Water Temp

[Stephen_Triche]

I am curing some dry live rock for my new 65 gal. aquarium. I have been using a heater and a powerhead to cure the rock like everyone recommends but after a 4 days I had the bright Idea to use a geyser pump made by Simer to act as my powerhead in the brute tub. It works very well moving the water around like I suspected but it raised the water temp. to 95 degrees. Is this high temp. going to harm my rock or cause any ill effects that would restart the curing process or make it take longer?

 

[StatelineReefer]

Most tropical reefs reach or exceed this temperature in the summer months with little concern as long as it's not for extended periods of time. Since it's live rock only and no livestock, you should see no ill effects. Cycling may speed up slightly, but not by any order of magnitude. Bring the temp down to the mid 70's, low 80's for the duration of your rock cure.

I would also double check your heater and make sure it hasn't failed in the on position. 95 degrees fahrenheit is a tad higher what your typical pump generates.

 

[thegrun]

Lower temperatures slow down the cycle, but I haven't seen any studies indicating the effects of elevated temperatures. I suspect that anything 90 or above would slow down or even stop the process but that is just a guess. If you are certain the heater hasn't malfunctioned I would definatatly remove the pump to get the water temperature delis 90 degrees. You only need a little water circulation for the cycle.

 

[ericarenee]

The higher temp could be a good thing when it comes to some of the hitch hiker crabs that can be very bad.. they would likely be stressed and maybe die...

 

[themagicman]

My tank rolls between 75-85 throughout the year. No problem...

 

[StatelineReefer]

Lower temperatures slow down the cycle, but I haven't seen any studies indicating the effects of elevated temperatures. I suspect that anything 90 or above would slow down or even stop the process but that is just a guess.

Slightly elevated temps encourage increased metabolic and cellular growth activity in nitrobacter and nitrosomonas bacterium.

They do quite fine at 90 degrees fahrenheit, as that is the optimum temperature, and can survive and tolerate 95 degrees fahrenheit. More than that pushes the top end of the bacteria's thermal limit. 120 degrees fahrenheit is the point where they die off rapidly.

Condensed Version
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11228996

Technical Version
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4433873/