Reef temp dropped to 70* due to bad AC3 controller...

[Radioheadx14]

i noticed my water felt cold even tho the aquacontroller 3 says its 80*F, so I popped in a glass thermometer and it was reading at 70... couldnt believe it so I put a second thermometer in and 70F....

Thankfully everything looks good. all SPS have full PE and colors are fine. fish are fine too. How quickly can I bring it back up to 80?

Also, how can I test if my AC 3 base unit is messed up or if its the temp probe?

[Radioheadx14]

ordered a probe on amazon, should be here wednesday. I will raise it slowly, and use the thermometers thermostat until Wednesday. See if the new probe solves the problem.

[Bogue Chitto]

It should be o.k. if you raise it slowly. IMO fish handle cold better than heat.

[Baccara]

+1 ^ I would think back to 80 over 24hrs should be fine.

[Gagonzalez]

From 70 to 80 in 24hrs is way too fast! I would move it up 2-3 degrees a day max.

Remember, going down in temp is much easier on the corals than going up.

[robertifly]

^1+ should be fine, slow is better

[o2manyfish]

I had a similar situation happen last Monday. Came home to find the system at 70degrees. I immediately manually turned on my main 220v heater. And once I deduced the issues with the Apex, got the rest of the heaters online. I brought the tank from 70 to 77 degrees in about 6 hours.

No issues with fish or corals. Fish population is over 100 fish. I have an Achilles who loves to ich spots, but he's been clean as a whistle.

Dave B

[slief]

1 degree an hour should be safe although I would probably opt to raise it slower if I could. If anything, I'd bring it to 78 over the course of 8-12 hours and then leave it there for a day or so before bringing it up again. Especially if your target is 80. While you can probably stick with 1 degree an hour all the way to 80, going slower never hurts.

As for your AC3, without having a new probe, it's impossible to test it. Get the new probe and verify it against your thermometer. It's likely the temp probe but you never know and the only way to confirm that is with the new probe.