Need help asap!!!

[Palancar]

bige11 use the multimeter to measure the voltage to find out which heater is bad. Also our greenhouse system temp dipped to 68 degrees on the coldest day of the year a couple years ago when we had a pump and heater malfunction and everything did fine. We slowly brought the temp back up to its normal 76 to 78 degree temp over the next 24 hrs. Anyway just food for thought the Flower Gardens Reef in the northern Gulf of Mexico temperature drops to 68 degrees almost every year during the winter time. I have read the magic number for corals dying off is 65 degrees at least that was stated in the article on the Flower Gardens Reef.

 

[Murfman]

Dated but good article;

Aquarium Frontiers On-Line: November 1997: Feature

Had a local club member who lost electricity during a blizzard, two years ago, and his temp dropped to 58*. Only lost one colony. Stability is the key.

 

[Ike]

Dated but good article;

Aquarium Frontiers On-Line: November 1997: Feature

Had a local club member who lost electricity during a blizzard, two years ago, and his temp dropped to 58*. Only lost one colony. Stability is the key.

So what about that article and your friend not losing anything when his tank lacked stability would lead you to stating that stability is key?

 

[Ike]

Its a happy medium. Not too high for Aussie Coral and not too low for Indo coral. Not only that, typically there is no need for a heater here in the south if the temp of the water is at 75 or so. Therefore, that cuts down on electric, the risk of shock and the risk of having a heater that sticks. Thats the reasons I keep my temp around 75 or so. I dont see any reason to heat the water when in reality its not needed.

Anyhow, back to the topic.... I would not worry about the water getting too cold if its at 75 degrees. Putting a small heater in the sump would of course help keep the water temp stable throughout the night when the lights are not creating heat.
Gary

It can certainly be done, I ran my tank for months unknowingly fluctuating between 70-75f and have played around with temperature considerably for the last 5 years. The lower temperatures hurt coral coloration and growth as far as I could tell, but other than that everything did well. Lastly, I have seen no stress related to higher temperatures (80-88f) in Aussie corals. They seem to adapt remarkably well to higher temps.

 

[Murfman]

So what about that article and your friend not losing anything when his tank lacked stability would lead you to stating that stability is key?

He brought the temp up real slow instead of raising it 15* as fast as he could. I have had temp fluxes between 75 and 83 and lost stuff in the top 1/4 of the tank.

The point on the article was that there are many different temps/salinity and nutrient standards out there in the worlds oceans. If you take a Japanese deep water or Australian acan and throw it in a tank that has higher temps and lighting, they might not survive. We don't keep region specific tanks, in most cases, but put the prettiest corals we can find in there.

 

[Ike]

He brought the temp up real slow instead of raising it 15* as fast as he could. I have had temp fluxes between 75 and 83 and lost stuff in the top 1/4 of the tank.

The point on the article was that there are many different temps/salinity and nutrient standards out there in the worlds oceans. If you take a Japanese deep water or Australian acan and throw it in a tank that has higher temps and lighting, they might not survive. We don't keep region specific tanks, in most cases, but put the prettiest corals we can find in there.

If you lost stuff from an 8 degree swing it's probably more due to the fact that you had stability prior to that and the coral had adapted. There's scientific evidence to suggest that fluctuations help protect corals from temperature stress. Had you encouraged or allowed fluctuations you may not have lost anything. I've had some large and fairly quick swings without something even appearing stressed. Also, don't think for a second that all temperature fluctuations in nature are slow. They are often swift, drastic, and common.