How are your tanks doing....

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7793258#post7793258 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Elite
I hate to see the PG&E bill for this month.
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I will be doing this when my bill comes

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112 friday and 114 today in Paso Robles tank is 84 with no chiller just fans. a/c set at 79 we had a 5 hour power failer during the hottest patr of day and tank stayed at 84 even though house got up to 87.
 
Evaporative cooling via fans (as long as you can keep makeup water in balance) is by far the cheapest and easiest way to keep tanks cool. I have one of those 7.99 fans for each tank and pull them out each summer/fall. However, I must admit, I have a chiller keeping my tank no warmer than 82.5F but I use the fans whenever I can.
 
I'm getting rid of all my stuff, including my chiller.... so I want to start hearing how no one could POSSIBLY live without a chiller!



....let me know if anyone is intereted.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7795726#post7795726 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by headshrink
I'm getting rid of all my stuff, including my chiller.... so I want to start hearing how no one could POSSIBLY live without a chiller!



....let me know if anyone is intereted.
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LOL nice Hijack :-)

I dont know what my temp got to yesterday since i wasnt home, but its suppose to be as hot as yesterday, today so I will see....
 
But also considering what DR. Ron said is that its good to let the temp fluctuate to keep it more like the real life scenario and not keep it at a constant temp. He said the ocean can go anywhere from mid 60's to mid 90s and corals and fish will adjust to it...

Hmmmmm.
 
I have an open top tank and run a small clip on fan over my sump. With the house AC set at 78 or so the tank usually sits at about 81-82 or so.

This weekend I set up a little step ladder with one of those black Honeywell fans pointing at space between the lights and the water, because we were heading out for the day and weren't going to be back till later that evening. When we got back I couldnt believe the tank temperture was 79! It's the poor man's chiller at $15.
 
I am not 100% convinced of what Dr. Ron said. While the temperature may fluctuate, is that fluctuation ideal? Take the following analogy:

I live in an environment where the temperature fluctuate anywhere from the 40's (outside) to mid 80's (heated office) during the winter. During the summer, the temperature would fluctuate from high 70's (office environment) to low 110's (outside). While my environmental temperature fluctuates and I am still alive, I would be MUCH happier if my environmental temperature was constantly in the 70's.

So while the coral's natural environment temperature may fluctuate, does that mean that a stable temperature is bad? Not trying to say that what Dr Ron is wrong - I am just saying that there could be another point of view.

To be honest - his talk was quite interesting from a science point of view. However, I found some of his statements too broad or I disagree with them. Not to say that they were wrong, but I had some questions about them. But then again - that's what scientific theory is about. :D

BTW - I thought his talk was WAY TOO LONG for a club meeting. However, it would have been a great college freshman seminar class where the class could get indepth and debate issues. :D

Minh
 
I have always felt that most animals are pretty capable of temperature fluctuations within a range. I think that our tanks are not capable of providing an environment that allows the animals to deal with the change. For example, many tanks have high CO2 levels and low oxygen levels already and as our tanks heat up it results in animal deaths. And how the temperature affects the bacteria in our rock and sand would be interesting to know also. Adding an ammonia spike to a low oxygen environment can't be good.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7802736#post7802736 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Reefugee


BTW - I thought his talk was WAY TOO LONG for a club meeting. However, it would have been a great college freshman seminar class where the class could get indepth and debate issues. :D

Minh
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Yes it was very long, I did notice someone go ZZzzZZ....



But on topic,

yes im sure they are happier with a stable temp, I do see your point. Water does take the longest to heat up and cool down, but i have been noticing the water to fluctuate very fast. I didnt run my fan at all yesterday and it didnt get past 82.5

as for open ocean, I dont think it adjust as fast as our tanks... bigger mass of water... That was one thing i was thinking, thats why i brought it up, i wanted peoples views on that....
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7803062#post7803062 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Nu2SW
as for open ocean, I dont think it adjust as fast as our tanks... bigger mass of water... That was one thing i was thinking, thats why i brought it up, i wanted peoples views on that....
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Warm and cold currents sometimes cause large instananeous temperature change in the ocean and the animals have evolved to deal with it. Overall, the temperature changes are usually very gradual though.
 
Soo........ a chiller would actually duplicate those "cold currents." Did I mention I had one for sale?

:P Shameless, I know.
 
Minh-

I agree that his presentation was longer than we are accustomed to. One thing I noticed when he was presenting about the temp stability...the data graph he used supporting his information was based upon surface temperatures, and it clearly said within a depth of .5 meters in the graph caption. That's not very deep! In retrospect, I wonder if he was talking about temperature swings over a period of time, like maybe seasonal swings and such. I think some of us may have interpreted the information as daily swings.

To be honest - his talk was quite interesting from a science point of view. However, I found some of his statements too broad or I disagree with them. Not to say that they were wrong, but I had some questions about them.
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What didn't you agree with?

Thanks again for bringing the equipment.
 
Marc,

The one thing I didn't agree with him on was that water temperature fluctuate as much as he mentioned. Like you, I noticed during the presentation, he mentioned that the water temperature fluctuate widely, but the temperature was surface temperature only. At 25-50 ft, does the temperature fluctuate as much as he claimed? When he showed the graph, I was think that in my server room, the temperature probe closest to the AC unit fluctuate much more than the temperature probe that is farther away. To me, he presented a lot of data that wasn't complete and biased towards his point of view. Not to say he was wrong, but his data was biased. It's almost like someone saying that we breathe oxygen. So oxygen is good for us. Therefore we all should breathe 100% oxygen. Well, breathing 100% oxygen can be quite toxic under the right condition. One thing that I learned in grad school is that you can use statistics and data to prove anything if you are willing to manipulate it enough or only present certain data.

Minh
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7805319#post7805319 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Reefugee
Marc,

The one thing I didn't agree with him on was that water temperature fluctuate as much as he mentioned. Like you, I noticed during the presentation, he mentioned that the water temperature fluctuate widely, but the temperature was surface temperature only. At 25-50 ft, does the temperature fluctuate as much as he claimed? When he showed the graph, I was think that in my server room, the temperature probe closest to the AC unit fluctuate much more than the temperature probe that is farther away. To me, he presented a lot of data that wasn't complete and biased towards his point of view. Not to say he was wrong, but his data was biased. It's almost like someone saying that we breathe oxygen. So oxygen is good for us. Therefore we all should breathe 100% oxygen. Well, breathing 100% oxygen can be quite toxic under the right condition. One thing that I learned in grad school is that you can use statistics and data to prove anything if you are willing to manipulate it enough or only present certain data.

Minh
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You know my wife and I Were speaking of the same thing....

As an example

His hermit crab explanation that they are not good to have in your tank....I've heard tons of people and LFS say hermits are good for cleaning up leftover food and such. But he said not to have them which so contradicts things I've heard in the Past.

it was a little interesting, but why were we told of the end of the dinosaurs and the big meteor crashing into the ocean that killed them. I didn't understand why he was talking about that and those pigeons.

I didn't get too much info in what we could do to try and help.... I kinda got the idea of more that the reefs are in trouble and they are all going to die away. But I don't remember anything on what we could do....
 
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