What temp do you run?
 

Im always trying to get the best results, and do lost of reading as everyone else on here does, but what im wondering is what temp do you guys run your tanks at, and have you ever ran a different temp and what were the results??

i currently keep my tank at 80 degrees and in the summer it climbs up to 90, this year im getting a chiller to keep me at a stable 80.

This should be applicable

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/sho...d.php?t=110753

Ive run from 75 to 91. at 75 things grow really slowly. At 91, things die really quickly. Somewhere in between is best. My tank currently runs 77.9-79.4 through the day all year round.

Amadod,

Here is a great article on ideal water temperatures for our reef animals.

http://www.ronshimek.com/salinity_temperature.html

Same found below 76 slow growth. Above 85 fries stuff. I recently ran at 80 but noticed that things just seemed happier at 78-79.

78 F. Ideally one or two degrees higher, but that's what it seems to stay stable at. It's at 77.9 right now and may drift to 78.5 or so.

Anthony

78-79 F

I think the answer is yes, some of us run a different temperature every day. Myself included. My temperature at night drops to 77 degrees. That's what my heaters are set to. I run halides so during the day my temperature will gradually rise to about 80 degrees. This is during the winter months mind you. During the summer the house is a lot warmer so my upper temperature will go up to 83. As a result I try to remember to raise the lower end of my temp to 79, this way there's less swing.

Having said that, I have no clue what would give "best results". I suppose "best results" can be variable as well. For me "best results" is when things don't die.

I think the key is consistency, and I don't mean necessarily one temperature. For example, if you consistently have a 2-3 degree temp swing, that's probably OK, but the problem is when your AC breaks or something else happens to make the temp swing larger (or perhaps smaller).

I actually think there's something to be said about small regular temp swings. I was thinking about programming one into my apex, to hit a low of 77.5 in the middle of the night (2AM) and 78.5 at 2PM. Currently it's set to 77.7-77.8, and fluctuates from 77.6-78...

I prefer to keep my temp at 78.45 I use to run it and 78.46but wasn't seeing any results and at 78.43 things didn't grow well :mrgreen:

Try 25.81 C, see if that fixes it

I heard switching to Celsius can mess with your ph in the salt mix, if not I'll gradually make the change slowly over time so the change doesnt impact the corals too much , they been on Fahrenheit for years now :mrgreen:

Can anyone recommend a good salt mix that uses ceclius only ?

I also use specific gravity which I'm thinKing if I'm switching to celsius I should go the whole 9 yards and switch to ppt?

Reminds me of a conversation I had with an American dude... at one point, he said "Wuts wrong with y'all anaway, y'all got Celcius, but we got tempachur. Y'all need to swap over to tempachur"

So maybe try tempachur?

Celciheit?

Side note I have 4 temperature monitors....they all read a degree difference so I'm in good range of 77 to 81

False alarm thanks folks :)

Reefers Best. It comes from Europe, which is the land of celcius.

I also use ppt, because I'm right brained and see the right side of my refractathingy first. I find that pt works better, since I run my tank in celcius.

+1 on this. The actual temperature is not that big a deal, provided it is within a healthy range. Keeping it consistent is more important.

Temperature IS important.

From the article I posted:

The most rapid growth of most corals is generally around 27°C to 29°C (80.6°F to 84.2°F) (Barnes et al., 1995; Clausen and Roth, 1975; Weber and White 1976; Coles and Jokiel, 1977, 1978; Highsmith, 1979a, b; Highsmith, et al., 1983).

and..


A recent study shows how differences of only a couple of degrees Celsius determine the distribution of Montastrea annularis populations in the Gulf of Mexico and in the Caribbean Sea, proper ( Carricart-Ganivet, 2004 ). In this case, the no growth lower limit of zero calcification occurred at 23.7°C (74.7°F) in corals from the Gulf of Mexico and at 25.5°C (77.9°F) in corals from the Caribbean Sea.

I run at 80 degrees. Some of my Zoas close at 82. Not sure if it's just me, or anyone else has seen a physical response from a small difference in temp?

Never been to the Gulf of Mexico or Caribbean & I'm trying to convert my critters to more northern latitude conditions. Depending on which of my 3 or 4 thermometers I look at, I'm running at a cool as a cucumber 23.7 to 24.7 degrees C. My montipora cap doesn't seem to care about slow growth statistics published by very well educated scientists, it insists on growing like the dickens. Not sure I want my coral to grow too fast anyhow, my little box full of water has only so much space! The fish aren't hibernating either. Perhaps it's the elevated dissolved oxygen level that goes with running so cool? My critters are all on an oxygen high! Anyhow, works for me & I save a bit of electricity. I wouldn't recommend anyone with valuable sps to start experimenting with temps at the low end of the scale though.

I have two answers for you. I find tanks are easier to maintain at 78F as everything progresses slower (including growth of corals, but also growth of algae). The corals grow faster at 82F which, depending who's article you read, is close to natural reef temperatures where typical SPS and shallower water LPS are collected. Everything progresses faster at 82F though, including algae growth, breakdown down nutrients, etc. so you have to be more on top of things.

I posted an article a couple of years ago, I think, where an experiment was done on some corals where the temperature was varied by 11F each day and it made for stronger corals.
The experiment demonstrated that younger corals were able to adapt more easily to the temperature swings than larger colonies.

Interesting that the same species of coral in Shimek's article can have different characteristics depending on where the coral originates.
I wonder how all the fragging that happens in captivity affects the corals that we wind up with.

controller is set for 78.0, Ive seen it go to 77.5 and up to 78.2 or so.
house is AC so that helps maintain temp is the summer

Do most people run chillers in GVRD in the summer? I haven't had my first saltwater summer yet so don't know what to expect.

I live on the ground floor of an apartment building, the tank is 10'+ away from the patio/windows and no sunlight shines into the living room. I use LEDs also. Wondering if I will need a chiller...?

Probably not.

this should not make any difference, been running with Celsius since I started never had any issues.

Ya Denny. That's dumb. :razz:

I don't know Simon are you sure lol;)

I read it on the net it HAS to be true :mrgreen:

Probably old version of net, it's been upgraded.

Figures .... I never get these things updated in time and finally when I do there's another upgrade to be had.....I should have gotten the apex

Nah, they have both C and F, too confusing to use. Not sure which one works best in a SPS tank. And now I'm adding some zoas, and that's just gonna be more confusing

It's not confusing at all ....
Just add your C and F together and divide by 2
This is the perfect calculation for Oh wait, that's just for IO salt
And it only works with Sg, not ppt
NM

(I gather we've killed this thread)

I'm gonna ride it out I feel like this thread will make a come back :)

pretty much..

Besides I've learned a lot

....my cats breath smells like cat food.

With the heat recently, thinking of keeping the tanks @ 80 full time?

Don't see a problem with that.

Ha! I knew this thread would make a comeback :p