How much can water temperature swings effect SPS corals?

[SeaDweller]

I think good water quality, good lights, and stable parameters are more important than temperature. My tank (SPS dominant) swings in temperature from about 75 in winter to 85 during the summer months. I'm only using Walmart clip on fans to cool off the tank in summer. Also I'm in SoCal, so the ambient room temperature doesn't change much...

Sorry I know this is old but you have sps/acros surviving in tank temps up to 85? I’m in San Diego, i run a chiller, and in thinking of this upcoming summer, I will add some room fans like a vortex and a small vortex blowing across the DT surface. I would imagine 85 tank temp being devastating to any sps...

 

[P-Dub]

Sorry I know this is old but you have sps/acros surviving in tank temps up to 85? I’m in San Diego, i run a chiller, and in thinking of this upcoming summer, I will add some room fans like a vortex and a small vortex blowing across the DT surface. I would imagine 85 tank temp being devastating to any sps...

It is, or rather can be devastating, if all other parameters are not perfect. Additionally, what the temperature is where the corals came from can be a statistically significant contributing factor. Unless we are able to maintain perfect conditions for a very considerable length of time where there has been virtually no stress for that length of time then your conclusion is valid. Given perfect parameters and condition that have been consistently maintained for a considerable length of time, I think that short durations say a few weeks or so of elevated 85 deg tank temperatures surely would not devastate but rather would stress corals appreciably. The caveat would be that things would have to normalize relatively quickly and remain normalized to allow for the corals to recoupe, so to speak. Any little change after such a stress period, even seemingly insignificant changes, might then be the tipping point leading to the subsequent devastation you speak of.

 

[SeaDweller]

It is, or rather can be devastating, if all other parameters are not perfect. Additionally, what the temperature is where the corals came from can be a statistically significant contributing factor. Unless we are able to maintain perfect conditions for a very considerable length of time where there has been virtually no stress for that length of time then your conclusion is valid. Given perfect parameters and condition that have been consistently maintained for a considerable length of time, I think that short durations say a few weeks or so of elevated 85 deg tank temperatures surely would not devastate but rather would stress corals appreciably. The caveat would be that things would have to normalize relatively quickly and remain normalized to allow for the corals to recoupe, so to speak. Any little change after such a stress period, even seemingly insignificant changes, might then be the tipping point leading to the subsequent devastation you speak of.

I agree, but I don’t want to experiment with that temperature myself.

 

[P-Dub]

I agree, but I don’t want to experiment with that temperature myself.

Nor do I. I can assume that my parameters are "in line" but unless I am testing for all these parameters that affect corals on a daily basis to determine if stability has been maintained I can never really know if my corals are the least bit stressed or not. Additionally, there are likely a number of factors affecting corals that we do not routinely test for that could be having a cumulative effect we are unaware of. Daily ICP testing for a year is just not realistic.

 

[FlyPenFly]

Real coral reefs swing in temps from 74 to 85 and even sometimes as high as 95 for short periods. Depends on seasons and location of course.

In healthy humans, large temperature fluctuations seem to stimulate the immune system. My hypothesis is that corals and marine life might benefit from some gradually introduced fluctuations in temperature resulting in more disease and pest resistant corals that are "stronger" due to this "exercise" and conditioning.

 

[P-Dub]

Real coral reefs swing in temps from 74 to 85 and even sometimes as high as 95 for short periods. Depends on seasons and location of course.

In healthy humans, large temperature fluctuations seem to stimulate the immune system. My hypothesis is that corals and marine life might benefit from some gradually introduced fluctuations in temperature resulting in more disease and pest resistant corals that are "stronger" due to this "exercise" and conditioning.

I do not disagree with the first part of your statement and have and do witness these fluctuations regularly. I am fortunate in that I am able to live, dive, snorkel, freedive, and SCUBA any time conditions and time permit in a tropical ocean. My stated caveat is a reef aquarium rarely if ever, maintain necessary observable parameters to allow for this type of experiment without dead loss. Your captive corals may be stressed by some condition unbeknownst to you and not obvious from feedback by the coral that such an experiment would not have a significant adverse impact on the colony negating any perceived benefit from running such an experiment. There are too many variables that you would never know if there is any actual benefit or what it was that resulted in the ultimate demise of a colony or colonies.
I encourage you to perform this experiment however, you must realize there will be dead loss that you will not know, definitively, the cause of.
There currently is ongoing research being done at UOH regarding temperature and CO2 and the correlation on coral species-specific mortality. Perhaps we should see what those findings are before we experiment with our own reef systems at home.

 

[FlyPenFly]

Yeah, it's certainly a risk! Personally, I might try to start with a gradually introduced 4F swing and proceed from there.

 

[P-Dub]

Go for it! Just realize, unless all other parameters are and have been perfect and stable, there is a statistically high probability of failure and we'll never know definitively what the failure was attributed to.

 

[FlyPenFly]

Certainly, and of course, it would be impossible to tell if the temperature variation was the cause of any kind of success either since I won't have a control.

 

[SeaDweller]

Well nature has this funny little thing called evolution and things can certainly adapt very well to different situations.

I feel our captive bred and propagated corals have been pampered to the point where they may have devolved... sort of. It’s all in good ,neat fun talking about stuff like this, and I applaud the above user for trying this. Let us know how it fares!

 

[vetteguy53081]

I have a 100 gallon system including sump and DT. I run a 300w heater in the DT and 200w in the sump but depending on how cold it gets at night and how warm it gets during the day my water temp can range from 76-80 degrees. I know that water stability is the #1 priority for growing any coral especially SPS coral, is this temperature swing too drastic? now mind you, it doesn't swing that much daily probably close to 2 degrees from morning to night. I just cant get my temp to stay exactly 78 degrees all day long.

Thank you.

If it comforts you, I have a 2-2 degree temperature swing and even a ph drop from 7.78 to 7.4 daily with no effect.

 

[Oldsalt]

Temperature monitors can vary greatly depending on the calibration, location of probe(s) and more.

The screens are of the same make and model here showing a .7° difference at all times. The lower average is from the temperature probe itself and the higher (+ .7°) is from the 1000W heater (built in probe) itself built by the same manufacturer. The probes are within 12" of each other as well. Which one do I trust? I stick an electronic medical temperature probe in the water and get a temperature smack in the middle of these 2 readings. My corals, Nem and fish look happy so I am leaving things alone.

My tank with sump is 1500 litres with a 1000W heater (hardly needs to run in Australia but does in "winter" lol when temps can go down to a bone rattling 50° F ;Dummy) - hardly need more wattage here. In summer it's the 4 fan auto cooling that keeps things within 2° (uses lots more rodi top off as a trade off). I can't afford >$1500 for a chiller for this size system. Besides, I'm saving for better lighting.

 

[Musicims]

Just because my heater cannot fully keep up during the winter months I experience this every year. The tank goes from as low as 75.5 at night to 78.5 by mid day afternoon due to our homes temperature. Set to 67 at night but it will get to 72 by midday with help from the sun, we keep the tstat on the low end but have lots of Windows facing West. They all seem pretty happy and don't seem to mind at all. The swing is still there during the summer months, just not as much.

 

[Gregg @ ADP]

Anecdotally...very anecdotally...I would say that most corals can withstand fairly significant temp swings above or below the optimal range if the swing is temporary.

Temporary can mean a lot of things, but obviously the shorter the better. 6 degrees F above optimal for 6 hours is nothing. A day if going to be fine. I think in general, though, once you hit a week, trouble sets in. By 2 weeks, you’re probably going to see a lot of bleaching.

 

[Dburr1014]

I appreciate all the help by everyone. Do any of you experience this with you tank or are you able to maintain a constant 78 degrees?

I also have a 100 gallon system. 75 display and 50 gallon sump. Total about 100 water.
I run a 200 watt heater in the tank and 250 in the sump on a inkbird controller.
I only very +/- a degree.
Not sure why you have a bigger range. Did you calibrate them or are they on a controller?

 

[MARK M. DAVIS]

I appreciate all the help by everyone. Do any of you experience this with you tank or are you able to maintain a constant 78 degrees?

Mine fluctuates 0.5 degrees. I have a few heaters and a chiller.

 

[DesertReefT4r]

My temps currently swing from 75-78°f with my controller set to 77.5°. I need a second heater to keep up in the winter since my tank water to run at room temp at night.

 

[TobyPhatz77]

I am wondering what the impetus is to have the fluctuations during those times and why such a monumental swing in such a short period of time?

I think that acclimating corals to temperature swings are reasonable and in my experience, this occurs on the reefs in nature already. Generally, the large swings that I have seen are temporary and dependent upon depth and location. Some areas of the reef are susceptible to thermocline shifts during tide changes and wave/surge action but settle back to a mean temperature range. There certainly are seasonal shifts in temperature of 3-5 degrees but this occurs over months. Additionally, the only time that you would see vast temperature and condition swings in nature are moon phase dependent. There are those times of the year that the coral reef will be high and dry for perhaps an hour or more, baking in the tropical sun. These occurrences are not often but are, again, moon and tide phase related. All these naturally occurring temperature swings that the corals generally fare well with are with perfect parameters.
I think a slow and gradual process of increasing the temperatures (read many months) to allow for acclimation to higher overall temperatures under consistently pristine parameters is a reasonable endeavor. Be prepared for some losses, however. Unless you have perfect and perfectly consistent parameters and are willing to accept a certain amount of loss I would not undertake this experiment, personally.

I‘ve bought a DD temp controller, it’s in the UK so degrees Celsius. The minimum setting is 0.3 degrees but when I convert this it says it’s 32.54 fahrenheit.
It sounds huge especially when this could vary from 26.3 to 25.7 degrees.
do you think this is worth using?

 

[TobyPhatz77]

Just realised that although 0.3 is 32.54 the difference is actually 0.54
My bad!