Why don't people run higher temps? (another rant lol)

[Reef2Land]

Corals in the wild it says live in temps between 78 and 90 degrees and they can tolerate temps up to 104 degrees. Now I'm wondering how much the industry has been stuck to some pattern just because most of history probably doesn't account for variations in regions. If I don't want to keep Ricordeas because I don't like them, and they are more sensitive to higher temps, then why can't I stay away from things yanked out of Florida and run my temp a lot higher? It seems "universal rules" have been put into place to safeguard and protect thousands of different types of corals. The reason this bothers me is I have a tang QTd with ich in my personal aquarium. Why? If the industry progressed wouldn't people be keeping their tanks at 82 or 84 degrees by now? Are we making it harder for parasites and certain algae to die off because a 40-year-old rule says people are supposed to keep their tank at 78-80?

For those that don't know with a lot of parasites higher temps speed up their life cycle so they die off faster. That's why I'm wondering if these rules are creating ideal environments for parasites more than they are fish.

I cranked my tank up last night and wanna see what happens.

 

[dansreef]

Great question. I will be interested in hearing how some of the experts respond.

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

Corals in the wild it says live in temps between 78 and 90 degrees and they can tolerate temps up to 104 degrees. Now I'm wondering how much the industry has been screwed up just because most of history probably doesn't account for variations in regions. If I don't want to keep Ricordeas because I don't like them, and they are more susceptible to higher temps, then why can't I stay away from things yanked out of Florida and run my temp a lot higher? It seems "universal rules" have been put into place to safeguard and protect thousands of different types of corals. The reason this bothers me is I have a tang QTd with ich in my personal aquarium. Why? If the industry progressed wouldn't people be keeping their tanks at 82 or 84 degrees by now? Are we making it harder for parasites and certain algae to die off because a 40-year-old rule says people are supposed to keep their tank at 78-80?

For those that don't know with a lot of parasites higher temps speed up their life cycle so they die off faster. That's why I'm wondering if these rules are creating ideal environments for parasites more than they are fish.

I cranked my tank up last night and wanna see what happens.

I'm into NPS corals, all come from waters ranging from 68-78°, some acro's are called deepwater acros, so temps are different from what your mentioning. Depends where corals harvested. To increase temp.

 

[Ruben's Reef]

Following>>>

 

[McFly]

I ran my last tank at 82-83 for about two years, I run my current tank at 78-80; I have not seen any difference in the coral or fish between those two temperatures.

What temp did you crank it up to? I feel you are going to need to go 87+ to break new ground.

 

[BestMomEver]

I keep mine at 80

 

[ectoaesthetics]

I’ve done both. Without question I now run my tank at a lower temp. This hobby goes through cycles. Those of us that have been around remember that around 2004ish everyone decided it was a stupid rule an unnatural. Everyone ran their tanks at 80-82F (at least in the nano world) with much less success... and eventually returned to the 76-78F recommended by most public aquariums and research institutions. Give it a try; I’m truly not trying to discourage you. I remember when most of this stuff was totally guesswork and tips passed on by friends and other hobbyists. I think we have learned a lot -enough to establish rules and hard edges yield successes we had only dreamed of in the past- but with those has come an interesting dogma that there must be one right way and that we already have it. This could not be further from the truth or we would be able to keep sea squirts and would have RTN more fully understood.

Unfortunately on this one I think history gives perspective.

 

[DarkSky]

I run at 78F so I have more room for error and things don't grow as fast. Since I keep my nutrients lower, if I run higher alk or temp I'm going to need to feed more.

So that's why I keep it cooler.

 

[Reef2Land]

I ran my last tank at 82-83 for about two years, I run my current tank at 78-80; I have not seen any difference in the coral or fish between those two temperatures.

What temp did you crank it up to? I feel you are going to need to go 87+ to break new ground.

84. I hit 86 the last two days and everything but the Ricordeas didn't care or even looked better. I have 5 clams in this tank with no signs of gaping. Would I recommend it? No...not yet.

 

[uhgster1]

My tank fluctuates DAILY between 78 to 82 f. It’s a 65 gallon mixed with acros and I have never lost a single piece. At this point I’m sure that my livestock has adjusted to the temp swings and it’s one less headache for me to worry about. I just avoid extremes. I was stationed in Panama for a few years and personally observed water temperatures on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts swing 20 degrees daily for months and everything on the reefs did fine.

 

[erk]

78-90 °F is a very large range and doesn't encapsulate all of the corals we keep. As said above, many NPS corals come from cooler/deeper water. Doesn't mean they can't live in warmer water, but it takes time. Once something is used to a certain environment, throwing it into something new, whether that be different temperature, salinity, etc will stress it out. This applies to all life. I keep orchids and where the orchid was collected plays a great deal into its survivability and conditions to bloom. The orchid could be the same species, but collected in the mountains versus the coast. I also know first hand what happens if you change temperature in a reef tank too quickly. Found out my temperature probe was off by a lot. Tank had been running for months at ~70°F. I fixed the issue and the temp went back to 78 overnight. Next day everything was stressed. Soft corals rebounded, but hard corals, which were already stressed, started dying left and right.

 

[Reef2Land]

I’ve done both. Without question I now run my tank at a lower temp. This hobby goes through cycles. Those of us that have been around remember that around 2004ish everyone decided it was a stupid rule an unnatural. Everyone ran their tanks at 80-82F (at least in the nano world) with much less success... and eventually returned to the 76-78F recommended by most public aquariums and research institutions. Give it a try; I’m truly not trying to discourage you. I remember when most of this stuff was totally guesswork and tips passed on by friends and other hobbyists. I think we have learned a lot -enough to establish rules and hard edges yield successes we had only dreamed of in the past- but with those has come an interesting dogma that there must be one right way and that we already have it. This could not be further from the truth or we would be able to keep sea squirts and would have RTN more fully understood.

Unfortunately on this one I think history gives perspective.

I have, for 35 years lol Then I started wondering over the last year why higher temps seem to have a good deal of health benefits for the tank and there really is no information about it. This Tang was the thing that made me want to experiment more. What's a downside at 82? The life-cycle of parasites speeds up and some inverts may not like it? I choose the shorter parasite life cycle and being more selective with my livestock lol

 

[crusso1993]

Corals in the wild it says live in temps between 78 and 90 degrees and they can tolerate temps up to 104 degrees. Now I'm wondering how much the industry has been stuck to some pattern just because most of history probably doesn't account for variations in regions. If I don't want to keep Ricordeas because I don't like them, and they are more sensitive to higher temps, then why can't I stay away from things yanked out of Florida and run my temp a lot higher? It seems "universal rules" have been put into place to safeguard and protect thousands of different types of corals. The reason this bothers me is I have a tang QTd with ich in my personal aquarium. Why? If the industry progressed wouldn't people be keeping their tanks at 82 or 84 degrees by now? Are we making it harder for parasites and certain algae to die off because a 40-year-old rule says people are supposed to keep their tank at 78-80?

For those that don't know with a lot of parasites higher temps speed up their life cycle so they die off faster. That's why I'm wondering if these rules are creating ideal environments for parasites more than they are fish.

I cranked my tank up last night and wanna see what happens.

Looks like you're starting to get this ranting stuff down. I may have to start calling you the "Ranting Reefer!" Lol

 

[dantimdad]

Old school quartiner here. I run a "QT" tank at 1.020 salinity and 84 degrees. No meds.

If something does crop up on the fish in the holding tank, then I medicate.

I have honestly only had one breakout of anything in all my years and that was a bunch of breeding clowns got wiped out. Sent them off to Auburn for a post mortem and they could find nothing out of the ordinary.

 

[ectoaesthetics]

The downside seemed to be that everything sped up -algae, parasites, and issues with coral tissue. In the nano world at least increased speed the worst and least desirable issue one could have. Nanos are unstable as it is with quick changes. May work out better in large tanks!! I always feel that closer to nature is better, which is why I went for it back then. I think it always makes me question what we are doing wrong that doesn’t allow us to run at “normal” temps. Also good to know you might notice that the animals that succeed or fail in your tank are more temp related as well. I have always had more success with pacific nerites... had to change over to the duller colored ones from warmer waters, then back again as I changed temps. There also seemed to be some give an take in my micro fauna population... I imagine that this trickles over to larger animals. I thought it would also (following this logic) make corals that came from higher temps more successful, but it seemed that the speed (at least in nanos) canceled that out.

ZERO idea what would happen in a more stable larger tank. It might be a great idea lol.

 

[Reef2Land]

78-90 °F is a very large range and doesn't encapsulate all of the corals we keep. As said above, many NPS corals come from cooler/deeper water. Doesn't mean they can't live in warmer water, but it takes time. Once something is used to a certain environment, throwing it into something new, whether that be different temperature, salinity, etc will stress it out. This applies to all life. I keep orchids and where the orchid was collected plays a great deal into its survivability and conditions to bloom. The orchid could be the same species, but collected in the mountains versus the coast. I also know first hand what happens if you change temperature in a reef tank too quickly. Found out my temperature probe was off by a lot. Tank had been running for months at ~70°F. I fixed the issue and the temp went back to 78 overnight. Next day everything was stressed. Soft corals rebounded, but hard corals, which were already stressed, started dying left and right.

I wouldn't recommend anyone try it, just because of your experience, but I haven't had a single issue with the SPS corals and tank temp increases. I have frags on top of frags, just ya know when you can't see in your tank anymore cause frag racks are everywhere? lol And not one frag has an issue with the tank hitting 84. But it's good you're on here cause I won't even mess with NPS.

 

[Epic Aquaculture]

My reason for where I run my tank is economical. I don't want to fight my air conditioner by heating the water. My tank stays between 78 and 79 with the ambient room temp that we keep year round.

 

[00Barracuda00]

I think it has more to do with averages than anything else. I'm new to reefing by all measures, but I'm drawing from personal experiences down here in FL.

Water temps on both coasts fluctuate wildly throughout the year, and even the day. But currently, we are seeing new problems arise from high temps being sustained for longer periods of time. This accounts for most of our nasty algae blooms (though not the sole contributing factor). Based off of this, I would assume that any new biosphere within our tanks could indeed sustain higher temperatures than 'common knowledge' has been dictating, but that sustaining such a temperature over time (by which I mean years) could cause unforeseen issues.

 

[KrisReef]

I've swum in a few coral reef lagoons and where the water gets warmer there is lower diversity of corals and clams and a lot more plant growth. To put it another way, the higher temperatures in the lagoons increase the metabolic rate of everything living there. All that increased use of Oxygen and nutrients has an impact on what will do best in that environment.

In areas closer to the fringing reef the water is (more oceanic &) cooler, the diversity of life closer to the ocean is a lot higher. In these areas, there are a lot of "naturally fragmented" corals from the wave action. Some of these frags are the size of a volkwagen bus, but the point is the waves break corals loose and toss them into the lagoon where the water is warmer. If the corals land in a place where they can grow ( not stuffed below the sediment) then they will often reattach and form a stable colony inside the lagoon. The further inside the lagoon you go, the fewer SPS you will see with branching forms, and more massive growth forms like porites are present. Some branching corals can survive further into the warmer water, but there are way fewer in the warm water than outside in the cooler area.

All that to say, the warmer environment is not the ideal one, but yes life can be lived at a faster pace in the warm environment. I forgot to mention that there is a lot of bleached coral and retracting coral inside of the lagoons. It would appear to me that the warm water is not the optimal condition for many species.

 

[ReefSlice]

I live in South Florida. The gulf and Atlantic near the reefs very rarely goes above the low 80s in the dead of summer, and temperature drops as you descend. I highly doubt they are ever in water hotter than 82, and in the winter it is mid/high 70s. Large swings are also much more dangerous than just high temperatures. I'm sure there's some corals in shallow lagoons with higher temps, but the temperature stays that way and the density of corals is definitely lower in these areas.