Temp. for SPS tank

[Allmost]

Hello all,

so what is the lowest temperature anyone keeps their SPS tank ?

[Reef264]

Lower Temp= Lower Algae growth.(76-77F)

That being said, the store I work at keeps our SPS tank at 76-77F, and the Colonies look great, and grow at a great rate, even the slow growers I.E. Setosa, Tenuis..

Pigmentation varies with Temp as well, Higher Temp gives a little better color.Supposedly...I can't really tell.

-Ray

[Allmost]

Hello Ray.

what makes you think lower temp and less algae grows ? what is the reason behind that ? algae flu ? :P lol jks

lower temp lowers metabolism of all animals, so yes, growth of anything living in colder temp is slower than of that in higher temps, but that goes for everything :) not just algae.

thanks though..

[Reef264]

Hello Ray.

what makes you think lower temp and less algae grows ? what is the reason behind that ? algae flu ? :P lol jks

lower temp lowers metabolism of all animals, so yes, growth of anything living in colder temp is slower than of that in higher temps, but that goes for everything :) not just algae.

thanks though..

Yep, thats pretty much it right there.

-Ray

[trinity1012]

i keep mine 78-82,

[Allmost]

yea I always had my SPS tank in range of 80-82.

due to some deep water fish, I have lowered it to 74-75 now, its cold ! lol

but just wanted to get a feeling of what the low limits are, I dont want to keep lowering it till my corals die you know lol

so far, no drop in alk usage, which means no drop in coral growth. but I think at 74 I am getting close to the lower limits.

[Acronic]

Personally i would go to 76 max. Thats just me though. I keep mine at 79.5 and like that the best

[trinity1012]

ya wow 74..thats nippie...lol
color is good in ur corals,how about PE? notice anything diffrent

[Finland]

I had lowered mine to the 73-75 range and some of the corals did not respond well. I lowered it down over about a weeks time from 78-81. After a few weeks or so, I had an a.nasuta and a staghorn start to stn on me. Also had a seriously ticked off duncan. Most corals were fine w/ good pe, but a few were stressing. I guess it depends on the type of coral. I raised the temp back up and now everyone is happy. I did end up losing the nasuta and had to frag off the stag. There were no other changes to the tank and parameters were stable. I can only attribute the problems to the cold temps.

[aquaph8]

How low are you thinking about going? Its amazing how cold it feels by lowering just a few degrees huh?

[MammothReefer]

I've been running mine @ about 77, of course it does swing a bit. Lately I've been thinking of moving it up to 78. I like to give it enough breathing room up or down from the "extremes" in case something goes wrong. I try to do that with all my parameters shot more for peace of mind then optimal. That way if I mis-test or a probe goes out of calibration I have some wiggle room.

[coralreefdoc]

How low are you thinking about going? Its amazing how cold it feels by lowering just a few degrees huh?

Brett. Nice to see you around, hope all is well with the rebuilding phase :)

... Especially after washing your hands in warm water !

yea I always had my SPS tank in range of 80-82.

due to some deep water fish, I have lowered it to 74-75 now, its cold ! lol

but just wanted to get a feeling of what the low limits are, I dont want to keep lowering it till my corals die you know lol

so far, no drop in alk usage, which means no drop in coral growth. but I think at 74 I am getting close to the lower limits.

Chingchais' DSPS Reef runs consistently between 73-75, if Im not mistaken/outdated in my knowledge of his system ...

With that said, I would never advocate going under the 22.5/72* threshold

I had lowered mine to the 73-75 range and some of the corals did not respond well. I lowered it down over about a weeks time from 78-81. After a few weeks or so, I had an a.nasuta and a staghorn start to stn on me. Also had a seriously ticked off duncan. Most corals were fine w/ good pe, but a few were stressing. I guess it depends on the type of coral. I raised the temp back up and now everyone is happy. I did end up losing the nasuta and had to frag off the stag. There were no other changes to the tank and parameters were stable. I can only attribute the problems to the cold temps.

While a weeks time was great thinking, temperature swings of 5-10*, especially decreases, ideally need to be implemented over a few weeks time. 1-2* a week !

[coralreefdoc]

Unless you're getting into the new temperate reef trend :D

[jarrodsanborn]

My parents maintained my 60g tank for 5 months. When i moved it to their house, the heater never got plugged in.....
Temps were 70ish the whole time, but all inhabitants except for a feather duster survived. After the initial shock, everything adapts or dies. I now keep my 180 @ 72 in winter to reduce cost, and 82 in summer

[reeferlover]

my tank was running at 74 for a couple weeks because my new thermometer was cal wrong based on my stick on thermo, so yeah i turned it up to 76. but the corals were doing great. my few lps acans one got ****ed so pulled them and just going sps but honesly my colors and polyps were awesome. i mean two weeks from 76 to 74 then slowly back up to 76. but who knows if my colors arent as good you will see me going back to 74. my fish were fine. the only reason i caught it was because i was adding new coral. and the lfs water felt warm compared to mine

[reeferlover]

i would not flucuate 10 degrees. and i would not go above 76 for sps or 78 for others with mixed, and 73 was my low end by accident

[Newbie Aquarist]

[/QUOTE] Chingchais' DSPS Reef runs consistently between 73-75, if Im not mistaken/outdated in my knowledge of his system ... [/QUOTE]

But he also has some deep water species in his tank also.



Sent from my iPhone using Siri and Tapatalk.

[sirreal63]

Probably some good if not essential reading. Most people really run their tanks on the cold side, unless you have species that are adapted to a cold temp there is no good reason to let it be in winter temps year round.


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/reefs-magazine/78026-great-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 intentionally 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

[REEF SMAC]

Mine fluctuates from 77 to 81 pretty much every day. Often dipping to 76 in the winter and will often get to 82 in the summer.
Never seems to be an issue.

[Moser]

Mine fluctuates from 77 to 81 pretty much every day. Often dipping to 76 in the winter and will often get to 82 in the summer.
Never seems to be an issue.

Daily swing from 77-81 as well.

Mo

[sirreal63]

Typically I run 78/79 to 83/84 in summer and 77/78 to 82/83 in winter, I don't worry too much about the temp. I have run as high as 85/86 on previous tanks with no issues but I won't recommend that to anyone not would I recommend a constant temp, which is very unnatural and can be detrimental to the corals.

[reeferlover]

im lucky my sump is on the basement floor purposly so i only have to heat not chill. so i keep my tank close to constant. but my thermometer lets it get to 75.5 then kicks on and heats to 76.5. its set to 76. i like the tank parameters to flucuate as little as poss

[REEF SMAC]

Thanks for those links sirreal63.
Very interesting reads.

[SpinyReef]

Mine runs between 80.5 and 83 during winter. During summer it's 82-84. I've never had any issues I could attribute to temp.

[sirreal63]

One of my favorite Greenbean36191 threads. It pretty much explains a lot of why we do what we have done, we read it in a book and never questioned it. We should always question what we are doing and why. To those here who have never heard of him or had the luxury of his posts over the years, do an advanced search on his username, there is a wealth of knowledge to be gained from this man.
www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1977164

[sminker]

Mine swings between 76-82 daily. Been like that for years.

[johntran216]

good to know a lot of people are having these 5 degrees swings.. I was starting to worry. I think a good ideal temp is 78F.

[reefSTC]

I keep mine at about 78 but due to the winter weather, it drops to 71 during the night. May add a 2nd heater to try to keep the temp at 78 constant.

[coralreefdoc]

ReefSTC. Consider adding that 2nd heater to kick on at say 75*, in order to keep the temperature dispersion/variations more consistent, versus keeping the temp at a set value which never fluctuates ...

Constant temps, over prolonged periods of time, are extremely unnatural and as eluded to/touched upon earlier can lead to the quick demise of the coral specimen were they to somehow fluctuate

[reefSTC]

will do, thanks for the tip

[Allmost]

hmmmm so what thermometer do you guys use ?

I have 3 glass ones, 2 that stick to glass. my RKL Itemp, and 2 other digital ones.

I used them all last night .... I got readings from 73 degrees all the way up to 79 LOL

I have no Idea which one is right, so Im gonna go with the RKL which would mean my temp is around 75-76.

corals are doing great.

[AcroporAddict]

IME the basic $1.99 suction cup glass thermometers in the DT are pretty accurate as a double check on controller accuracy. I use RKEs and RKLs on my various tanks, and for a very good accuracy check I have an infrared temperature sensor, the type used by auto mechanics.

I actually saw the IR temp sensor I have being used as an Engineering tool prop on the old Star Trek "Enterprise" series. The type I have below is by Raytek and can be purchased online for $45-$60. Very accurate.

http://i.ebayimg.com/t/Raytek-Mini-Temp-Thermal-Heat-Gun-Thermometer-/00/s/MzAwWDQwMA==/$T2eC16JHJHYE9nzpcv-QBQtpUPBe2w~~60_12.JPG