After a critical heater failure in my 3 gallon, I decided to throw caution to the wind, and just run a tank without heaters, fully expecting failure. I added a bit of dying ____ (got a bunch of unlabeled stuff from a local) to add to the ammonia load for re-cycling but... it lived? And what's more, liked it?
Curious, I added some zoa frags, trying to see if this was an abnormality but they seem quite pleased in this tank. For kicks (and needing to make room in another tank) I added a zoa frag that hasn't fully opened in 9 months... but it likes the change so much it's actually open.
Remember, this is an unheated tank (though in a somewhat temperature stable room). The temps are usually in the high 60's-low 70's, with considerable swing (5°) over the course of a day. The coral legitimately don't seem to care about the temperature.
I started feeling a little more brave, so I've added more more unknown SPS and LPS, with a few knowns- leptoseris, cyphastrea, some kind of chalice (?), blue clove polyps, ricordia and discosoma shrooms - so far the only thing that hasn't liked this tank is Xenia. Xenia doesn't seem to like any of my tanks so far, but does somewhat favor a completely unheated windowsill jar that has even wilder temp swings.
Much of the coral has been in less than a month, and a few pieces came into the tank in less than stellar condition, so by all means this will need more time to play out. But perhaps there is merit in keeping a tank cooler. When summer conditions will raise the temps regardless, having a lower starting temperature might keep things in a known healthy range.
Curious, I added some zoa frags, trying to see if this was an abnormality but they seem quite pleased in this tank. For kicks (and needing to make room in another tank) I added a zoa frag that hasn't fully opened in 9 months... but it likes the change so much it's actually open.
Remember, this is an unheated tank (though in a somewhat temperature stable room). The temps are usually in the high 60's-low 70's, with considerable swing (5°) over the course of a day. The coral legitimately don't seem to care about the temperature.
I started feeling a little more brave, so I've added more more unknown SPS and LPS, with a few knowns- leptoseris, cyphastrea, some kind of chalice (?), blue clove polyps, ricordia and discosoma shrooms - so far the only thing that hasn't liked this tank is Xenia. Xenia doesn't seem to like any of my tanks so far, but does somewhat favor a completely unheated windowsill jar that has even wilder temp swings.
Much of the coral has been in less than a month, and a few pieces came into the tank in less than stellar condition, so by all means this will need more time to play out. But perhaps there is merit in keeping a tank cooler. When summer conditions will raise the temps regardless, having a lower starting temperature might keep things in a known healthy range.
