day/night Temp swings

psusocr

psusocr

Active member
At night the coldest my tank will get is 76 degrees, during the latter parts of the day my tank temp gets around 79.5 at highest, is this too much of a swing? should i add another heater so at night i can keep it within two degrees?

My corals look fine but im wondering if they can look better yet..

TIA
 
Most people try to keep thier temps stable, and others have a 3-4 degree swing with no notable problems, it's whatever you're comfortable with.
 
SPS love stability.

I keep my tank at constant 80.0

many report to have 6-10 degree drop with no Ill effects, but who is to say they wont get better results if they didnt have that dip, right ? many think as long as tank hasnt crashed, there are no ill effects ...
 
Allmost said:
SPS love stability.

I keep my tank at constant 80.0

many report to have 6-10 degree drop with no Ill effects, but who is to say they wont get better results if they didnt have that dip, right ? many think as long as tank hasnt crashed, there are no ill effects ...
Click to expand...

Thats kind of my question , although i dont have a large swing, and my corals seem very happy, they grow very nicely and coloring is coming along would i benefit from keeping it more constant say wthin 2 degrees? or doesnt it matter if im within 4? is their any documentation on temp swings in reef tansk or specifically SPS tanks?

Thanks to all
 
My tank has always swung about 4 degrees every day in the summer. It would take a lot more effort for me to tighten it up. I would have to add a chiller. So I let it be.

SPS's seem to do pretty well with some slow temp drifts. I played on a shallow coral reef near Kona that swung a couple of degrees during the day.

That said, if it is an easy fix, why not get a tighter control?
 
Yeah it is easier to heat a tank then cool it. To keep a stable temp of lets so 78 and you are seeing a temp swing like mine of 3 degrees, I can set the heater to 78 so it wont be lower than 78. However when the light comes on it will still heat the water 3 degrees to 81. All with safe ranges. Now to keep the temp from rising past the wanted 78 you will need a chiller. Keeping in mind that 76-82 is considered the best temp range and only having a 3 degree swing that is over several hours. I consider that very stable and natural. The natural reefs see a few degree temp swing from night and day, more in shallow reefs.
 
allsps40 said:
Yeah it is easier to heat a tank then cool it. To keep a stable temp of lets so 78 and you are seeing a temp swing like mine of 3 degrees, I can set the heater to 78 so it wont be lower than 78. However when the light comes on it will still heat the water 3 degrees to 81. All with safe ranges. Now to keep the temp from rising past the wanted 78 you will need a chiller. Keeping in mind that 76-82 is considered the best temp range and only having a 3 degree swing that is over several hours. I consider that very stable and natural. The natural reefs see a few degree temp swing from night and day, more in shallow reefs.
Click to expand...

while I agree with ure point, a chiller is not always a must !
my room temp is 75, tank 80.0, and when temp goes above 80.0, the fans kick on (over the sump and the main tank) which will keep the temp at 80.0.
one heater is set to 79.9, another at 79.5 to slow down the temp rate of change.

I get about 79.5-80.5

but I agree they are all in safe range ...
 
I agree sps like stability, but keeping your temp at the exact same temp or within a degree just makes them much less resilient for when the inevitable swing does occur, and or you ever ship them

It can be stable and swing a bunch every day. Temp swings of 6+ on the wild reefs are commonplace. I mechanically swing all of my systems 4 or so daily(78-82) and actually feel it is important to do so

jmo
 
I had this issue for years until I bought the reefkeeper lite. It keeps my temps a lot more stable all the time. Much better than the thermostats on the heaters (I keep them at 80 so they'll go on when they power up).

When it hits 79.1, the fan goes on until it gets back to 78.8. When it hits 78.6, my heaters go on until it hits 78.8. If the heat is too bad and the fan can't keep it down, my chiller goes on at 79.3 and goes off at 79.0 to help out the fan (never goes on in the winter). Can't remember how I set it up exactly, but it seems to stay between 78.6 and 79.1 all the time.

Best $100 I've spent so far on my systems.
 
even on an apex, my temperature swing is still 1-2 degrees depending on the outside temperature.

Our pH in our reefs will change based on the aquarium temperature swings. It is nearly impossible to have a stable pH with a large temperature swing. Although the sea's temperature changes from night to day and season to season, the oceans pH does not.
 
SPSEMPIRE said:
even on an apex, my temperature swing is still 1-2 degrees depending on the outside temperature.

Our pH in our reefs will change based on the aquarium temperature swings. It is nearly impossible to have a stable pH with a large temperature swing. Although the sea's temperature changes from night to day and season to season, the oceans pH does not.
Click to expand...

good point about PH !

I do not buy the argument about "corals will be more ressistant" if temp swings are wide ... they COULD evolve that way in the oceans over millions of years ... but I do not think a home aquarium is a place for any coral to evolve ... but I ca be wrong :)

Edit :
so I tried to find how much PH changes if temp was to drop 10 degrees, its 0.01 !
here is a good calculator for equilibrium PH. keep all stable and change value of temp ...
http://www.hamzasreef.com/Contents/Calculators/EquilibriumPh.php
 
Last edited:
The search button reveals so much information, I am surprised people fail to use it.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1933036&highlight=temp


We are blessed to have a resident expert in this topic.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/search.php?searchid=4040906

It is a fact that in the wild corals go through a temperature variation, sometimes quickly and suffer no damage from it. The reason is they are acclimated to it. I feel sorry for anyone who keeps their tanks at one temp or only lets it vary by a few degrees. Inevitably something will happen and that temp norm will be disrupted and the corals are not acclimated to variation, bleach then die. Let your tank have some temp variation, you can acclimate them to a wide degree of variation, just don't do it too quickly.
 
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