Coral Temperatures... why are ppl telling me to keep such low temps...

C

candymancan

New member
Okay im new to marine aquarium keeping but ive been in the fresh water hobby for 20 years now. So im learning about coral types and just everything in general so bear with me here.

i recently pulled a 27g hexagon my mom bought me as a kid back in 2001 as i needed an emergency hospital tank for discus i had that were sick.. My main hospital tank cracked when a light fell on it.

Anyway i decided to reseal the tank abd try my feet in salt water.. Tanks been running for awhile and i already have my first corals which arr doing great so far. I plan to make this mainly a reef aquarium with just a few fish nothing fancy in the fish department.

Now to my question.. Ive been to a few local reef stores and read online and everyone i talk too in these stores and these websites that sell coral all say to keep reef tabks below 77f. One store the owner said 72-75f...

Now im not an idiot and im trying to wrap my mind around this... Reefs around the world the temperatures are not 72f.. or 73f or 74 or 75f... Where are people getting these numbers from. Yes im questioning everyone who says such low temperatures because i have common sense.

According to online reefs around the world actual measured temperatures average to 82-84f. Some reefs cant get up to the 90s. And yes i know reefs cab bleach from temps that high but my question isnt the 90s.

With average temperatures in the tropics for reefs being 80s why in the hell are people telling me to keep my reef in the mid 70s. Especially that one store owner who said 72-75f.

His name was Ben from a store in fairfax named supreme reefs. This guy had a beautiful setup of coral abd has an award for 2018 best in show for some convention he went too. So im not doubting he knows his stuff.. but those temperatures are down right cold... 72f is COLDDDDD... I mean it seems to me that someone came up with this genius idea that taking a harvested coral living in the 80s to put it in a tank with temps in the mid 70s doesnt know what he.she is doing. Perhaps someone in the chiller business to sell more chillers

My tank is in my bedroom along with my 135g discus tank due to having it in my bedroom my tank was getting to like 82f with a top on it. So here i am taking 140mm computer fans cutting and splicing the wires into a 3A power supply for an ild t.v cable box and mounting the fans betwern my two lights to blow on the water.

It lowered my temps by alot.. With the a.c on in the house temps dropped to 74f.. Which was cold as hell when i put my arm in the tank.. So i put my heater in and set it to 77f so now i have my heater and fans on 24.7 to maintain 77f not to mention i have no top now and the room is getting humid because of this.

Seriously.. Are you guys positive coral need temps this low ? To me it seems wrong and to me it would seem coral would do better in actual tropic temperatures of 82f.


And here you have fish though that have 78f to 82f temp requirements.. but then you got corals that need 75f.. Makes perfect sense that fish need higher temps and corals lower thats why there are 0 fish in the oceon around corals am i right ??:furious:
 
i run mine 79-80f and have never had an issue its also better for the fish as it leads to them being far more active/healthy especially when it comes to tangs etc .. i also agree with you on 72-75 being far too low .. imo ive done research on actual habitats of certain fish species etc me being australian our water is 1.025-1.026 @ 26-27 degrees celsius on average during summer on the great barrier reef which is where my livestock come from so i shoot for that .. i run 1.026 also .. i prefer to keep it around there as i find my corals extend there polyps further & my fish are far more active/healthy.

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72 - 75 isn't unreasonable. i usually run right around 77 degrees, but a few degrees cooler or warmer isn't a huge deal.

i've noticed more problems, algae/cyano/bleaching, when my temps get above 82 degrees.

a quick google search yields this from NOAA:

https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/coralwaters.html

Reef-building corals cannot tolerate water temperatures below 64° Fahrenheit (18° Celsius). Many grow optimally in water temperatures between 73° and 84° Fahrenheit (23°–29°Celsius), but some can tolerate temperatures as high as 104° Fahrenheit (40° Celsius) for short periods.
Click to expand...

as for the fish, i definitely would not be concerned about them. there's few specific species that have exacting temperature requirements in this hobby, and most of them tend to be colder water species.

the reason i like to run in the middle of the range (77ish) is because it gives me a wide margin of error. if the tank starts heating up, i have more degrees until it becomes problematic.

one final note. the temperature itself isn't necessarily as important as the speed with which you reach that temperature. take a new arrival, for example. if they're coming from an 82 degree tank, and your tank is running at 72, that's not a problem, if they have time to acclimate.

same goes for salinity (and to a much lesser extent alkalinity). big swings done quickly can be a problem. but done gradually, can usually be handled.
 
Higher temperature cause metabolism of everything to increase, including bacteria. So higher temperature increases the waste accumulation, mainly nitrate.

Also solubility of oxygen is lower in saltwater compared to freshwater. At higher temperature it is even lower.

These are the two main reasons why people prefer relatively lower temperatures. Keeping it lower gives you a wider margin of error.


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Yea im going to keep my fans off on my tabk.. Ive been litterally tossing and turning sweating in my own bedroom due to the accessive water volumn loss from the fans evaporating the water so quickly.. I meab i habe a 135g discus tank in my bedroom set to 82f but it never cause humidity in my room this excessivly... After i put those fans on my room got sticky and i had to refill the tank daily.

My temps are 76.5f now.. Seem too low to me.. i set my heater higher to around 78f to offset my house a.c . and turned my fans off.. I think ima just stick with whatever temps my tank gets too..

If it goes to 80-82f i dont think ill worry too much... And thats another thing... Natural reefs dont they jabe temperature swings at night to day ? I know oceon is a vast volumn of water but dont shallows cool at night lol.. So why do ppl insist on constant temps.. Wouldnt it actuslly be better for coral to have swinging temperatures like at nigh to day ?

Im just trying to understand this because things dont make sense to me.
 
Another problem is i lost my yellowhead Jawfish last night... No top on my tank because i was worried about the 80-82f temps..

And even though 70% of the tank was covered by ny lights on it.. He still jumped out through the openeing..

I know i csn make a mesh top vs my acrylic top.. but meh..
 
Unless your tank has a very heavy fish population temperatures as high as 82 or 83 should never be an issue for fish or corals. With a very heavy fish load the available oxygen decreases as temperatures increase so temperatures at 84 or above can be a problem. On the low side I do like to keep the temperature at a low of 75. Coral growth seems to slow considerably in my tank as I dip below 75.
 
78 degrees here. I think the more important variable is simple stability. Pick a temp in the suggested range of 75-83 and maintain it.
 
At home my tank average during the summer is 78-79. In my office 75 to 77. Corals do fine in both.
I do like Tripods post
:thumbsup:
 
Bent said:
I would literally sweat to death with an AC set to 78....

Mine is set to 68. 70 is pushing it.
Click to expand...

that was my thought too. :lmao:

if it wasn't wasteful and cost prohibitive i'd be around a cool 65 degrees all summer longer.

i more or less prefer to live in a walk in fridge.
 
Fish stores often keep their temps at the lowest level the fish can tolerate in order to reduce overhead due to heating costs. With a ton of tanks or a whole building, it adds up. Plus there's the benefit from reduced metabolism (less food, less waste). It's likely that the staff don't know the underlying reason for it.
 
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