Experience with Acros at 71-72.5 degrees

[Logzor]

Over the past several months I've been battling an RTN issue in my system, acros would slowly RTN, by approximately 1-2 mm per week. The problems were discussed at length on another thread.

After looking at every possible issue I found the problem was my temperature probe. It was off by about 4-5 degrees.

I'm looking for others who have either by accident or on purpose ran their sps tank at 71-72.5 degrees to confirm that this was indeed the problem.

Basically the acros would begin to RTN evenly around the base, slowly working up the colony, until the entire colony was consumed.

This has been going on for months and I'm sure the temp has been incorrect the entire time.

Can anyone else confirm similar symptoms when running their reef at these low temperatures? I basically want to nail this down as the cause, but I want to find another similar case to confirm.

 

[Reef264]

With the temperature that low, I would 99% Agree That was the culprit.

 

[t4zalews]

If it was continually that low then yes. I had my tank in a room with no heat for about a year and during the winter the tank would drop to about 65 then back up to around 77 during the day. Everything was fine.

 

[Logzor]

Yes it's been held there continually, probably since September 2011. Before that it was probably warm enough to raise the temp a bit, the tank is in the basement so it's fairly cool year-round.

 

[BillyC]

By the title I thought you meant gluing acro fags at at 71degree angle haha!

 

[Met3112]

Im no expert on this issue but it seems like there has got to be acropora growing in the wild at lower temps like that.

I know when I go diving the water temp will drop pretty low... Just a thought.

If the coral is receding at only 1-2 mm per week I would think that would be STN and not RTN.

 

[Jeremy Blaze]

My tank has gotten that low several times when I was just burning wood for heat. No problems much to my suprise.

 

[Logzor]

Im no expert on this issue but it seems like there has got to be acropora growing in the wild at lower temps like that.

I know when I go diving the water temp will drop pretty low... Just a thought.

If the coral is receding at only 1-2 mm per week I would think that would be STN and not RTN.

Yes I meant STN rather than RTN.

 

[aqua80]

Just out of curiosity what kind of temp probe failed ?

 

[MammothReefer]

Wondering myself.. may be time for me to check mine.

 

[Allmost]

a good friend of mine keeps temp at 73-75 MAX

he has some deep water angels

not much growth, [could be related to other factors as well, like his reefing] but he is able to keep SPS alive and glowing

no Idea about 71 though.

 

[Logzor]

Aquacontroller JR temp probe. It's probably 4 years old by now. I'm thinking once I calibrate it, it will be fine. I corrected it by 1 degree to ramp up slowly.

As we know with SPS, things are fine until you cross a certain threshold. Just like your SPS might be fine at 6 DKH, once you cross into 5.5 things start to die...quickly.

It could be the same for temp, while 73 is fine once you hit 71 you begin to see problems.

 

[sirrus6]

I've kept my tank at 72 - 74 oF for a few years for fish-related reasons. I've had no systematic problems like you describe with my 30+ acro colonies, but there are some acros (strawberry shortcake, granulosa) that I could never keep despite several attempts. I've raised the tank temp to 73 - 75 oF about 1.5 years ago. My acros grow more slowly than the same coral (frag) in someone else's tank at > 77 oF, but the colors are fine in my tank (14K MH lighting). At this point, I have several colonies that are softball-to-football sized, following 5+ years of stable growth under these lower temp conditions.

Ken

 

[Logzor]

I've kept my tank at 72 - 74 oF for a few years for fish-related reasons. I've had no systematic problems like you describe with my 30+ acro colonies, but there are some acros (strawberry shortcake, granulosa) that I could never keep despite several attempts. I've raised the tank temp to 73 - 75 oF about 1.5 years ago. My acros grow more slowly than the same coral (frag) in someone else's tank at > 77 oF, but the colors are fine in my tank (14K MH lighting). At this point, I have several colonies that are softball-to-football sized, following 5+ years of stable growth under these lower temp conditions.

Ken

Thanks for your input, did your acros encrust well at the lower temperatures?

The difference with your system is that your temp reached 74 degrees (you mentioned the 72-74 range), mine didn't get far past 72.5 due to the controller, I suspect it got down to 71 but it could have gone slightly lower. I think that's a fairly big difference, especially at the low end. The question is, is it enough to cause STN?

How quickly did you raise the temp in the aquarium? I'm debating on how fast to raise mine.

 

[sirrus6]

Chris Jury has published an article on coral survivability and temperature that you might want to check out - I forgot the location, but it might have been in the Manhattan Reefs magazine. Chris is a professional coral researcher who also is a hobbyist, and he contributes to the hobby through his writings both in the scientific literature and in hobbyist publications. If I recall correctly, he suggests that 72 oF is the lower limit for out type of reef building acros to survive - that is why I raised my tank temp by a degree. I raised the upper limit by 0.5 oF increments spaced 2 weeks apart (74 "“> 75 oF), and then raised the lower limit on the same schedule (72 "“> 73 oF) using my Aquacontroller.

My encrusting acros encrusted well, and the less encrusting ones less so - that is, they did what they always do, as observed in the higher temp tanks of others. I attach some pics of "name" acros from my tank; there are many pics of these particular hobby standards around, so you can decide for yourself if low temp was a burden. The tank lighting is 14K MH's (I don't like the "blue" look, so no actinics or higher MH bulbs). The pics were Photoshopped to the extent of cropping, smart sharpen, and exposure (< 20%), but not Photoshopped for color, hue, saturation, etc.

Red Dragon

Atlantis Raspberry Lemonade nasuta

Pink Lemonade

Purple Monster

Oregon Tort

Pink Panther

Ken

 

[Logzor]

Amazing corals! Looks like the lower temps didn't impact them at all.

It sounds like my temperature dipped slightly too low, below 72 degrees, based on what you're saying. I think this is why I didn't have any quick losses, all of the acros STN'd at a very slow rate.

 

[NautilusQ]

My heater breaks like 3 weeks ago and my tanks been in range of 71-72.5. It used to be at 76-79 range. I only have 1 which have STN, out of like 50 frags, and those frags continue to grow and encrust. I feed heavily though at night and have an ultra low flow the whole night. I'm not sure if it is temp related or the low flow, but I will keep close attention. I live in Northeast and my tank is in basement.

 

[Logzor]

My heater breaks like 3 weeks ago and my tanks been in range of 71-72.5. It used to be at 76-79 range. I only have 1 which have STN, out of like 50 frags, and those frags continue to grow and encrust. I feed heavily though at night and have an ultra low flow the whole night. I'm not sure if it is temp related or the low flow, but I will keep close attention. I live in Northeast and my tank is in basement.

Thanks for your input. At first I only had one coral STN. Then a few weeks later another started, then a few weeks later another. One acro took 5 months to STN halfway up the base, all the while it had great growth on the tips.

This kept occurring until almost all of my acros showed some sign of STN. Some only show like 1-2 mm area around the base, while others have almost completely died off.

It's just so strange that it took so long for some of these corals to die off.

 

[samuelkl]

Could be there wasnt enough light?

 

[karsseboom]

My heater breaks like 3 weeks ago and my tanks been in range of 71-72.5. It used to be at 76-79 range. I only have 1 which have STN, out of like 50 frags, and those frags continue to grow and encrust. I feed heavily though at night and have an ultra low flow the whole night. I'm not sure if it is temp related or the low flow, but I will keep close attention. I live in Northeast and my tank is in basement.

Why didn't you just go buy a new heater as soon as you found out?