Do corals generate heat???

speg

speg

Active Member
I've looked a little on the net and couldn't find anything about this.. I'd really like to message Ron Shimek and see what he has to say....actually I'll do that now.
I've been having an issue with my little nano tank getting hotter and hotter. I've been using frozen water bottles and ice cube top-off techniques to attempt to keep it at a stable temp.
I thought that the problem could be from the two pumps/protein skimmer inside. I've turned the skimmer off and noticed the problem still exists.
I then thought maybe it's because of the lights...the temp still rises even during the night hours.
The temp of my apartment is set to 70 degrees and I never see it get more than 72 degrees in the house (small apartment).
The temp seems to increase pretty quickly when left alone and every couple of months it seems to increase a degree(ish). The only thing I really do to this little nano (besides care) is place more coral. I have 33 different types of coral and probably 40 or so total, seperate frags. I'm wondering if the coral is actually able to generate some heat and is causing the increase as they grow/thrive. Is it silly to suggest that a living/growing creature is able to produce heat?
 
gilbert

gilbert

Member
Well, humans have body heat, so maybe they do. Also, if the coral is restricting flow in your tank at all, it could raise your temperature.
 
nikesb

nikesb

Active Member
i would agree that corals do generate heat but nothing that should heat up a tank. i would suggest the problem coming from a closed tank and not having enough gas exchange
 
speg

speg

Active Member
I don't think they restrict any flow since the power heads are aimed around them. All I know is that it seems like when I add new coral the tank seems to heat up...lol...I'll have to just keep watching it I suppose.
The temp says it gets up to 87ish degrees. The coral are as happy as they've ever been though. 87 is the point that I really try to get some ice in there to cool things off and the temp ends up dropping to around 85.9
 
speg

speg

Active Member
Originally Posted by gilbert
http:///forum/post/3281852
Wow!! And I get worried when mine goes to 83 (I try to keep it around 80)!
lol 87 is on the edge of "norm" but the coral aren't unhappy because the temp doesn't go from 80 to 87--it only jumps slightly.
 
mr.clownfish

mr.clownfish

Active Member
my temp is always at 78 and i have high heat generating lights with no fans and some coral... idk i guess im lucky =)
 
gilbert

gilbert

Member
Originally Posted by Speg
http:///forum/post/3281905
lol 87 is on the edge of "norm" but the coral aren't unhappy because the temp doesn't go from 80 to 87--it only jumps slightly.
Oh. Still, though... Don't your fish have trouble breathing? The higher the temperature, the lower the oxygen, right?
 
speg

speg

Active Member
Originally Posted by gilbert
http:///forum/post/3282104
Oh. Still, though... Don't your fish have trouble breathing? The higher the temperature, the lower the oxygen, right?
How hot do you really think reef water is? It's certainly not room temp :)
 
speg

speg

Active Member
So Ron Shimek himself answered my question. Here's his reply:
The short answer is no. The long answer is somewhat different. Many metabolic chemical reactions generate or, more properly, liberate heat. This is not surprising as much metabolism, in the long run, involves breaking down sugars by combining their constituent parts, carbon and hydrogen atoms, with oxygen to create carbon dioxide. Exactly the same amount of energy is released as if the sugar molecules were completely burned in a pure oxygen environment. In mammals, these metabolic reactions occur so frequently, that our bodys' cells actually warm up from it, and we generate heat.
Likewise in a coral each metabolic reaction liberates some small bit of energy. However, the metabolic rate is very slow relative to mammals, this energy simply is not measurable.
Bottom line, your animals are not warming up your nano cube.
Any machinery in the system, powerheads, etc., will dump heat, and in some cases this is a lot of heat into the aquarium. Nano cubes are so small, this heat can build up in the water. So... motors and such are the culprits here, not critters.
 
speg

speg

Active Member
Originally Posted by gilbert
http:///forum/post/3282352
Yeah, but it's not 87, either!

It's not NOT 87 sometimes.
Did you know that sometimes a shallow reef could actually come out of the water for a couple hours during the day? I wonder how hot those coral get when they're in direct sunlight with no chance of any cool-down.
 
cranberry

cranberry

Active Member
What pump is going when the skimmer is turned off?
Is it sitting in direct light? Or close to any area that does?
 
speg

speg

Active Member
I have one of the biocube skimmers, stock pump that comes with the jbj nano, and a koralia nano.
Also, the stock lighting which is 2-24w pc/moonlights.
I put a small amount of filter on the side of the top to keep it opened slightly and I also ripped the front "flap" off as soon as I got the nano cube. When I first got the nano it wasn't a problem and the electronics haven't changed--only the livestock.
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
A water pump using 20 watts will heat the water similar to a 20 watt heater. I just wanted to mention that because a lot of hobbiests seem to believe that the energy somehow magically escapes after it's converted to waterflow.
Since your room temp is so much lower than your tank you should be able to just point a fan right at the tank to cool it.
 
speg

speg

Active Member
Originally Posted by Bang Guy
http:///forum/post/3282547
A water pump using 20 watts will heat the water similar to a 20 watt heater. I just wanted to mention that because a lot of hobbiests seem to believe that the energy somehow magically escapes after it's converted to waterflow.
Since your room temp is so much lower than your tank you should be able to just point a fan right at the tank to cool it.
Yeah, I have no doubt that the pumps generate a lot of heat. It's just weird how the problem seems to have been evolving even though the room temp has stayed exactly the same all season.
At first the temp wouldn't go higher than 82.
Slowly (over months) has risen up to 87 and has reached a record of 87.5
At first, the night temp would drop a degree or two, but lately the night temp is actually increasing the temp.
I may need to try a fan if I can't keep the problem under control. So far I've been able to manage it with frozen water bottles.
Thanks for the replies.
 
cranberry

cranberry

Active Member
Have you cleaned your pump recently? They can generate more heat when they are ready to be taken apart and cleaned.
We removed all of our JBJ stock pumps, they were all too hot from the get-go.
 
speg

speg

Active Member
Originally Posted by Cranberry
http:///forum/post/3282588
Have you cleaned your pump recently? They can generate more heat when they are ready to be taken apart and cleaned.
We removed all of our JBJ stock pumps, they were all too hot from the get-go.
That's what I was thinking of today at work. I don't think the koralia needs cleaning but maybe the stock pump. I'll try cleaning it out and see how that works. It's still pumping just as good as when I first started running it.
 
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