New reefer advice

[jocks11]

Hi,
I’m returning navy to the hobby after a 15 year break. everything has moved on so much so I’m playing a bit of catch-up. I’ve got the Red Sea 350 all set up and everything is fine.
The heater they advised doesn’t seem to be coping, well it runs at 26.5 during the day but when the heating is off in the house during the night it drops slowly to 25.5 the couple of corals I have seem to be absolutely fine. Should I be looking for a stable temperature or is it ok to fluctuate slowly over a 24hr period?
I’d appreciate any advice I want to get things right so it becomes a long exciting hobby.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hi,
I’m returning navy to the hobby after a 15 year break. everything has moved on so much so I’m playing a bit of catch-up. I’ve got the Red Sea 350 all set up and everything is fine.
The heater they advised doesn’t seem to be coping, well it runs at 26.5 during the day but when the heating is off in the house during the night it drops slowly to 25.5 the couple of corals I have seem to be absolutely fine. Should I be looking for a stable temperature or is it ok to fluctuate slowly over a 24hr period?
I’d appreciate any advice I want to get things right so it becomes a long exciting hobby.

A one degree drop is not significant but there should not be any drop if heater is functioning correctly
Consider with coral adding a skimmer, even a hang on model such as ice cap K2-50

 

[Porpoise Hork]

^ Agreed.

Get a more accurate temperature controller like this one and run a secondary heater for redundancy and to and maintain temps on cold nights. The Bayite controller is for brewing but I have used it for years with fantastic results. Rarely does it require adjustment/recalibration and is sensitive down to .1 F/C. I would recommend a .2 degree difference in set temp to activate temp. Otherwise you will hear the relay in it clicking on/off/on/off/on/off... This setup with three 150w heaters keeps my 75g at 77.3-.4 24 hours a day and it will also control a chiller or fans etc. if needed to prevent temps from climbing too much as well.

 

[jocks11]

Thanks for the advice. Much appreciated. I have a Red Sea 600 skimmer that is a bit temperamental but working fine.

 

[shakacuz]

could also try out the inkbird controllers as well.

 

[Stackrat]

Why run at 26.5? Just run it at 25. Perfectly acceptable. I'm only a few miles closer to the equator than you down here in sunny Essex, but my main problem is cooling the tank, not heating it.

 

[jocks11]

What are the thoughts on uv? Haven’t fitted one yet, I did have one 15 years ago just wondering if times had changed. Any information would be greatly appreciated.