safe Temp swings for SPS Poll

[rogergolf66]

as title says Im looking for safe temp swings in 24 hour period. poll at top of the page

 

[Allmost]

safe as in no stress ?

or safe as in "it wont kill all corals"

many have large temp swings, and it causes no ill effects as they put it, besides some color fading and growth pattern changes ... to some others that is an ill effect !

voted for 1-2 degrees.

 

[rogergolf66]

Well let's go with no stress. I had a 3.5 degree swing max temp was only 80.5 but I lost a coral. Can't seem to find any other reason that caused it. I normally let temp swing 1.5 deg. I always thought 4 degree was safe though.

 

[Allmost]

hmmm yea my tank has hit 86 even last summer when my AC broke, for a day only but didnt loose anything, just some color loss.

 

[a.browning]

It's not about the amount of the temp swing, it's about whether or not the coral has been conditioned to handle temp swings.

 

[CHSUB]

It's not about the amount of the temp swing, it's about whether or not the coral has been conditioned to handle temp swings.

how does one condition a coral to handle temp. swings?

 

[rogergolf66]

It's not about the amount of the temp swing, it's about whether or not the coral has been conditioned to handle temp swings.

Ok then how much more of a swing can it handel more then it is conditioned to?

I was normally 77-79 temp made it to 80.5. I just am looking to rule out anything else. If it was temp swing then I will stop searching for any other reason this coral RTN. That was the only abnormally in parameters with in a week prior to the mystery RTN.

 

[Stackemdeep]

It's not about the amount of the temp swing, it's about whether or not the coral has been conditioned to handle temp swings.

^ +1 Shallow pools and lagoons have large temp swings, but the coral are used to it.

 

[Peter Eichler]

^ +1 Shallow pools and lagoons have large temp swings, but the coral are used to it.

So do typical reef's, often dramatic and sudden. Day to night swings of several degrees are also pretty common. Essentially, stable temperatures are less natural then having frequent swings. I've played around with temp swings quite a bit and I've struggled to see any real evidence to suggest that they're harmful to corals or fish as long as they're within the natural range of what a coral is used to.

 

[xtlosx]

It's not about the amount of the temp swing, it's about whether or not the coral has been conditioned to handle temp swings.

In my experience, this is absolutely the case. I had a 60 cube two years ago, that was packed full of nice SPS with no chiller. The tank relied on the house AC being on to keep it cool on real hot days. On days that it wasn't terrible hot, we kept the windows open, and the tank would hit 82-83 in the days and I'd crack windows open in the area overnight to bring it back down to 77 by morning.. Rinse and repeat for two years, never had color loss, growth was excellent and everything thrived.. Should the swing have happened once or twice in that span it would have been terrible, but honestly, I think it being consistent allowed them to handle the swing with no problems.

My current tank is in the basement, so it's much more stable at going between 77.5-80F maximum.

 

[brad_G]

My tank went from 72 to 76-78 everyday this winter and I have see no signs of stress. Heck there were a few days when it got below 70! The only corals I lost were a hyacnus that was paper white when I received it and a planna that took 72 hrs to ship.

Color and growth seem to be just fine. If the color gets any better I will be surprised....and I have seen growth of a half an inch branch in 2 weeks on what I think is a stag. I have no idea if that is fast growth for a 2 inch frag but I am happy with it.

Other people have mentioned natural reefs sometimes have large temp swings. It seems like when I researched it 10° was common. Besides at low tide think of how hot acro can get sitting in full sun!

I feel you can condition corals to temperature swings by gradually going below the norm. But I also think 80 is too warm. I could be wrong but it has been working for me!

 

[Dapg8gt]

I voted 2-3 degrees but thinking of it now I should have put the highest one.

Over the years and my different tanks I haven't noticed any negatives from temp that are obvious to me. My new tank is pretty stable due to the controller. But honestly I just switched the temp from 76 to 80 with no I'll effects. Just changed the setting on the controller =)..

My frag tank is in my garage and runs a wide variety of temp. Sometimes it's 75 degrees and during the rare hot days on the coast it has gotten up to 86 and back down to 76-78 during the night.

Through this I may have had some unnoticeable color loss or maybe slowed growth but It hasn't killed any sps that I can think of. Up until this recent tank I've never had a controller and used metal halide so I had the highs and lows for 10+ years of the extreme in the frag tank and medium swings in my old 45g for 13 years indoors. I do have a fan hooked up to pop on at 84 above my sump though just because I can now lol.

 

[GroktheCube]

After reading opinions from a few folks that study this, I decided a few months back to allow my tank to swing up and down about 4.5 *F per day. I've observed absolutely no ill effects in coral, fish, or inverts.

Edit: To be more specific, the heaters are set to kick on at 79, and kick off at 83. Tends to vary between just below 79 and just over 83. It's common for corals to see larger swings than this on a daily basis in the wild.