What temp. do you keep your reef at?

[ACBlinky]

I try to keep our tanks at 78F summer and winter, with as little fluctuation as possible (though I don't believe small swings are nearly as stressful as we tend to believe).

This morning I woke up and noticed that the 90g was at 74.5F - eek! We forgot to turn the heaters on, and the apartment got very cold overnight; even with a 200W heater on, the tank was freezing. I'm going to need another heater; clearly this one isn't enough on its own.

The highest temperature I've seen in one of my tanks was off the scale, probably about 88F, during a horrible heat wave when our A/C conked out for a week. Some of the corals bleached, but nothing died.

I tend to have issues keeping the tanks warm enough, even in the summer (my hubby likes his A/C) so I don't have a chiller, but fans are a great help on hot days. Right now I run a small fan over the sump when the MH lights come on, until they turn off; it's enough to keep the temperature steady - it seems to cool the water in proportion to the amount the bulbs heat it. In the summer, I had the same fan running from lights on to lights off with the actinics, to provide a little more cooling time, and it worked well.

 

[dc_909]

82

 

[Reefer Steve]

82-84F
Summer can mean 86F

 

[ccorpse27]

I try to keep mine around 80. It goes from around 79 - 82 depending on how hot it is outside.

 

[hyperfocal]

80 in the morning, rising to ~82 by lights-out. IIRC, higher temp (within reason, <85 or so) yields faster coral calcification.

 

[greenbean36191]

78-86. It's gotten to 90 once, but 88 isn't uncommon.

 

[bassettmd]

my fluxes daily from 76-82

 

[AMIFL]

greenbean; what do you have in your tank? They are okay at 88? Thats some tough stuff.

 

[fishysteve]

78 - 80

 

[sherm71tank]

77-78. A few years back my tank was 90+ on several occasions. My GBTA split each time the temp got that high.

 

[greenbean36191]

Everything from zoas to Acropora, none of which has ever had trouble with the temps. It's not especially tough though. 88 isn't an ideal temperature, but it's at the upper limit of the normal range for most corals. As long as you don't normally try to keep your temp unnaturally low or stable and the tank isn't overstocked, it's not an immediate problem.

 

[HDAlien]

I keep mine at 75.5 - 77 is that too low? My tank is mixed softie/LPS/SPS.

 

[hugodboss]

Ive been reading and ive found that 77 to 78 is the best because it prevents curtain bacteria from forming and i also heared that its better for your coral. plz correct me if im wrong....

I started at 80 and went down to 77

 

[speedo2wet]

Both of mine stay in the 78-82 range. reef does get natural sunlight through the sun lights. I manage with fans.

Now my brother-in-law whom did not think about heat exchange did not put anyholes in the canopy for his 400gallon and his temp sits around 86-88 with the top open and 2 frozen liter bottles in his fuge

 

[DrBegalke]

anywhere from 77 to 86 depending on which tank/the time of day/the time of year...

 

[JFK_Jr]

80-84 for my tank...

 

[m2434]

78-84 (Sometimes in the same day)

 

[murraycamp]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10981921#post10981921 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by hugodboss
Ive been reading and ive found that 77 to 78 is the best because it prevents curtain bacteria from forming and i also heared that its better for your coral. plz correct me if im wrong....

I heard this as well starting out in the hobby, but it seems to be a myth. Borneman states:

There are relatively few tropical coral reefs that are in the 70's except perhaps slightly more subtropical ones during winter or those that happen to exist in areas of persistent upwelling or colder currents. Few of the animals, especially corals, are collected from these areas. Temperatures on the reefs where are animals are collected are generally always above 80 and generally below 88. Daily swings of from 0-12 degrees F are not uncommon and can happen several times a day. Temperature is truly not one of the things to worry about in tanks unless you can say what strains of zooxanthellae are present, where the corals were collected from, what species (and thus their environmental sensitivity), synergistic stressors (as corals do well near their upper thermal limits) and to ensure that temperatures do not exceed, say, 90F for extended periods of time. A swing from mid70's to 90 (for example, a heater malfunction) that lasts for a day will probably cause problems for some animals if they are acclimated to a constant temperature. The problems with losing animals from temperature related events is what happens when they die in a closed system and most of the mass tank losses from such events is probably not a direct result of high temps alone. But, I also feel that given the multitiude of things that can go wrong in tanks and the fact that they are tanks withouth the inherent variability of the ocean, that pushing temps to the uppper limit where they might be happiest in the wild may not be ideal in tanks. So, I think 82-84 is right where you have some safety margin in upper thermal limits and within the range where most tropical reef corals and those collected for the trade do best.

(see: http://forum.marinedepot.com/Topic75685-9-1.aspx).

However, I think Delbeek & Sprung say 78-80, to provide a safety cushion to maintain dissolves oxygen in the event of power failure.

FWIW, Borneman's reasoning makes more sense to me. I try to limit my tanks to a 3 degree spread between 80 and 83.

 

[UrbanSage]

80-83F
Sub80's is too cold

 

[Ralph ATL]

Well, after most post with Eric Borneman & Jonathan Bertoni, I have since raised my temp to 82. Sprung & others give it an awesome argument, but common sense says 82 is it!



I target 82 F as the base temperature for my tanks. I haven't seen any reason to go lower for a tropical reef tank. I agree with Eric's analysis. There's a lot of studies in this area, if you want to do some research.


__________________
Jonathan Bertoni

Hobby Experience: 8 years
Interests: martial arts, reefs