Help, my temperatures fell to 73 degrees

[GatorReefman]

My wife called me yesterday at work to say my pumps were making noise and smoke was coming from the wiring to the ballasts of my metal halides. I got her to hit the main switch to cut off power to my pumps and lights. I came home 8 hours later to find my sump flooded and tank temps @ 72.5. It seems that there was a serious algae blockage at the overflow filter area which led to the flooding when the pumps were cut off and my check valves did not work properly and allowed back syphoning of the tank water down to the sump. Now all my sps and other corals are stressed out. Last nite, I ran the lights for a few hours allowing the temp to get up to 75. Corals look better today but are still stressed. Any suggestions on what I can do. I added a few gallons of fresh saltwater and a bag of carbon in the sump.

 

[Steve9877]

Cold water

Cold water

Hi,
I had my tank drop to about 73 once due to a heater malfunction. Everything should be fine in a few days. I wouldnt worry too much.

Steve

 

[jay24k]

I'm curious how a tank in florida can drop to 73 degrees. Hell without any pumps on the coldest my tank ever hits is like 78.

I wouldn't worry about it though. They should be fine.

 

[fishypets]

I have received frags and the temp was in the low 60's and everything faired o.k. You will be fine.

 

[Sk8r]

Ditto: and ditto on algae blocking water exit---a real pain in my system: if I get another algae bloom I'm going to work with a toothbrush early. I also had a 72 degree event, and things fared much better than they do with overheating: they just slowed down.

 

[Znut Reefer]

They should be fine. SPS just stress more if the temp goes below 65. So 73 is really fine.

 

[thebicyclecafe]

mmm it's more of the quick change that is a problem, the fluctuations can be deadly if fast enough, raise it up slowly to your regular temp.

 

[AWExotics]

My chiller malfunctioned one time and chilled my tank to 63 ... Found it like that one morning . Disconnected the chiller.. and let the heater raise it back up. It was back to 78 with ing 24 hrs and all was fine....

This one time at ..... a kid dumped some bleach in my tank.. haha...great stuff... Corals are amazing... the LPS covered themselves in a protective slime coating... lost a few Accro colonies. Montis were fine.. All fish died within 20 min... as did all my micro fauna. It was literally snowing dead amphipods and mysis in the tank..... I did 200 gallons of water out of my exitsting systems.... within the 1st hour or 2......then proceeeded to do another 100 gallons in the form of aa sand vaccum from the othersystems into this system the next day.... added some sand to the fuge.... and tank.. added a couple pieces of fresh live rock.... New carbon in the cannister a couple times and all was fine.

Why am I posting this here... not sure exactly.. I think I am rambling but corals are pretty resilinet for being such sensitive animals

 

[marine_freak]

You know there is such a thing as air conditioning in the Florida home that is why his temp dropped!!! Especially if your House temp 68 degrees like my home.....

 

[jay24k]

68...geez! I live in florida and that's why I was saying that. Last few days it has been getting hotter then crap.

I wasn't meaning anyhting bad by it but more a little jab at his cold temp

 

[mikeguerrero]

I've done water changes in a hurry that dropped my tank down to 68 degrees, with no ill effects....

I freak out more when it's above 86 degrees but not colder...

 

[GatorReefman]

I have my house running on ac most days bc of my metal halides. When the power went out, one of my fans( on a different circuit) kept running and cooled the water down to 73. Today, my max water temperature was 79 with the halide lights on. Most corals seem ok except the orange digi- looked brown and green birdsnest. No obvious dying of corals yet but I know there may be a delayed effect. My two fish- an yellowtailed blue damsel and a rock blenny seem ok.