Temperature Question

[DraggingTail]

I have a 55 gallon tank with a 400 watt MH running 10 hours a day.

Temperature is 75 at lights on and climbs to 78-79 degrees before lights off. I already have a fan on it.

Is that too large of a swing?

 

[dwest]

I have a 55 gallon tank with a 400 watt MH running 10 hours a day.

Temperature is 75 at lights on and climbs to 78-79 degrees before lights off. I already have a fan on it.

Is that too large of a swing?

I thinks that’s ok. What are you keeping?

 

[Super Fly]

I believe 1-2 degree temp swing is considered safe, not sure about 3-4 degree swing though... which is the reason why folks have been moving away from MH as they emit a lot of heat. How are the corals doing, if they are healthy and happy looking then I think you should be fine.

 

[DraggingTail]

I thinks that’s ok. What are you keeping?

Right now a brown algae bloom, a bunch if snails and crabs. The tank is only 6 weeks old.

Eventually, some anemone, sps, lps, a couple clown and a couple blue tang

 

[DraggingTail]

I believe 1-2 degree temp swing is considered safe, not sure about 3-4 degree swing though... which is the reason why folks have been moving away from MH as they emit a lot of heat. How are the corals doing, if they are healthy and happy looking then I think you should be fine.

No corals yet until my parameters are consistent for some time.

 

[Ron Reefman]

IMHO the swing from 75F to 80F is tolerable by most coals. Although some sps, especially branching and plating varieties that have lots of exposure to the water, may not like it. Zoas and encrusting corals are attached to rocks that hold their temperature better than water.

I had a 120g tank full of thriving sps corals. The tank ran 79 or 80F all the time. One night my chiller turned on, the thermostat failed and overnight the temp went down to 58F. In the morning I had a huge puddle of water in front of the tank due to condensation. By the end of the day, 98% of my branching and plating sps corals were white skeletons. But some encrusting sps and all my zoas and anemones survived. Just food for thought!

If you are really concerned about it, or plan to get into sps corals, you might consider a heater to keep the night temps up a degree or two. And a bigger fan to keep the daytime temps down a degree or two.

Good luck and have fun.

 

[HB AL]

A daily five degree swing is not ideal for the tank inhabitants. I would set the heater to 77 and see if the max is still at 79, it’s possible 79 is the max the lights will raise the tank so starting at 77 would eliminate the big swing, although it might go up higher then. Try it once and see what happens. A fan would help if you don’t already have one.

 

[DraggingTail]

A daily five degree swing is not ideal for the tank inhabitants. I would set the heater to 77 and see if the max is still at 79, it’s possible 79 is the max the lights will raise the tank so starting at 77 would eliminate the big swing, although it might go up higher then. Try it once and see what happens. A fan would help if you don’t already have one.

That's why I lowered the heater to 75. It was 78 and climbing to 82.7. I have a floor fan blowing on the tank now so I think that's why it only climbs 3 degrees instead of 5.

I will be getting an inline fan for my pendant.

Thanks for the help