[Minh Nguyen]

I like to keep my high temperature at about 82 but in the summer it usually run at 85-86. This is a little high but I don't have any problem with it. IMy corals and clams are doing exceptionally well with this temperature.
Minh Nguyen

[lovesalt]

I like to keep my 80 gallon reef tank at 78-80. It seems to work for me, corals show good growth and the fish are doing well.

have a good day.

[SomeHairyOldGuy]

Call me crazy.... I call it practical....I don't have a heater in my tank. Primarily because of clutter since I don't have a sump. But I have never had a problem. LPS's and softies only though. I see it as my home stays around 76 degrees year round. I have 315 watts of VHO on top and several PH's in side all which emit heat. If it aint broke dont fix it...
SHOG

[SPasse]

Hi All,

This is still the most persuasive article to date for keeping tanks at “Natural” salinities and temperatures.

http://www.animalnetwork.com/fish2/a.../1/default.asp

And I will be running my next reef at around 82 also.

Here is another thread that discusses this issue in detail:

Hi temp spike....bleaching, thoughts?

And on where I chime in with my $0.02 worth.

Regards,

Scott

[organicreefer]

hey -you guys can listen to the guy that reccomends breaking youre tank down every four years if you want

old tank syndrome=the ultimate excuse?????

nuff said

[SPasse]

Organicreefer,

“You guys can listen to the guy that recommends breaking your tank down every four years if you want”

Recomends?

He has identified of potential problem (heavy metal poisoning) that may require a system breakdown in some situations.

How does a scholarly examination of a subject invalidate someone’s opinions?

Regards,

Scott

[organicreefer]

didnt his own tank(s) crash?isnt that what brought about the "scholarly investigation"?

wouldnt his opinions have something to do with that crash?

i hope i havent been wrong in assuming that this whole time.if i was -woops!

[golfish]

where did this come from

[Minh Nguyen]

Originally Posted by organicreefer

...
old tank syndrome=the ultimate excuse?????

...

You may not believe it but there is such a thing.
Minh

[64Ivy]

I'm a big believer in stability, no matter what the temprature is (within reason, of course). I keep mine between 76.9 and 78 year round with the aid of a chiller and have had no temperature related problems...to my knowledge. And on a completely different matter:

Originally Posted by Minh Nguyen

You may not believe it but there is such a thing.
Minh

I believe it. My tank is currently in its sixth year of continous operation and there have been some very definite changes over the last few; both biologically and chemically. At 500 gallons though, it's gonna take chronic incontenence for me to tear it down.

[golfish]

Originally Posted by Minh Nguyen

You may not believe it but there is such a thing.
Minh

Would it be "old tank syndrome" or "old Deep sand bed syndrome"

[Minh Nguyen]

"old tank syndrome"

[golfish]

I'm sure we've all heard it called "old tank syndrome" but isn't really due to an exhausted sand bed.

[saltjunkie]

wow.. what an old thread.. i seem to have voted long ago, but never replied..........


i have always had my tank running 84-86......

[spankerbob]

This is a really long debate, I have recentlly been thinking the same thing many people on this thread have is my temp to high. Like many people on this board have pointed out the ocean reef temps very and rise above 80 in the shallows, why can't our tanks? Then the rebuke is, our tanks are not natural, and that is why we must improve upon nature. What is most entertaining to me is that some of those same people on other threads use the DSB being as close to nature as possible as an aswer to other questions or debates. Funny huh. I do't know what is exactly right or wrong but their are many here that need to choose nature or not, a comibination of both my work but the original has been up and running for millions of years. Just my 2cents. Oh by the way my tank runs right aroung 80 with out any help from me.

[michael7979]

I run 2 400w mh's w/o a chiller. My high temp. is 83 but i try to keep it at 80. I hope to get a chiller soon and then I'll shoot for my IDEAL temp. 77-78.

[G]

The ocean fluctuates in temperatures so I try to similate that in my tank. So my temps will vary from 77-82.

[charlesr1958]

Ideal? that would be at the temperatures that the corals were found living in. Since I collect my own corals, and take regular temperature readings of the ocean, I keep my tank between 82 to highs of 86 towards the end of "lights on", which is exactly what the corals on the reefs are in. And, since I would be willing to bet that the majority of the corals in the states came from areas such as mine, keeping them below 80 is just not natural and I have yet to see one good reason to do so other than, thats what everyone else is doing. Trying to keep "stable" temperatures makes no sense either, there is not a tropical reef in the world that comes close to anything resembling "stable", on an incoming high tide "my" reef gets no lower than 80, on an outgoing tide, it will climp to the upper 80's in a matter of an hour or two. In the shallows, I have seen temps at 90, with corals just sitting there doing just fine.

[kydunk]

You guys are crazy! If it works for you then do to!

[greenbean36191]

The reason this question gets so much debate is that people are arguing about two different things, whether they realize it or not- average temp, and the temp range.

Just as important as (and probably even more so) what the average temperature of your tank is what range of temperatures your tank sees.

Enzymes are specialized to work best at certain temperatures. Outside of those temperatures their function either slows down or stops, and as a result the metabolic process that they helped slows or stops. Obviously that spells bad news for the animal.

Most animals can produce different forms of enzymes to deal with different temperatures (within reason). If an animal is in constantly warm conditions it makes a lot of the warm form of the enzyme. If it's in a constantly cold area it makes mostly the cold form of the enzyme. If things are constant there isn't any need to waste resources making another form of the enzyme. If you were to take those animals and quickly put them in the opposite conditions they will suffer severe stress and most likely die since they don't have the appropriate enzyme. However, if those same animals had been previously kept in fluctuating conditions they would make either a third, wide-range enzyme, or a mix of the warm and cold enzymes and could deal with either condition.

So what does that mean? If you keep a stable tank, your corals should be fine at basically any temperature throughout the recommended ranges as long as the coral is given time to adjust to the temperature. However, the more stable the tank, the more specialized the coral is for a certain temperature. A quick change of just a few degrees is all you would expect to need for things to go wrong, especially if you were near the high or low end of its temperature tolerance (and thus almost all of one type of enzyme).

Like Charles mentioned, temperatures in even the high 80's, and large fluctuations aren't harmful to corals that are used to them (which is almost all of them before they make it into the hobby).

Of course things aren't really that simple since you also have different thermal tolerance of different clades of zooxanthellae to deal with, but that's for another day.