How hot is too hot?

[djconn]

Living in Texas, heat is really an issue with my tanks in the summer.

I think we can all agree that 78 deg. is pretty much a nice temp for most tanks. My question is how hot is too hot?

This poll is for a nano tank which is primarily softies with perhaps one small fish. Let's hear what everyone thinks...

 

[brandon]

Well, i have had my tank overheated and underheated before and
i think the breaking point is above 84....
thats when my tank showed signs of stress....
but i think 78 is ideal

 

[Anonymous]

yea at 82 your good but at about 84,85 then SHTF. summertime temps reaching as high as 82 you'll get through no probs, above that ice cubes in the sump or better yet a floor fan blowing on the tank will help. nano owners open that lid get some evap happening prop a stick in there so its not tight and if you have a glass top - remove it and replace with eggcrate if you have fish that make it neccessary. evaporation is your friend!!!!

 

[EDGRAY]

Tell me about DJ there are somedays that my tank goes crazy cause of summer last time it was around 83 lights on (PC) at night was like around 80-81 lights off ... then i turned down heater and then weather went to norman then i was too cold lol never happy but know im working on my temperature cause of the upgrade on my lights (MH) and so far temperature is like this:

78 MH on with fan on...
80 MH off fan off too...

So im still trying to fix it cause hets warmen when lights are off ??? instead of being oposite.. so im trying to be at 78 with on/off light but is kinda hard lol...

But like mentioned i think higher than 82 is tooo hot... tooo much...
perfect temperature for me is 77-78

a little pic of my fan and new light ... still not posting pics on how looks cause still on the process of being finish... :langle

well in the pic fan is hitting directly to water but not anymore cause was making the temperature to go to low when first installed it temperature was at 81 something then 3 hours later was like arond 75 so fan is tors the open and win hitting alittle the water not that much...

 

[skipm]

IMO the biggest thing with heat is keeping a consistent temp. and with nanos it can be hard to stay below 80. I feel that as long as you can maintain 82 or below (down to 77 or 78) you will have no troubles. I haven't seen any problems in tanks kept at >83 but above that everything seems to go downhill fast. These observations are of course in tanks that are not overstocked and properly maintained.

 

[reefman23]

I think that you dont want to tank to get much higher than 82*... anything over that and you want to find ways to cool it down.

Jesse

 

[dragon79]

I can top all of that. Sandra and I would have to rush home every day and throw in ice packs and what not to drop down our temperatures. (here in the apt, the heat gets trapped in, whether windows are open or not, so the temps get to 86 or so.)

Nothing has ever died or nothing weird happened, but I'm sure they weren't happy about it

I'm not too worried this year though. I move Saturday and my new apt has central air

 

[mikeguerrero]

My Reefkeeper is programmed by factory to come on at 82 and shut off at 80... All my corals are really happy at this setting....

MG

 

[KeldReef]

djconn
I wonder why you say "I think we can all agree that 78 deg. is pretty much a nice temp for most tanks" If you think about where these things we call corals are coming from and what the water temperature is there, how would you come up with 78 degrees?
I think this hobby has had a common misconception that 78 is a good number and many have just bought into it. I understand why some authors have used published 78... for people who don't really understand what is going on in their tanks it is a safer number.
Obviously there are many ways to skin a cat and tanks can be sucessfully kept at a range of temperatures.
Thermal stability is much more important than keeping your tank at 78 degrees versus keeping it in the mid 80's
good luck

skipm
you said "I haven't seen any problems in tanks kept at >83 but above that everything seems to go downhill fast. These observations are of course in tanks that are not overstocked and properly maintained."
I have not had the same results. I have sucessfully kepts several tanks at 84-85 degrees. I believe that most people who have tanks that get up to the 86 range during the day drop significatly at night. And the problems they see are due to the temperature fluctuations.

 

[skipm]

I was basing my observations on tanks that returned to a lower temp at night so I would agree that the fluctuation is definitely a big contributor to the problem.

 

[KeldReef]

skipm
When I set up my first reef tank I struggled with keeping the temperature down; fans, temp controlers, lots of water evaporation, topoff system, borrowed a chiller... I was about to purchase a chiller becuase of all the humidity in the house when I thought what am I doing... I had spent five weeks in Belize the summer before and rememberd the water temp there... So I just pulled out an old heater I hadn't used in years and set it at 82. My tank stabilized between 82 and 84. Humidity in the house went down, electricity bill went down, and corals looked better.
The only down side I could see was it is true that cooler water does skimm better.

 

[idog]

I agree. So much time and energy is wasted trying to get our temps down to an unrealistic standard tempwise. Especially for the Nanocubes or aquapods.

Buying chillers, fans, leaving the running the AC at 68dgrees, leaving the canopy open... Its all too much. My tank is running between 82-84 and while I was panicking when the summer temps hit, expecting catastophe and never wanting to leave the house for long, nothing has happened. I would only worry if you have delicate corals or fish. Nothing seems stressed and corals are doing well. Most of these animals are way hardier than we give them credit for. I don't think you could kill zoo'z or mushrooms with a hammer sometimes...They are probably more stressed out by salinity changes from all the dosing we do when we leave the canopy open with a fan blowing and evaporate 2 gallons in a day.

When the summer heat dies down I'll run my tank at 78. Anything else is too much stress for me let alone the fish.

... I really hope I dont eat me words here ...

 

[Anonymous]

well today the 125 hit 85+ and all the softies/leathers didn't open, the zoas were finicky, half the shrooms only opened partially, and the polyps on my favorite monti didn't come out. now i will be the first to agree stability is everything but as i said in my first response 82 - no worries your good to go at that temp in the summer - but if you get above 85 your corals WILL suffer - you need to do something! now understand this is a 125 with 15 gals in the sump, it took a week of this hot spell we've had to get it up that high and the temp certainly don't fall at night if you know anything about the specific heat capacity of water with this kind of volume. i added a second floor fan running on it and if tomorrow doesn't get below 84 - frozen 1 gal milk jugs will start going in the sump.
IMO for what its worth

 

[skipm]

Good luck getting your temps back down. I hope the fan is enough to do it for you.

 

[EDGRAY]

hope you work on that J&D cause we dont want to lose those precious zoas and sps.. :mrgreen:
and well IDOG we all are open to any opinions and we respect them and dont worry if somebody dont agree or respond you back to you ill be your backup dont worry....MR. Edgray is here dont fea :lol: :lol: :mrgreen:

 

[dragon79]

With my new pad now, high temperatures are a thing of the past, central air is on and kicking! I dont do it for my tank, but for myself as well. I like keeping my new home in the 70's. About 74 or 75. Leaves my tank stable at 77 where i have the tank heater set on

 

[proraptor]

My tank goes from 81 to 84 this time of year...It sucks but I cant afford a chiller....My corals and fish are all looking good though so Im not too worried