3 degree nightly temp swing. Go or no go

[recess62]

I was on another social media forum and someone was worried about a 3 degree nightly temp swing. I thought this was a little extreme while most others were saying it was ok. Please educate me

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

3 degrees isn't going to bother anything, I was just looking at the daily range of water temperature in the Florida keys and it changes about 4-5 degrees. I imagine that's pretty common on other tropical reefs.

 

[recess62]

Where did you find this information? I have a house in Key Largo and dive there and have never seen those types of temp fluctuations

 

[kamike91]

I was on another social media forum and someone was worried about a 3 degree nightly temp swing. I thought this was a little extreme while most others were saying it was ok. Please educate me

I assume you mean farenheit, which is not bad under the right circumstances. If it was celsius thats bad news. From what I read, a 2 or 3 degree Fahrenheit swing is not bad. If you keep it down to a 1 degree swing or less the corals will not be accustomed to larger swings. When the 3 degree swing comes, which eventually it will, they can get stressed out big time. Also it depends on what you want to keep. I wouldn't let the 3 degree range max over 81 or go lower than 76.. so for example, keeping a tank between 77-80 daily.

I can attest to that because in winter I had less than 1 degree swings. In summer I had 4 degree swings. This is due to the house temp. Some acros got STN and RTN yearly when summer cames around. My LPS never were affected. I established a solid year round range to 2 degrees yearly with a chiller and heater which got rid of the problem. But back to the question, IME depending on whay you keep, a 3 degree Fahrenheit swing shouldnt be bad if it's consistently 3 throughout the year.

 

[skiergd011013]

Mine goes from 78 first thing in the a.m to 80.5 by lights out. Never gave it a second thought.

 

[recess62]

Wow. Ok. I am now feeling dumb. I had a heater fail. My tank went from 78 to 75 and my Zoas were not happy. Maybe it’s a function of what the tank is accustomed. My temp is usually held within .4degrees.

 

[skiergd011013]

Wow. Ok. I am now feeling dumb. I had a heater fail. My tank went from 78 to 75 and my Zoas were not happy. Maybe it’s a function of what the tank is accustomed. My temp is usually held within .4degrees.

your all good. imo these tanks are not quite as sensitive as people make them out to be. For example, I use to laugh at our local reefing store owner, who I would watch fill up a 5 gallon bucket with ro, dump in salt, give it a few mixes with his arm, and dump it straight into his tanks making a big cloud. And this guy had AMAZING tanks. I have also seen my tank go up to 84-85 on oppressively hot summer days. Absolutely no negative effects whatsoever. So, dont sweat it. Just take care of it and you'll be fine.

 

[Reefer1978]

The way I look at it, you need to account to what Coral (or all animal life including us) are used to. If a coral spent it's entire life in a 1F degree swing, 5F swing might be too much. If they get used to it (still alive a year) then it's used to it and will do ok. If it dies - well you know it didn't tolerate that swing.

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

Where did you find this information? I have a house in Key Largo and dive there and have never seen those types of temp fluctuations

It depends on the location but NOAA has stations and buoys all over the place that record daily conditions.

This is the one I was referring to that had 4-5 degree changes: http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page.php?station=jkyf1

Most other stations in the Keys, especially on the Atlantic side, only show around 2 degrees or less in temperature change.

 

[recess62]

It depends on the location but NOAA has stations and buoys all over the place that record daily conditions.

This is the one I was referring to that had 4-5 degree changes: http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page.php?station=jkyf1

Most other stations in the Keys, especially on the Atlantic side, only show around 2 degrees or less in temperature change.

Wow that is crazy. I wonder if it is a function of how the gulf stream is flowing

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

Wow that is crazy. I wonder if it is a function of how the gulf stream is flowing

That would be my assumption.

 

[Donovan Joannes]

My mixed reef tank will be at 26C when it rains, and up to 30.8C at late noon, so far all is fine. I think it depends on your corals origin. Mine are mostly shallow water corals in the equator and they used to the daily temperature swing, possibly more than we thought.

 

[laverda]

Much more than 4 degrees change and you may find Ich popping up on some fish that are more susceptible to Ich, like powder blue tangs. Unless your system is truly ich free.

 

[Jim-Elliott]

Shallow reefs like the barrier reef or reefs in the Red Sea have big temperature swings as the sun heats the shallow water column far quicker, this does lead to coral bleaching sadly due to elevated temps in the recent years but it’s the same concept on a shallow Sandy beach, you’ll find the shallows absorb the heat far quicker, 2-3 degrees is a somewhat natural daily swing in my mind from day to night