What Temp do most people keep SPS Tank

[exonn]

77-81, still need to make cooling automatic, for now its allways on in summer and heater heats if its too cold, cooling with a fan only.

 

[r-balljunkie]

i used to be a naysayer when it came to heating my tank for years. after living out on a spec in the pacific ocean, and seeing what actual temps are on the reef, i raised mines up to 80 to at least close the gap a bit between actual conditions verses captive tanks

 

[LoJack]

78.5

 

[jerpa]

76-78 in winter. 78-84 in the summer.

 

[dgasmd]

72-77F I'd their natural environment temps. They do ok at higher temps and grow faster too as you all have probably found out. The temps ranges you are all putting between 78-84f is mainly for convenience and electrical cost savings, not because it is necessarily better for the corals. Higher temps are also associated with massive bleaching, diseases, and a much tighter margin of errors!

 

[sirreal63]

I am curious where you got that information? 72-77 is lower than the majority of reefs around the world.

Read this series of articles, it may shed some light.

I'd humbly suggest that reading this series which I recently wrote for Reefs Magazine could be useful. It's a four part series entitled "The Great Temperature Debate":

http://www.reefsmagazine.com/forum/...eat-temperature-debate-part-1-chris-jury.html

http://www.reefsmagazine.com/forum/reefs-magazine/82353-great-temperature-debate-part-ii.html

http://www.reefsmagazine.com/forum/reefs-magazine/93637-great-temperature-debate-part-iii.html

http://www.reefsmagazine.com/forum/reefs-magazine/100587-great-temperature-debate-part-iv.html

The very short version is that most (i.e., not all, only most) coral reefs have historically experienced temperatures in the neighborhood of ~78-84 F and have spent relatively little time outside this range. Some reefs are hotter than typical and regularly spend time in the 84-87 F range (and even higher in the Persian gulf) and some reefs are cooler and regularly drop down to the upper 60's, or even lower. However, the extremes are poorly tolerated by most corals. Corals from all reefs can thrive at temperatures in the neighborhood of 77-82 F, and most are flexible enough that they can tolerate a few degrees higher or lower for a bit. You can see much more detailed discussion in the series.

Back to the original question: if it were my tank, I'd use a fan on it as suggested. I think a temp of 83 F is fine and pretty much all our critters will thrive at that temperature, but I wouldn't want to intentially let it get much higher. Some corals will tolerate many degrees warmer without problems, whereas those form cooler reefs won't. Putting a fan on should allow better temperature control.

As a side note, greenbean is hecka smart and has given oodles of great advice; I'm a Ph.D. candidate in oceanography here at UH, working on coral eco-physiology; I live about 3/4 of a mile from the nearest reef and work adjacent to one; the temperature there averaged about 82 F today, which is a degree or two F lower than normal for this time of year (and 6-8 F warmer than is normal for 6 months from now, but then our reefs are on the cool side here in HI).

cj

 

[mchammer]

sirreal63 When I bought my coral from Foster & Smith there brief description stated on some of the corals a temp range. It did seem low to me and that's why I asked the question.

 

[sirreal63]

They use the same temp for virtually everything and it is on the low side. I would not tell anyone not to run a low temp but instead ask that you consider why and what you expect a lower temp to offer. CJ's article above is pretty good and he is one of many who have been studying this. Do an advanced search on user greenbean36191 with temp as the keyword. He is an actual scientist who has studied reef temps around the world. He will shed some light on what happens in the wild and dispel some of the myths perpetuated by early books on the hobby. I let my tank run between 77/78 to 83/84 daily and growth is great, colors are great. IME a high temp of 84/84 is perfectly fine and having a variation of temp during the day is as natural as it gets. Keeping a set temp is not good because the corals lose their ability to adapt to a changing temp, which they have dealt with for eons. Keeping a set temp is a disaster waiting to happen, all it takes is a loss of electricity or a heater malfunction to crash a tank.

 

[mchammer]

I read the first article and that was pretty informative I'll read the others when I get a chance. Most of my corals come from Fiji and some are captive raise. My temp is never rock solid it fluctuates from 76-80 but now that I increased the temp it should range from 77-81.

 

[sirreal63]

77-81 is perfectly fine.

 

[animalkingdom]

25.9 to 26.2

you live in america

just playin, but your tank must be totally frozen...lol

79-81 here

 

[ptreef]

76-79 winter daily swings
78-81 summer daily swings

 

[premilove]

77-79

 

[epicurus84]

24-25 c(75-77F). Corals can adjust to the cooler temp easy. Fish get some more oxygen, and i know my LFS keeps them quite cool as wel.

Also it gives me a little bit of slack when the temp gets to high, since i never want it above 27 celcius 81 F

 

[Patrick Cox]

77.5-78.5. I have been thinking about raising it 1/2 degree.

 

[Patrick Cox]

...Keeping a set temp is not good because the corals lose their ability to adapt to a changing temp, which they have dealt with for eons. Keeping a set temp is a disaster waiting to happen, all it takes is a loss of electricity or a heater malfunction to crash a tank.

I currently run my tank from 77.5-78.5 using my Apex controller. Do you think I need to widen my temp range? Like maybe 77-80? Thanks.

 

[sirreal63]

Unless it does it on its own I wouldn't intentionally do it. If you are using a chiller to control the top end then it won't hurt to let it rise a little, just do the change slowly.

 

[64Ivy]

Another 77-79F here.

 

[Patrick Cox]

Unless it does it on its own I wouldn't intentionally do it. If you are using a chiller to control the top end then it won't hurt to let it rise a little, just do the change slowly.

No, I don't use a chiller - unless you count keeping our house at 67 degrees! And my light fixture is a T5 so it does not put out that much heat. I just thought I read where you suggested that keeping too tight a temperature range was not a good idea. I have my apex set to turn the heaters on at 77.5 and turn them off at 78.5.

 

[sirreal63]

Having a daily swing is good,as long as it isn't excessive, having a constant temp can be a bad thing, invariably something will happen, loss of electricity, heater malfunction, chiller breaks, any of these can spell disaster if the corals are not used to a swing in temps.