Winter Reefs: Do you lower your temps?

[windcoast reefs]

Originally Posted by kien

I have heard that some people lower the temps in their reef tanks in the winter. Just out of curiosity, who does this and why? And what do you lower your temps to? For my tank I target 77-79 pretty much year round. I start to freak out when it hits 81 and higher..

I keep mine at 82, I know a few others that keep it there as well. I find the growth is much faster.

I have no idea why people would lower down the temp in the winter.

[kien]

Originally Posted by windcoast reefs

I keep mine at 82, I know a few others that keep it there as well. I find the growth is much faster.

Ya, at 82 I'd imagine metabolism is off the charts! I don't know that I have the 'nads to run mine that high though. Seems it wouldn't take much to tip the tank past 82 and then you're in danger territory.

[windcoast reefs]

Originally Posted by kien

Ya, at 82 I'd imagine metabolism is off the charts! I don't know that I have the 'nads to run mine that high though. Seems it wouldn't take much to tip the tank past 82 and then you're in danger territory.

Yeah it's a little high for some, but so far I haven't had a problem! Fingers crossed!

[Reefer Rob]

26 degrees year round. I used to raise it in the Summer when I had MH to reduce temperature fluctuations, but with LEDs it stays stable all year.

[ScubaSteve]

I can't imagine that the temperature of tropic water around reefs changes much in the winter. Remember, most of the places where we find the corals we keep don't actually have winter. Most places just have storms and, depending on the time of the year, it comes from the left or the right.

The only region of the water that changes significantly in temperature would be surface waters with the changes in rainfall. Yes, some areas deeper down will change with changes in currents but this, at least in my mind, changes less frequently that the weather.

There are a number of papers that show corals that experience regular fluctuations in temperature are actually less susceptible to temperature-related bleaching than corals that have normally stable temperature conditions. So, there may actually be something to varying your temperature on a semi-regular basis.

Historically I have just set my temperature and let it change with the weather (in the summer getting up to 82F and down to 78 in the winter. However, after this summer (where my tank hit 87F during a heat wave) I've now added a chiller and so will probably just be keeping my temp constant now.

[sphelps]

When I use to run halides I'd keep my temp up around 80-82 in the summer cause I couldn't get it cooler so made sense just keep it warm to avoid large swings. Come winter it could be kept around 78 so I'd adjust. Only reason was to save some power and keep the humidity down a little, not a huge difference really but that was my reasoning behind it and I figure that would be everyone else's as well. In the end it's not really about turning the temp down in the winter but rather turning it up in the summer. Now with LEDs I don't change temps because I can maintain 78 year round.

[Delphinus]

I seem to have accidental seasonal temperature fluctuations..

I try to run my tank at a steady 26. In the summer if the household A/C is doing its thing then the tank is rock steady at 26, but if it's not warm enough for the A/C to be going much then the tank can warm up. It's ironic but if it's say 21 degrees outside my tank will get warmer than if it's 30 degrees outside. If the tank gets to 28 I I start turning tank lights off.

Lately I've been finding my tank at 25 and this is probably due to the HRV being set too high, I probably need to make some adjustments again. Either turn it down or lower the dehumidistat setting.. With the lights on it gets back to 26 during the day.

So winter for me seems to be 25-26 and summer seems to be 26-28.

[Bryan]

I let my temperature follow the Apex controller season table, low as 75.0 in winter (Beginning of Feb). Two years and no issue so far, typically the day temp will rise about 2 degrees vs night time from the halide's.