it's some coral some can survive up to 105 degrees Fahrenheit for a short time
Not sure what graph your looking at that shows ever temp from one extreme to the other including exactly what we are discussing here there is roughly a 5 percent difrence in o2 between 75 and 85 f that not smallThis graph is a little misleading since you’re showing the temp range across an extreme. It actually shows that the oxygen solubility differs only very marginally at the small range of temps we are discussing here.
I think stability (as usual) is more important than any specific temperature in our hobby. If your corals are used to a range, try to stick to that range. Whether that is 75-80 or 80-85, people have success with both. The oxygen difference so often cited is largely irrelevant.