Just a word of warning!

[mcarroll]

What does that mean or prove?

I suppose it could mean a number of things.

What does it mean that the same reef used to run successfully at 83.5°?

Maybe 79.5 - 83.5° should be the range to recommend!

 

[Tahoe61]

Mine invariably runs at 82 F. I live in AZ and no chiller currently. Been keeping sps at 82 for years. Do I wish it would run at 78-80, sure but I am not forking out for yet another chiller.

 

[Sabellafella]

I dont think it matter the temp, as long as its somewere inbetween 74 and 84 should be ok. Different organisms trive at different conditions, for instance, i would like to run my tank around 79.5 but for some reason brown ugly algae starts to grow. So i keep it at 78. Also a 2° swing isnt bad if its consistant every single day. My tank litterally flatlines at 77.9 to 78.1 since i setup my tank, once it gets up to 79(like right now) my corals dont look to happy. My frag tank has 3° swings no problem but its always ben that way and my corals adapted to it. What i do see with my tanks though, is at higher temperatures i have to up my alk dose so ?!?!? Organisms either grow quicker, or different strains of organisms metabolize faster

 

[spspirate]

My experiences have me to believe that anything from 76-84 degrees is fine as long as you can keep it consistent with in a 2 degree window. I would say things good and bad happen faster in higher temp water. I keep mine at 80 degrees.

 

[ajcanale]

No, it's not. 76-79 is the accepted standard for reef tanks. Absolutely zero reason to run a reef at 80 or higher.

Not true... Biological processes are affected by temperature. In general, as temp increases the rate of reaction increases. Enzymes, digestion, cellular respiration, reproduction, etc. The chance of increased coral growth alone would be enough of a reason to surpass 80 degrees. Obviously the the risk of surpassing thermal tolerance is greater and margin for error is lesser, which to me, is reason to not go above 80, but others might make the gamble depending on environment and the equipment they have in place.

 

[Gpettit721]

I dive an awful lot and in many locations around the world. Many if not most reefs will hit numbers in the mid 80's during the hottest months of the year. I have also been on the same reef and started the dive on the front side at 86 degrees and on the back side of the reed been at 76 degrees.... Daily swings are very dangerous and will stress out a tank and multiply any other problems but it is not uncommon in natural reefs to have thermoclines that will affect temp drastically... Just my .02.... If u keep your reef at 78 try like hell to keep it there.... If you keep it at 80 try like hell to keep it there.... Stability stability stability

 

[ksc]

Daily swings are not a problem and in many cases are a benefit.....

http://www.co2science.org/subject/c/summaries/bleachresptemp.php

"
In the December 2010 issue of the magazine Invertebrate Biology, there is an article - Effect of a fluctuating thermal regime on adult and larval reef corals, where the authors study the effects of a daily temperature fluctuation between 21 and 28 degrees celsius (70 - 82 fahrenheit).
They set up a number of 10g tanks where they controlled the temperature using a Neptune controller, heaters and chillers. The temperatures were forced up or down according to the natural temperature fluctuations at Nanwan Bay, Taiwan.
They found that the varying temperature environment made for corals that were stronger and more likely to survive incidences of high heat situations."


http://www.co2science.org/subject/c/summaries/bleachresptemp.php

 

[Waboss]

Right now I run my tank at 78-79 degrees. I used to run it at 81-82 and will probably slowly take it back up to those temps since I did see much more growth and all my coral seem much "happier" at those temps.

I wouldn't make a 3-4 degree move quickly though. And back to the OP's point, being aware of keeping your temps stable in hot (or cold) outdoor temps is important.

 

[Beej1254]

I always run my tank at 79-81. Yesterday it got to 82 but at that point I put a fan blowing under my tank stand.

 

[gobeach]

Well, I live in Phoenix, my heater hasn't even come on in almost 3 months, and last week we hit 95 degrees...

One thing you can do is put fans over the tank (or sump) blowing down at the water. I keep three desk fans over my tank, triggered by my Apex, and the tank stays between 77-79. I have more evaporation, but a big ATO container.

I realize evaporative cooling may be a little less efficient with higher humidities, but if you don't have a chiller, it is a quick fix...

I use evaporative cooling as well - about 3 weeks out of the year it's necessary to have my chiller hooked up. I have the fan blow across the tank lengthwise, it's hooked up to the Apex and comes on once the tank hits 78.5, the chiller comes on if the tank hits 79.

 

[Gpettit721]

Too clarify when I say daily Swings are dangerous I mean more than what we have come to maintain in our standard reef tank.... I strive for less than 1 degree difference a day but that's just personal preference and in the summer I run my tank cooler (76.6-77.5) and in the winter I'll run it warmer.... Only reason I do that is in case something fails i have a little more time to catch it.... Just personal preference that's all

 

[MaccaPopEye]

I'm kind of getting tired of the ignorance and misinformation that's being parroted and promoted on this forum.

Which seems to be what you may be doing yourself? There are many ways to have a thriving tank in this hobby. IMO what most people are trying to do involves duplicating the circumstances found in nature, in which case temps can get quite high at certain times of the year (mid 30C). I wouldn't call my tank thriving by any means but I keep my tank at 29C and have seen quite a few thriving tanks kept at the same temps.

I dive an awful lot and in many locations around the world. Many if not most reefs will hit numbers in the mid 80's during the hottest months of the year. I have also been on the same reef and started the dive on the front side at 86 degrees and on the back side of the reed been at 76 degrees.... Daily swings are very dangerous and will stress out a tank and multiply any other problems but it is not uncommon in natural reefs to have thermoclines that will affect temp drastically... Just my .02.... If u keep your reef at 78 try like hell to keep it there.... If you keep it at 80 try like hell to keep it there.... Stability stability stability

Very much this ^. I sometimes collect coral (legally) at low tide in my area. The temps of the rock pools that those corals sit in (for up to 4 hours a day) can get up to 34C (highest water temp that I ever tested out there) with average water temps of around 28-30C.

While I consider myself a newbie all the advice from people I trust who have been in the hobby for years has been that it's large and fast swings in temp (both high and low) being the cause of stress.

 

[kevensquint]

Up to 80 is perfectly fine. After 80 there is a possibility acroporas may do a "Sanjay". This is either due to a sudden increase in a strain of bacteria or the coral being weakened by the warm water. My observation as a 26 year veteran.

 

[EZ Electric]

Some fish and corals are hardier than others. Why risk everything in your tank?
Anything over 82 is a problem!!!!!!
If you spent tens of thousands and continue to spend time, effort and money daily, invest in a good chiller or central air conditioning!

 

[ksc]

Up to 80 is perfectly fine. After 80 there is a possibility acroporas may do a "Sanjay". This is either due to a sudden increase in a strain of bacteria or the coral being weakened by the warm water. My observation as a 26 year veteran.

Some fish and corals are hardier than others. Why risk everything in your tank?
Anything over 82 is a problem!!!!!!
If you spent tens of thousands and continue to spend time, effort and money daily, invest in a good chiller or central air conditioning!

The ignorance in this hobby is amazing. I've been keeping reef tanks since the 90's. If I had the equipment to keep a tank at a set temperature with no chance of failure I'd keep it at 83. It's a fact that most corals not only thrive at this temperature, but will grow faster than those kept at unnatural temps such as 78. Just because your Petco thermometer's "safe zone" ends at 80 doesn't mean there is any danger once you get out of the "zone".

You might want to take a look at some of the tanks from yesteryear when everyone keeping sps were blasting them with 250 and 400watt halides. Trust me, 80 degrees was considered cool back then....

I just checked my tank, 81 and the sps were all waving to me.....

 

[ajcanale]

What does that mean or prove? Nothing. You have your temp on your controller set and it shows 79.5 so it swings with a 1 degree variance if you have it set correctly with a chiller and heater meaning your max temp then is also 80.5? Fine, great. What's your point?
Please provide me with some peer reviewed literature on how it's beneficial to keep corals above 80 degrees. Or even provide me an article in which a known and respected expert (Fenner, Borneman, Sprung, et al) in the hobby recommend running a tank above 80? I don't think you'll find any. What you will find is that it is a known fact that corals will stress and begin to bleach at 86 degrees.
http://www.marinebiology.org/coralbleaching.htm
So why would you ever want to keep your aquarium at a temp close to the max tolerance? I'm kind of getting tired of the ignorance and misinformation that's being parroted and promoted on this forum. I think it's time for me to bow out for the time being...

So many things to say about this post.

First off, info from "respected experts" have been provided. The >80 scientific evidence is there, period.

In regards to "ignorance and misinformation" that you mention of on this forum, you sir have contributed to it with your earlier declaration (which can easily be debunked):

76-79 is the accepted standard for reef tanks. Absolutely zero reason to run a reef at 80 or higher.

Regardless, if you believe that ignorance and misinformation is something unique to this forum then well... I don't even really know what to say to that. Of all the reef related facebook groups and forums this happens to be the one with the least amount of bad info, but I suppose that's relatively subjective.

Bowing out is probably the best thing to do at this point.

 

[corky1966]

With the very warm weather that is upon us in the East, I think all reefers and especially folks that are new to the hobby must be aware of the dangers when tank heat goes over 78 and upward...It was close to 90 in my area yesterday after a cool spring...I looked at the tank temp and it was 79 degrees... luckily I have AC in that room...I took out the winter insulation quickly and flipped it on...it went down to 77...

So be aware that an overheated tank can kill your corals...if you don't have a chiller or AC, you better invest...its gonna be a hot...climate changed summer...

 

[corky1966]

With the very warm weather that is upon us in the East, I think all reefers and especially folks that are new to the hobby must be aware of the dangers when tank heat goes over 78 and upward...It was close to 90 in my area yesterday after a cool spring...I looked at the tank temp and it was 79 degrees... luckily I have AC in that room...I took out the winter insulation quickly and flipped it on...it went down to 77...

So be aware that an overheated tank can kill your corals...if you don't have a chiller or AC, you better invest...its gonna be a hot...climate changed summer...

I've seen some reefs in the wild run in the mid to upper eightes , it was 90 here today and my tank only went up 2 degrees. I just don't want put the AC in yet!lol

 

[DMan]

I also have had to turn the AC on. This is probably the earliest in the season that I've had to have it on. I know last year I didn't need the AC until mid-June. I've had some years I can make it to July. Looks like this will be a long hot summer.

 

[Congaken]

I also have had to turn the AC on. This is probably the earliest in the season that I've had to have it on. I know last year I didn't need the AC until mid-June. I've had some years I can make it to July. Looks like this will be a long hot summer.

We have one room with AC...that's where my DT is...moving my QT in there as we "speak"...global warming?...I would think so...