Changes in water temperature

[Guest BrianEdwards]

Does anyone have any information regarding what is a safe change in water temperature for a tank?  

i just set up a 130g tank, it gets a lot of indirect light during the day which results in a 2 degree rise in temperature during the day hours.

l haven't put lights on yet (still working on getting/borrowing a lux meter to see what kind of natural light i am getting) so that will raise the temp some more.

Thanks,

Brian

[beer2]

[peacetypes]

Id say that an 1 degree drop at most is what you want during the day through the night.  Other people will chime in.

 

Robert

[Caribbean Jake]

For several reasons you may want to keep your temp at or around 76, this will compensate for the standard 2 degrees change during the day with lights on.  But this is MHO.

[Sph2sail]

My reef is set to run at 80deg F.  During really hot days when humidity is high, it can hit 84deg F.  This is rare.  Nominally, it moves about 2deg F based on the lighting cycle.

 

From what I've experienced, 2-4deg F swings are OK if the reef is well fed and thriving.

 

I've had bad days when the tank got up to 85deg F.  Turn A/C on (usually it is off when this happens), open all doors under tank, turn up the fans, open the hood, it will settle down a degree or two in a couple hours.

 

So far, never had a death through these events.  I'm probably pushing it, but I am trying not to buy a chiller and fans seem to work.  Forgetting to turn on the A/C for the house on those marginal days (80deg out, but suddenly warms up or humidity goes way up) are the difficult ones to manage.  If humidity is high in the house, evaporative cooling does NOT work well.  Only solution is A/C blown at the water surface.

 

I'm not a fan of keeping temp below 78deg, as natural reefs are rarely this cool.  These low temps helped slow parasites and other diseases in early reef systems, but they truly slow everything else down as well... coral growth, fish growth, etc.  I recommend keeping the tank around natural reef temps.  My diving experience throughout the world tells me that is between 80 and 82deg F.

 

Good luck...

 

s

[Guest reverai]

I raised my tanl temp from 78 degrees to 80 degrees after reading a good article about what the actual temp for everything in my tank but two was and how the lower temps cause problems in terms of metabolism. Few things in most saltwater tanks live at a steady 78 degrees  and reading the article on the http://www.advancedaquarist.com web site proved to me at least that some long term harm is done to our friends that live in our saltwater tanks.

 

Steve

[Guest BrianEdwards]

Thank you all for your advice.

I have set my AC so that it doesnt fluctuate as much during the day and the temperature in the tank seems to be more stable.

Thanks again

Brian

[krish]

Brian,

If you want insurance, finding a good used chiller is the solution.

I run pumps and lights that does heat the water. On those crazy days,

the fans would run for over 6 hours after the lights off to pull down 2-3

degress on a 120G.

 

I run my tank at 79 degrees. The chiller kicks in above that. If it drops

below 78, the heater will kick in.

 

I have had the tank shoot up to around 84 before i had the chiller and

instead went with one rather than risking a loss.

 

-krish

[Lee Stearns]

I have only been running my 150 since Jan- but my fluctuations are from about 78.5-81.5 at the extremes- that 3 dgrees of fluctuation do not occur every day, but I do probably range almost a two degree shift every day- 79-81 with the MH lights comming on- I do not have enough coral experience to say what the effect is on them, but the fish seem to be doing well and growing. Couldn't open the article you had hot linked. Getting back to the original question- is 2 to 3 degrees shift every day a stressor?