Tank Temp

[aspguru]

I am now worried that I am going to have to invest money in a chiller. The temp of my tank is hovering at 80 degrees f and is showing no signs of going down. I know that corals can't survive in a temp much above 75 so it worries me. Am I going to have to invest in a chiller for my coral when I get them? I am currently cycling the tank with 45 lbs of live rock.

 

[1979camaro]

thats not really true about the corals...80 is fine, maybe a little high (i keep mine at 77 by the heater which raises to 79 by the end of the day) but corals will be fine at 80. think about the ocean...shallow area on the reef reach temps well over 80 on occasion, and i believe the average in some areas of the reef is as high as 85 (hotter than i would want, but when its 105 outside sometimes the tank gets that warm with no permanent ill effects) while the low can be in the low 70s so there is a great range in nature as in the aquarium

moral of the story: 80 should be fine if that is as hot as the tank gets

 

[wayne]

Somebody had better go tell the corals in the middle of the Pacific that they're supposed to dies because it's certainly warmer than 80 degrees in that water, or parts of the Red Sea.
Don't worry , 80 is fine with a few exceptions, which I don't recall

 

[S.Reef]

I hope you arent cycling the tank with the corals in it. As for temperature 77-84 is tolerated by most corals.

 

[dbacksrat]

thats good news for me too--my tank (cycling w/ live rock right now) has been hovering around 82 degrees...luckily for me summer is almost over (although last year in mid October it was above 100 degrees here) so i wont have to worry about boiling until next march

 

[aspguru]

Ok. I got my light fixture yesterday. It's a Coralife 260 watt fixture. I put them up and the temp went from 79 to 82.2. Is it ok that it fluctuates between these two temps? To me, that doesn't sound good. Would mounting a small fan in the back of my canopy help? Ideas here?

 

[dbacksrat]

no you want the temp to remain constant--the fan would definetly help though

 

[1979camaro]

mounting a fan will definitely help with the temperature...realistically you would be ok at those levels of change over a day, but i agree with dbacksrat it would be best to keep it cool

 

[dbacksrat]

it also helps if you have a ceiling fan running too

 

[aspguru]

I got a little desk fan mounted in the back of the canopy. It's working great. I've got a timer so that when the lights come on, the fan comes on. When the lights and fan are on, the temp hovers around 76. When the lights are off and the fan is off, it hovers around 77-78.