Hello all! I apologize for the long story below but I need some advice.
I am about 7 months new to salt water fish keeping but I have had freshwater aquariums since i was a kid. Anyway, I am having some issues with temperature in my aquarium. The details:
I got my set up used 40 gal acrylic with a ton of live rock, live sand, mating pair of clown fish and clean up crew. Other equipment: AquaticLife LED light (no model number or details on it at all), Aquatop circulation pump, Aqueon 75 hang on the back filter and a Aquatop 400 canister filter. I do 5-10% water changes about every 2 weeks. I will be building a refugum and protein skimmer in the coming weeks.
I seemed to get the hang of salt water fish so I bought a watchman goby, more clean up crew, and a bubble tip (at different times) and all seemed to thrive for about 1 month. Wow was the anemone pretty but there were days when it looked amazing and others not so good. One day it started looking a little gloomy and went a little down hill for a week. I had the water checked and the ocean salt water changes completely decreased the pH. I bought Red Sea salt and an Icecap digital refractometer which also measures temperature to mix my own salt water for water changes. Since then pH and other parameters are awesome, except for the temperature (and possibly specific gravity since well, they are related). Also, it is good to note that supposedly the icecap automatically adjusts specific gravity for temperature. And well, that's kind of a big deal for obvious reasons, duh.
There is a heater in the aquarium but it is turned of unless outside temp gets below 75. Temperature in my home is consistently 76-78F. If I check the temperature of water that has been sitting in a bucket then the temperature is usually 77F with the IceCap. If I use aquarium glass thermometer on bucket water, temperature measures 74F. Now here is what is throwing me off, when I use IceCap to check the temperature in aquarium, it is consistently 81.4F or so. If i use glass thermometer on aquarium water temp is 77F. I checked the glass and Icecap thermometers (and specific gravity measurements) at LFS against their icecap and it was pretty much spot on for both SG and T. Glass temp=Icecap temp at the store. So now what the heck? Why is my temperature reading off. The LFS suggested I trust the Icecap.
This has also (possibly) been throwing off my salinity since higher temperature means higher specific gravity. I was mixing my water for water changes to about 1.025 with icecap. When a different LFS used Milwaukee on my (at ROOM TEMP) salt water, they measured 1.028. (:0). So now I mix my salt water to 1.022-1.023.
But i am still dumbfounded as to why there is a 3 degree difference in temperature between glass thermometer and Icecap. The filters and water pump are cool to touch but is it possible for them to transfer 3 degrees F worth of heat to the water? Maybe adding a refugum would not only help water quality but also help to bring the temperature down a little bit?
Parameters were much easier to manage before the anemone. I doubt the anemone will bounce back at this point but I would like to try again after I figure this stuff out. Or maybe there is nothing to figure out and everything is fine? But then why did my anemone die with such perfect water parameters. Specific gravity and temperature are the only thing I can think of but not sure how to approach.
Thank you
I am about 7 months new to salt water fish keeping but I have had freshwater aquariums since i was a kid. Anyway, I am having some issues with temperature in my aquarium. The details:
I got my set up used 40 gal acrylic with a ton of live rock, live sand, mating pair of clown fish and clean up crew. Other equipment: AquaticLife LED light (no model number or details on it at all), Aquatop circulation pump, Aqueon 75 hang on the back filter and a Aquatop 400 canister filter. I do 5-10% water changes about every 2 weeks. I will be building a refugum and protein skimmer in the coming weeks.
I seemed to get the hang of salt water fish so I bought a watchman goby, more clean up crew, and a bubble tip (at different times) and all seemed to thrive for about 1 month. Wow was the anemone pretty but there were days when it looked amazing and others not so good. One day it started looking a little gloomy and went a little down hill for a week. I had the water checked and the ocean salt water changes completely decreased the pH. I bought Red Sea salt and an Icecap digital refractometer which also measures temperature to mix my own salt water for water changes. Since then pH and other parameters are awesome, except for the temperature (and possibly specific gravity since well, they are related). Also, it is good to note that supposedly the icecap automatically adjusts specific gravity for temperature. And well, that's kind of a big deal for obvious reasons, duh.
There is a heater in the aquarium but it is turned of unless outside temp gets below 75. Temperature in my home is consistently 76-78F. If I check the temperature of water that has been sitting in a bucket then the temperature is usually 77F with the IceCap. If I use aquarium glass thermometer on bucket water, temperature measures 74F. Now here is what is throwing me off, when I use IceCap to check the temperature in aquarium, it is consistently 81.4F or so. If i use glass thermometer on aquarium water temp is 77F. I checked the glass and Icecap thermometers (and specific gravity measurements) at LFS against their icecap and it was pretty much spot on for both SG and T. Glass temp=Icecap temp at the store. So now what the heck? Why is my temperature reading off. The LFS suggested I trust the Icecap.
This has also (possibly) been throwing off my salinity since higher temperature means higher specific gravity. I was mixing my water for water changes to about 1.025 with icecap. When a different LFS used Milwaukee on my (at ROOM TEMP) salt water, they measured 1.028. (:0). So now I mix my salt water to 1.022-1.023.
But i am still dumbfounded as to why there is a 3 degree difference in temperature between glass thermometer and Icecap. The filters and water pump are cool to touch but is it possible for them to transfer 3 degrees F worth of heat to the water? Maybe adding a refugum would not only help water quality but also help to bring the temperature down a little bit?
Parameters were much easier to manage before the anemone. I doubt the anemone will bounce back at this point but I would like to try again after I figure this stuff out. Or maybe there is nothing to figure out and everything is fine? But then why did my anemone die with such perfect water parameters. Specific gravity and temperature are the only thing I can think of but not sure how to approach.
Thank you
