Temperature Question

[deweyhowell]

I've read several of the historical threads here on temperature variation and it seems likely to me that some temperature variation is ok and perhaps even beneficial for corals, allowing them to develop tolerance for unexpected swings.

After reading these threads, I set up my apex with a couple of degree range and because of the temp of the basement room this time of year, this results in a couple of degree oscillation over about 2.5 hrs. See graph. Is this ok? or is it better to program a tight temp in the day time hours and a couple of degree lower but still tight temp range over night. Perhaps I am over thinking it and either way will be fine?

 

[amcvay1979]

That's perfectly fine. I keep mine at 78, but you'll see others who go up to 83-84 at times. Every time I've gone over 80 I get STN in Acro colonies, so I dropped to 78 and everything is doing great. You could even go down to 74 and still be fine, but I wouldn't go lower than 77 personally.

 

[deweyhowell]

I was wondering more about the oscillation up and down every 2.5 hr throughout the day rather than the set point.

 

[amcvay1979]

Most tank temps do fluctuate. Even if they're set on a controller it's near impossible to maintain exact temp for 24 hours, too many outside variables like air surrounding the tank, AC/Heat kicking on in the house, etc. I'd argue that oceans don't maintain a steady temp either, night time in certain seasons almost have to be cooler than full sun, so I wouldn't worry about that small of a fluctuation at all.

 

[deweyhowell]

Great. Thanks!

 

[hkgar]

Here is my range. You can clearly see the impact of my lights. I started a 3 day lights out on https://www.reeftronics.net/graphns.php?probe=01&period=week&member=garykthe 5th to combat a bit of Cyano

https://www.reeftronics.net/graphns.php?probe=01&period=week&member=garyk

 

[Baccara]

I have a similar temperature oscillation. On the apex I have a set on temp of 77 and set off at 78 for the heaters. It gets up to 80 in the summer and I haven't experienced any issues with the fluctuation.

 

[o2manyfish]

That bit of temperature swing shouldn't cause any issues. Is the 79.5 max because that is your heater set point, or is that your equipment and lights that are bringing the tank to that temp?

Dave B

 

[deweyhowell]

It is the set point. My equipment isn't adding much heat to the system. The low point in the variation is reached as a result of ambient room temperature when the heaters shut off.

Here is the Apex program

Fallback ON
If Tmpx4 < 78.1 Then ON
If Tmpx4 > 79.4 Then OFF