Who has the coldest reef tank?

[joelbegt]

I was looking on Liveaquaria’s site this weekend and was surprised to see 72-78 degrees as the recommended temperature for Acropora. I personally usually keep mine around 76-78 but this seems like a huge waste of electricity if I could run successfully at 72-74. My tank is also in a cool basement so the heaters run quite a bit.

So who here is running a reef aquarium with lower temperatures successfully?

 

[madweazl]

Average temps on most reefs are 77° (cooler in the winter and warmer in the summer). Cant remember where I saw it but cooler temps slowed growth from what I remember (which may be a good thing for some LOL). Our acropora dominant tank stays 78.8° (no particular reason, it's just easy to maintain in our home).

 

[Reefpuck]

 

[joelbegt]

Average temps on most reefs are 77° (cooler in the winter and warmer in the summer). Cant remember where I saw it but cooler temps slowed growth from what I remember (which may be a good thing for some LOL). Our stays 78.8° (no particular reason, it's just easy to maintain in our home).

It makes sense that metabolic rates would slow down and you would have higher oxygen content in the water.

I know!

 

[CC13]

Following along.

For reference I keep mine between 77-78 degrees.

 

[madweazl]

Is it possible to edit the thread to add a poll (probably been done before)?

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Is it possible to edit the thread to add a poll (probably been done before)?

Yep. I just need some options to put in it.

On the cooler temps, I've seen some tanks running a bit lower, but not sure on long term success.

 

[madweazl]

2° blocks from 67°-86° (i.e 67-68, 69-70, 71-72 etc.)?

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Poll is up!

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

I was looking on Liveaquaria’s site this weekend and was surprised to see 72-78 degrees as the recommended temperature for Acropora. I personally usually keep mine around 76-78 but this seems like a huge waste of electricity if I could run successfully at 72-74. My tank is also in a cool basement so the heaters run quite a bit.

So who here is running a reef aquarium with lower temperatures successfully?

Mine's located in a non-insulated garage so easy to keep at 72 73.

 

[ReeferReefer]

My tank stays between 76-78 degrees.

 

[joelbegt]

Mine's located in a non-insulated garage so easy to keep at 72 73.

So what types of corals do you keep? And do you have issues keeping any certain corals?

Can you give us a full list of livestock?

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

Pictures

 

[ZoWhat]

I wonder what the grow rate of corals are at different temps.

better growth rates at 74degrees or 80?

I guess I should investigate at what DEPTH your corals thrive at in nature. the deeper the cooler the water....

 

[vlangel]

I keep my reef at 77-78° but I know from having seahorses that corals can still live at 68-70°. They do not grow as fast but I never had them die from cooler temps.

 

[MnFish1]

I was looking on Liveaquaria’s site this weekend and was surprised to see 72-78 degrees as the recommended temperature for Acropora. I personally usually keep mine around 76-78 but this seems like a huge waste of electricity if I could run successfully at 72-74. My tank is also in a cool basement so the heaters run quite a bit.

So who here is running a reef aquarium with lower temperatures successfully?

I was running mine at 80 - recently dropped it to 77. Though corals 'survive' at 72 - they grow better and are more disease resistant at somewhat higher temps (depending on where they originally came from).

 

[declanisadog]

78-79. My old tank hung around 82 in the summer, but that was with halides. I had a heater die recently, and the lowest I think it got was 73. I've never noticed any coral issues going one way or the other.

 

[sp1187]

74-76
no acros.
mostly zoa's shrooms and leathers with a few stonies.
zoa's and shrooms and popping new growth. monti is doing fine.
long tentacle plate appears happy.

 

[Chasmodes]

I keep my tank between 60-70F, but it's a temperate oyster reef tank.

 

[mta_morrow]

I was looking on Liveaquaria’s site this weekend and was surprised to see 72-78 degrees as the recommended temperature for Acropora. I personally usually keep mine around 76-78 but this seems like a huge waste of electricity if I could run successfully at 72-74. My tank is also in a cool basement so the heaters run quite a bit.

So who here is running a reef aquarium with lower temperatures successfully?

Hey Joel!

Haven't seen you in a LONG time......like since I lived in Ohio and you had the frag tanks full.

Hope you are doing well and didn't even realize you were on here.

Take care

Mike