Depends on what you keep, deeper water species will likely prefer colder water and shallow species like sps will be more adapted to warmer temperatures. I know from diving most reefs are close to 80F or even warmer but I've been in some deeper areas that definitely drop a few degrees. Also depending on where the livestock comes from, the optimal temperature will change since natural reef temperature is dependent on location.
So to sum up there simply isn't an ideal exact temperature for our reef tanks because we fill them with such diversity. The only thing we can do is take an average which will probably be between 78 and 82F. Really the best thing is stability, the more stable the temperature the better. I keep mine at 80F because it's stable, the higher temperature gradient makes cooling in the summer easier.
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