How cold is too cold?

[saveafish]

My house stays 69 in summer and 72 in winter. My sump will be in the basement. It stays 67 year round. In the past I always used MH lights and AC pumps. Was always fighting cooling. Now with new times, I'll be looking at T5's/LEDs hybrid. With DC pumps. Along with the sump in a cooler place.

Has any others seen or experienced cooler tanks due to using AC pumps and LEDs, to the point its real cool.

Is this possible to use heat from AC pumps and MH in change of heaters?

 

[Vinny Kreyling]

Heat from MH & heaters will make some difference upward.
How much is a guess because every scenario is different.
With an open top & MH my chiller ran 24/7.
With LED it never ran but the home was warmer than yours.
Just went through 4 internal pumps because of heat issues, both AC & DC.
Finally had to get a Red Dragon & forget any issues.

 

[thegrun]

I set up my tank to be as energy efficient as possible running all LED lighting with efficient pumps and as a result I spend a lot of money running my heaters to keep the tank warm. Your T-5's will help warm the tank to a point where you are probably close to the sweet spot of not so efficient as to require excess heating, but efficient enough to not require a chiller assuming you do incorporate fans in your design.

 

[saveafish]

I set up my tank to be as energy efficient as possible running all LED lighting with efficient pumps and as a result I spend a lot of money running my heaters to keep the tank warm. Your T-5's will help warm the tank to a point where you are probably close to the sweet spot of not so efficient as to require excess heating, but efficient enough to not require a chiller assuming you do incorporate fans in your design.

That sweet spot is what I'm looking for. I don't want to run all energy savings and power up a 220v 4500watt heater. I remember many years ago so many said you have to keep the tanks at 76deg. Now many push 80deg.

 

[thegrun]

I let my mixed reef tank drop to 76 in the winter. If there is any slowdown in coral growth it is marginal. My clownfish do stop laying eggs when the water cools to 77, but honestly I think that's a good thing.


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[Uncle99]

I run 76-77 year round, no more, no less.
It's as low as I dare, likely could squeeze another degree or two, but that may lower defenses of the fish....if I keep a consistent 73 in the house year round, which makes it easy to keep a 1 degree variance all year, even in light of the heat waves.

 

[AlSimmons]

74, 75 with a broken heater used to work in CA. Getting to the shallows slowly was the key though.

 

[Gorgok]

I run 77-78 all the time, though over this last winter i lost heat in the house (and for texas it got cold... the damn driveway froze) and the tank went to i think 68 degrees before it rebounded. I had wrapped the stand in blankets and put spacer heaters (probably 2000w or so) to blow into it, dropped in another heater (2 250w normally plus maybe a 200w) and turned on 2 250w MH lights it by that point. Nothing happened to the tank as best i can tell.

 

[Fredfish]

As a real world data point, when I dove the GBR in Oz, the water temperature was a constant 25C, (77F). That was winter temperatures. I believe the temp went up by a few degrees in the summer.

From memory, high lattitute reefs temperatures can go into the high 60s for extended periods and corals still survive, though the diversity of corals is greatly reduced.