72 F is to HOT for a tropical reef tank
- Thread starter badgers
- Start date
- Status
LOL
80 to 85 degrees, all four of them.
------------------
Larry M
Visit Reef Central's Home Site at:
www.reefcentral.com
80 to 85 degrees, all four of them.
------------------
Larry M
Visit Reef Central's Home Site at:
www.reefcentral.com
The most diverse coral reefs are in areas where the temperatures average about 84 degrees F. Corals do better at those temperatures as this is where they have evolved.
If you want to see for yourself do a web search on SST (Sea Surface Temperatures) and check out the NOAA satellite views of the temperatures yesterday (or any time you want on some of the sites). By the way, sea surface temperture extends down to about 100 m.
Cheers, Ron
If you want to see for yourself do a web search on SST (Sea Surface Temperatures) and check out the NOAA satellite views of the temperatures yesterday (or any time you want on some of the sites). By the way, sea surface temperture extends down to about 100 m.
Cheers, Ron
Sloeber
Active member
http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/toga-tao/realtime.html
is this the one you were tlaking about, ron?
82 - 84
HTH
henry
[This message has been edited by hcs3 (edited 10-07-1999).]
is this the one you were tlaking about, ron?
82 - 84
HTH
henry
[This message has been edited by hcs3 (edited 10-07-1999).]
Recently, our local marine club had a speaker. I forget her name, but she was talking about temperatures on the reefs(and may have been getting her info. from the site Henry listed as it sounded very much the same) and when she stated that the surface temperatures were always around 84-85, she said something like "so why would we want to keep our tanks any lower than this?" Someone else spoke up and said "your graphs show that as the surface temperature, surely the temperature under water where the corals actually reside on the reef is lower. What are the temperatures at those levels?" She was basically stumped on this question and it never got resolved. Anyone have an answer to this?
BTW, my tank is 81 at night and goes to 82 and occasionally 83 during the day.
FOX
------------------
members.xoom.com/KoryFox/index.htm
BTW, my tank is 81 at night and goes to 82 and occasionally 83 during the day.
FOX
------------------
members.xoom.com/KoryFox/index.htm
Fox--If you re-read Ron's reply you see he says the surface temps extend downwards a long ways. I had read this before somewhere else, but I wasn't aware it was as deep as 100 meters.
------------------
Larry M
Visit Reef Central's Home Site at:
www.reefcentral.com
------------------
Larry M
Visit Reef Central's Home Site at:
www.reefcentral.com
Thanks Larry I missed that. That's interesting. This leads me to another sort of related question. Maybe I should start a new thread, but I'll ask here first and see where it goes.
I have one lfs that I've been frequenting for about 5 years or so. They have a 125 display that has, according to the owner been up around 6-7 years and all the fish have apparently been there since it's inception. I know they have all been there since I've been going there. The tank has alot of fish including yellow tang, purple tang, hippo tang, chevron tang, powder blue tang, clarkii clown, pink skunk clown, maroon clown, bi-color angel, several green chromis, 3 or 4 fiji blue damsels, flame hawk. I'm probably missing a few. Anyway, this tank is a reef and is kept at 74 degrees with a chiller. I notice that the corals change from time to time, but my question is about the fish. They never seem to fight with each other at all and the tangs, in particular are some of the healthiest looking tangs I've ever seen. They also seem, and this is what I'm wondering about, to be almost lethargic, like the don't swim as much or as fast. Maybe it's just my imagination, but they almost seem to not have as much energy as fish kept in higher temps. Does this make any sense, or is it just my imagination?
FOX
------------------
members.xoom.com/KoryFox/index.htm
I have one lfs that I've been frequenting for about 5 years or so. They have a 125 display that has, according to the owner been up around 6-7 years and all the fish have apparently been there since it's inception. I know they have all been there since I've been going there. The tank has alot of fish including yellow tang, purple tang, hippo tang, chevron tang, powder blue tang, clarkii clown, pink skunk clown, maroon clown, bi-color angel, several green chromis, 3 or 4 fiji blue damsels, flame hawk. I'm probably missing a few. Anyway, this tank is a reef and is kept at 74 degrees with a chiller. I notice that the corals change from time to time, but my question is about the fish. They never seem to fight with each other at all and the tangs, in particular are some of the healthiest looking tangs I've ever seen. They also seem, and this is what I'm wondering about, to be almost lethargic, like the don't swim as much or as fast. Maybe it's just my imagination, but they almost seem to not have as much energy as fish kept in higher temps. Does this make any sense, or is it just my imagination?
FOX
------------------
members.xoom.com/KoryFox/index.htm
This temp fluctuation is an area of huge disagreement, and some can get pretty adamant about it. I agree with Henry on this, my 65, for example, fluctuates from 80 to 83 almost every day, more on other days. I don't even turn the cooling fans on anymore unless it starts to creep over 84-85. It's been runnning that way for 6-8 months now.
Fox, JMO, it makes sense to me that the fish would be lethargic since they are cold-blooded animals and that temp is probably not their natural environment. Maybe that's why he keeps it so low? He wants them lethargic?
ignatz, if you can raise the temp slowly, of course that would be the safest route to take.
------------------
Larry M
Visit Reef Central's Home Site at:
www.reefcentral.com
Fox, JMO, it makes sense to me that the fish would be lethargic since they are cold-blooded animals and that temp is probably not their natural environment. Maybe that's why he keeps it so low? He wants them lethargic?
ignatz, if you can raise the temp slowly, of course that would be the safest route to take.
------------------
Larry M
Visit Reef Central's Home Site at:
www.reefcentral.com
From what Ive been able to piece togeather from all the posts on temp is that things happen faster at the higher (82-86) temps, and that by keeping the temp in the 76-78 range, things slow down and allow you to catch a potential prob before it gets out of hand. Perhaps hyposalinity should be accompanied by a slight raise in temp?
------------------
A mind is like a parachute, it only works when its open.
------------------
A mind is like a parachute, it only works when its open.
Hi Folks,
For what it is worth, I keep my tanks at 84 F, which is about 5 deg F cooler than the temperatures I encountered diving in Palau in 1984 and 1991. These are documented as the richest reefs in the world in terms of the diversity of corals. Make your own conclusion.
Much documentation of variation in coral reef temperatures exists, but on most reefs the temperatures on the reef flats (these are the Acropora thickets- but have relatively few other corals) can fluctuate up to 20 deg. F per day. It doesn't hurt those animals. On the outer reef faces, probably the fluctuations of 5-6 deg per day are common.
Stability in tank temperature is a highly over-rated concept.
Salinity varies a bit, too, from about 33ppt at the low end to about 39 ppt at the high end. The average is about 35-36ppt.
Why anyone would want to keep their system continually stressed by maintaining a hyposaline situation is beyond me. It makes absolutely no sense to do this, either physiologically or ecologically and will cause the organisms to use some of their limited energy that might be spent for other things (growth, fighting diseases or parasites) to adjust their own cellular osmolarity.
Cheers, Ron
For what it is worth, I keep my tanks at 84 F, which is about 5 deg F cooler than the temperatures I encountered diving in Palau in 1984 and 1991. These are documented as the richest reefs in the world in terms of the diversity of corals. Make your own conclusion.
Much documentation of variation in coral reef temperatures exists, but on most reefs the temperatures on the reef flats (these are the Acropora thickets- but have relatively few other corals) can fluctuate up to 20 deg. F per day. It doesn't hurt those animals. On the outer reef faces, probably the fluctuations of 5-6 deg per day are common.
Stability in tank temperature is a highly over-rated concept.
Salinity varies a bit, too, from about 33ppt at the low end to about 39 ppt at the high end. The average is about 35-36ppt.
Why anyone would want to keep their system continually stressed by maintaining a hyposaline situation is beyond me. It makes absolutely no sense to do this, either physiologically or ecologically and will cause the organisms to use some of their limited energy that might be spent for other things (growth, fighting diseases or parasites) to adjust their own cellular osmolarity.
Cheers, Ron
- Status
Similar threads
