reef tank safe @ 80 degrees?

[gabbys125reef]

well the halides are hot like everyone said.
Please see my sig at to what I am using.
my heaters are set at 77 degrees but after leaving my lights on 4 hours it arose to 80 degrees. is this safe? do I need a chiller? cheapest chiller to get if I need one?
thanks!
I must admit the light does bring out some very interesting things on the 2 mushrooms I have and my live rock!

 

[b_ball12_99]

Get a nice size fan would be the best choice to start with. If that don't work then looking into raising the lights a little higher if you can and/or a chiller. Chillers tend to be $$$ from my understanding.

 

[gabbys125reef]

the lights are 10-11" off of the water now and I installed a 4" radio shack fan on an end of the canopy which blows 65 CFM, tonight I am installing another fan to see if it helps.
my next option will be to cut off the rear board of my canopy (the canopy is like one big box other than a few slots for wires and pumps on the rear and about a 5" opening all the way across the top)

 

[boxfish]

I wouldn't stress 80 degrees unless you see some problems.
I'm an avid diver and see water temps of 80 plus at depths of 60' plus and its this hot six months a yearimagine the temp at 10-20 feet, and the corals look great.

 

[up north hermit]

I have my heater controller SET to 81 degrees. 24/7 constant.
No, I wouldn't get a chiller. You are just fine. IMO, 77 is too low for a reeftank. But there are lots of differing opinions on this. My tank is thriving however, at 81.
HTH My humble .02
Hermit

 

[bluewater]

97% of all reefs worldwide are at an average
temperature of 81 degrees farenheit. Read
it in some national geographic awhile back.
So I keep my tank at 81 and everything
does better than at 76-78.

 

[dhe420]

I have a 58 sps with 2-250 mh and my tank is around 84 and everything is growing like weeds..

 

[silent bob]

the temp. rising from 77 to 80 or more is bad, i keep my temp at 80, but it is a constant temp., in the ocean the temp. rises no more than 1 degree, and that is in extreme cases, a rise in temp. of 1 or 2 degrees may cause tempature fragile inverts and fish to die, i had 2 dusters die because my heater crapped and it raised 2 degrees, so try to keep it at a minimal rise in tempature, if you can't you might want to consider returning the halides and buy a power compact retro-fit kit, or using metal halide pendants, goodluck!

 

[ironreef]

my temp is @80-84 all day no problems a few degrees up or down daily isn't going to do a thing maybe in an unstable tank or a sudden change. I keep sps ,lps no harm.

 

[justyn]

Hey gabbysreef, what ever you do, DON'T cut the back out. It will not make your temp go down much. Heat rises as we all know and will just only seep out the side. Best bet is to get a fan. When i put my metals on, I installed a fan in the canopy and the water temp didn't raise a single degree. You also need a inlet on the other end to suck in the cool air.

 

[bluewater]

And I thought my temperature was bad...
It can fluctuate from 78-86 in a day. Thats
like a 5% occurance. But during those times,
stuff seems to be normal. Haven't had deaths
yet.

 

[@knight]

if you do opt for a chiller consider using a dorm refrigerator with pvc tubing wound through it. you can usually pick one up and do it yourself for a lot less than a chiller unit.......just a thought
i saw it on a website a while back and thought it was a good idea, a lot better than payinf $700 for a chiller, plus it will give you a place to keep your frozen food near the tank.

 

[gabbys125reef]

wow, you all know your stuff! It's such a delight to have a place for this valuable info! As you all probably know your LFS (learning your lingo)haha will sell you anything.
Didn't get around to another fan last night, getting one tonight to see what it does, although I am no longer worried after talking to you all. After waking up this morning with the lights off all night I saw my temp was on 79 so maybe it's remaining nearly the same!
Justyn,
on the opposite end of the fan I have a big cut-out for my skimmer so there is a place for it to suck air.
Is there any way I can post pics on here?

 

[silent bob]

ol' iron reef is inncorrect about temp. flucuations not killing stuff, but on the lighter side you can also try reversing a fan so that instead of pushing air out it can suck cool air in, and you would have a fan pulling air and a fan pushing air, good luck!

 

[ironreef]

well my tank is full of sps and in the morning it @77 and in the evening its about 84 hasn't killed anything in over 10yrs I've kept corals. If it was sudden maybe. alot off ppl I know have the same. My heater stays at @77. I've had my tank average 86 in the summer never has losses either. I have corals from 1" frags that are over one foot in lenght. I only have about 5 large sps corals the rest are LPS and softies. I keep a few different speciec cuz when they get big there to much aggression and they need room. maybe why some ppl have bad luck with 40 different species of sps??? they can suffer from rtn at higher temps. But to say its wrong I guess you don't know very many reefers. I can link you to at least 10 who have temp flucuations. keeping a tank within 1-2 degrees is to much work when you have halides and no chiller= been they. I don't worry. If you don't have good circulation that maybe a factor but my turnover is atleast 25x+ to I get good o2 in my tank. Man my purple tip acro must be getting to hot cuz it almost purple all the way down to the base. i hate to frag it cuz but it grows way to fast.But at least when my tank crashes i know where to get more.
[ October 17, 2001: Message edited by: Ironreef ]

 

[gabbys125reef]

since I turned my visi therm heaters down to 74 the heat is usually around 78-80 NEVER over 80. I am so glad I didn't need a chiller!!