what is your reef tank temp?

[bang guy]

I believe generic statements are invalid. Some corals need cool water, some need warm. You need to know your animals, where they are from and the conditions there if you are to provide them a suitable habitat. Most of the successful corals in the hobby are very adaptable but not all.

 

[bang guy]

Originally Posted by steveweast
This has always been a controversial topic....and the result is that each individual has to decide what is best for himself. These are a few things that I considered before I decided on 78 for my reef...
1) the lower the temp, the higher the dissolved O2.
2) the lower the temp, the less disease
3) the lower the temp, the slower the waste production from fish.
4) When I was diving in Tahiti last fall (their summer), my temp gauge never went above 80.
5) I never trust "experts" that have crappy tanks, limited experience in sps, never dove a reef, think surface temps are the same temps at depth, and lives in Montana.
6) But, one of the real reasons that I keep my tank at 78 -79 is from a post awhile back on -- from Walt Smith. Walt is one of the main suppliers of our corals.....he has no agenda, spends lots of time in the South Pacific, and doesn't really care what we do. Here is his post from that thread.....which all should read if you're interested in this "heated" topic. (sorry for some of the corrupted data)
Thank you for stopping in Steve! Good stuff.

 

[kzoo]

I keep mine around 79 but since it has got hot it was getting around 85 I got a small fan from walyworld and now it is back down to 79.

 

[ophiura]

I do appreciate the information from Walt. Thanks for sharing. It is a decision that everyone needs to make based on their own experience and thoughts. It is most important, IMO, to know your animals and know where they come from....but ultimately it will come down to what is working for each hobbyist. And there is a wide range of experience of what works and why.

 

[steveweast]

It is often very difficult to know where your stock is coming from....unless your LFS or equivelent is transhipping in the critters.....and you have a biotope tank for a particular region. At the wholesalers in LA, the stock's orgin is frequently confused or just plain wrong. I've picked up fish for my cold water reef that came from the cold southern Australian waters....but since the point of export is in Cairnes Australia (a warm water port)....the wholesalers think the fish came from warm water too and pass along the misinformation. That's why I've adopted the medium range of 78 -79 for my warm water reef....a little warm for some corals....and little cool for other corals....but, adaptable to both. In my neck of the woods, my LFS mostly are stocking Tonga and Fiji.... the cooler locations. As long as you pick a temp and try to keep it stable, you'll be fine.....but inching up to the mid 80's is just too close to bleaching temps for me.

 

[fedukeford]

i keep my reef around 73-76

 

[ophiura]

Yup. Point taken there. And identifications are often quite wrong anyway. I've always been happy with my tank between 80 and 82 and sometimes higher. May not work for others for sure.

 

[bang guy]

One catch 22 for hobbiests is available O2.
If you have lots of waterflow the energy will be converted to heat, lowering how much O2 the water can hold yet replacing it faster around the corals.
If you have low waterflow you can keep the temp low easier, increasing the amount of O2 the water can hold yet without the flow the corals can be starving for O2.
I think this happens in Fiji occationally manifested as "The Doldrums". A high pressure weather pattern flows over Fiji raising temps and calming the waves. The extra heat and lessened waterflow is a huge double-whammy for Acropora in that area.

 

[firedog]

For the summer I try to keep it around 78-80, using fans to keep it cool. I prefer to keep it cooler for the O2 saturation.

 

[steveweast]

I'll buy that Bang Guy....but, in our tanks, we have complete control over the temp by just having a chiller. I have little sympathy for those folks that refuse to put a chiller on their tank to protect their investment. To have hundreds or even thousands of dollars worth of livestock....but, not being abe to afford a $400 -$500 chiller is inconcievable to me. It's just a case of the cart in front of the horse. The more that you have invested....the more redundency and chilling capacity you should have. A chiller is a much more effective insurance policy than a fan. I could never put a price tag on the peace of mind my chiller (and its back up) gives me when the forcast is for a week of 100 degrees.....chillerless folks start panicing..... I just break out the suntan lotion.

 

[moby]

Steady 78 degrees, and a chiller is THE only way to go!
BTW, thanks Steve for the help, I've got the "madness"!

Moby

 

[bang guy]

Well Steve,
All I can say is that no amount of theory or facts can argue with success. You will win that debate every time with just a simple picture
I use my basement to cool my water but unfortunately for me it's a bit too efficient and I have to add a lot of heat. Luckily for me it's cheaper and easier to heat water than to cool it.

 

[steveweast]

Some folks can get by without a chiller.....an example would be your situation with your tank located in a cool basement....another would be a house that is AC'd all year long. I believe, though, that any SPS dominated tank should be chiller protected against those 100 degree days.....there's just too much invested not to Every state in the union (except Hawaii) has had, and will have, 100 degree days..... 100 degree days and SPS don't get along too well. LPS and softy tanks are much more forgiving in that area.

 

[bonebrake]

Interesting information guys!
:joy:

 

[sand125]

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.jk its80/82

 

[am3gross]

80-83

 

[connor]

81-83.4 in my tank

 

[tonypal85]

Summer Time: Ranges from 79-82 throughout the day
Winter Time (in jacksonville, Florida): 77-79

 

[bullitr]

Search
Saltwater Aquariums
Reef Tank Temperatures
How High is Too High?
Most aquarists with reef tanks understand that maintaining their corals within the proper temperature range is important in order to keep them healthy and growing. If the temperature is too low or too high, the zooxanthellae algae, which most corals require for survival, will die or vacate the polyps. When the algae leaves the coral, it exposes the white base calcium carbonate of the coral, it is sometimes called Coral Bleaching. You may recall the news stories about coral bleaching in some of the world's coral reefs, which reportedly began in the early '90's.
So, what is the proper temperature to keep your reef tank at? Many LFS keep their tanks at 75-78°F and recommend to their customers that they do also. A number of OLS coral shippers recommend keeping your tank temperature at 82°F.
With so many recommended temperatures, what is the best temperature for your reef tank? Perhaps the best way to make a decision is to look at what the temperatures were when your corals were in the wild. If you look at Coral Reef Regions in the World, you will see where corals grow in the wild. If you compare this to the indicated temperatures in Sea Surface Temperatures section of the Hurricane Tracker and the map in NOAA's Sea Surface Temperatures, you will see that a vast majority of coral reefs are found where water temperatures are between 80°F and 89°F.
Perhaps a more pertinent reef tank temperature question, particularly during the summer months, is "how high is too high"? When do you really need to crank up that electron sucking chiller you paid a half a month's wages for?
The first place to start is to determine where your corals originally came from. The Indo Pacific, Caribbean and Red Sea are where most of the corals in the aquarium trade are collected. Perhaps the easiest way to find out is to ask the LFS or OLS where you purchased your corals where the corals were shipped from.
Since most aquarium corals are collected from the Indo Pacific and the Caribbean where the water temperatures are routinely between 85 and 89 degrees Fahrenheit, perhaps you may not need to get too concerned as long as your tank temps do not rise above this level.

 

[steveweast]

There a few problems with the above post IMO...
1) sea surface temps are meaningless since most corals are collected at depth...maybe 10 ft....maybe 100 ft....and temps at depth are not sea surface temps.....at least they are not according to Walt Smith's post above or my temp guage when I dove the South Pacific.....or from a Florida NOAA biologist who posts frequently on another board about his diving experiences in the Carribean.
2) Few coral are collected from the Carribean. Most of our corals come from Fiji, Indo, Tonga
3) the wholesalers really don't know or care where the corals come from. I visit the LA wholesalers often......and the coral's source is last on their list of priorities. The source is really only truely known if a LFS imports (tranships) from the collectors themselves,
4) Many collection sites funnel into a main distribution area....which them go to exporters....which then go to importors (usually through LA)....which then go to your LFS. The actually source is dubious....let alone the actual depth at which your coral was collected.
This temp controversy is really a thing of choice...there's no magic number.....pick your poison. There are no hard fast rules.....I just have one word of advice.....do your own research and be wary of the "experts" who can't show you personally the fruits of their advice. I've said my peace and detailed how I came to my decision.....which is all that I wanted to offer. It's hard to refute the data that is from the actually person who collects our corals. Data from a source like that is, to me, more valuable than from any other. By for now all.