[Firefish]

Perryinca, are you sure that your reef bleached because of only one day of 86* water temps. I only ask because my tank reaches 86* every other day...for many years... and my corals grow fast! I've never lost a coral in my tank and I'd like to think it wasn't because of luck (organicreefer) Heck, my polyps are spreading at 1/2" per week, my inverts are molting a couple of times per month, coraline is growing all over everything, have no algae blooms and my fish are happy and healthy...

[Markv]

Another possible source of the heat is the biochemical processes that go on in a sand bed. In the reeftalks section at reefs.org, Eric Borneman describes a DSB system he set up in a 40 gallon tank. When he dismantled the tank to move to another state, he discovered that the bottom of the sand bed was warm. So perhaps, some of these reactions in our DSB are exothermic. I do not know how old your sand bed is. If it's new, then this is most likely not the cause.

[organicreefer]

spasse:we could circle like pitbulls over this one

seriously though i just want to point out that this is healthy debate and i dont think there are any "flames" going on here....people seem to be pretty defensive around here and i would like to say that i respect spasses opinion as well as anyone elses.i dont think im right -youre wrong ,i just have my technique, you have youres.this is how we learn ,i might be wrong i dont know ,ill tell you in ten years.
to those of you who have success at higher temps im listening,im interested(i would love to get away with higher temps if i felt COMFORTABLE doing it)its just that the only published author you can point to is ron shimek who ,no disrespect to ron, i never heard of till a few years ago. and i should beleive one person over at least about seven other(that i can think of off the top of my head) authorities on the subject who have more exp.(i think)and all AGREE.ron is a great resource,dont get me wrong ,and his articles on dsb's changed the way i run ALL my tanks so i do have alot of respect for what he has to say,just i tend to like to take everyones(including all of youres) opinion into consideration and "average it out" or do what seems logical to me.
i think i made most of my points already and i think that perry's post speaks volumes

[Reinhold]

I don't have any scientific information on the temperature debate, but when I dove the Japanese shipwrecks in the Truk (Chuuk) Lagoon, which contains some of the most beautiful soft corals on Earth, the water temperature was 86 degrees F, all the way down to 165 feet. We were told the thermocline was at 600 feet.

Diving the reefs of Cozumel during different years and different seasons, I've noticed temp variations from 76 degrees to 83 degrees, with the same populations of corals thriving in the differing temps.

Cooler water does hold more oxygen than warm, and as metabolism slows in cooler water, so does the accumulation of wastes.