What temperature concerns you?

[rmorris_14]

Today my tank temp climbed to 81.3 according to my inkbird. I have some soft corals and fish. My ambient temp of the house was around 76 degrees., according to my thermostat, I have a biocube 32 with hood and stock lights. At what temp would you start to consider fans or a chiller?

 

[Bnichols124]

For me 80 was my point of adding a fan.

 

[Jeffcb]

I keep house at 77. Tank gets to 80-81 max. Its worked for a year an a half but I think 81 is max.

 

[Reffetsevla]

Below 77 or above 81 I start to look into how to correct. I keep mine set to 79 with an inkbird so it's 78-79 at any given time.

Reason I use that range is it gives me the most "wiggle room" before it exceeds my ideal range (77-81). Obviously stability is key, so that large of range daily isn't optimal by any means.

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

Below 77 or above 81 I start to look into how to correct. I keep mine set to 79 with an inkbird so it's 78-79 at any given time.

Reason I use that range is it gives me the most "wiggle room" before it exceeds my ideal range (77-81). Obviously stability is key, so that large of range daily isn't optimal by any means.

Do you know how much that swing affects your pH? I have a similar swing range and was just wondering

 

[damsels are not mean]

Today was hot and didn't have the A/C on. Tank was at 82 when I checked but you wouldn't know from looking.

 

[fishguy242]

best to keep 77-79,
82 act, 84 85 kills...

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

If its not breaking 82, I'm not worried. Canopy fan kicks on at 80.5 degrees tank temp due to the t5's. Pretty much from May to Oct the central A/C is running due to having 2 older dogs (14 & 12 yrs old) that are indoor types, thus the fish wont know the difference.

 

[blaxsun]

best to keep 77-79,
82 act, 84 85 kills...

^ Couldn't agree more!

 

[i cant think]

I usually keep it between 24 and 26 Degrees C, if it reaches 28 then I resort to ice packs which usually occurs in summer.
24 & 26 Degrees C is equal to 75 & 78 Degrees F. 28 is equal to 82 Degrees F.

 

[Karen00]

My threshold for acting is 76 at the low end, 81 at the high end. My set temp is 78. I really should pickup an ink order for the alarms and controller.

 

[Koh23]

Years back, one summer was extremly hot, and tank temps was around 33-34c (90F), fans didnt help at all.... And good month this was temp during day, few degree colder during night.

Is it combination of luck, type of corals, who knows, but nothing dies. Caluastreas, euphilias, cataphilya was stressed and dont look happy at all, anemones too, but all survived, and as soon as temp gets into below 30C range, they start to recovered....

Lost one fish, my chelmon didnt make it, but that can be related to something else, all other fish was ok.

Sadly, chillers are insanely expensive, so i start to worry a bit, summer is comming.....

 

[rmorris_14]

Thanks for the responses! The tank never went above 81.3. However it still that first thing this morning even with the lights being out all night. The thought that it’s not even summer and it is already climbing that high is what is making me nervous. If anyone has any good fan setup options for the biocube 32 while keeping the stock hood, hit me up. I’d like to begin exploring options just in case it wants to rise even higher.

 

[fishguy242]

take 2 16oz bottles of water, pour out lil bit, keep in freezer,
will allow you to rotate in EM.
couple ideas,
crack lid.
clamp on fan.
stand fan pointing at tank...

 

[vetteguy53081]

For me , below 76 and above 82
I use a chiller but for summer extremes, the icepacks you get with shipments or at dollar store work well. Place about 6 of them in freezer and add two to sump and as they soften, place two new and place the soft ones back in freezer. It will gradually bring down temp safely. Zip lock bags of water also work well

 

[Koh23]

The problem with ice packs is that is very difficult to maintain stable temperature.....

You need to watch and be ready to intervene 24/7, to lower temp at desired level is good, to maintain it very poor solution.

Unleas u are ready to sit and look at thermometer al the times, so when temp is 25, remove all ice packs, when it rises to 26, add ice pack....

Anything other will produce temperature swings in short time period and that is way worse than few degrees warmer water than ideal.

 

[Jon's Reef]

Add some air circulation. Here is a Cooke solution someone had:

Nano Build - DIY Cooling Solution - Biocube 32

Howdy Fam - Thought I'd share my budget DIY no-mod solution to my rising tank temps. Clearly this is inspired by a few other DIYer's solutions, with a no-drill, no-mod adaptation. The Situation and Inspiration I have a 3 month old Biocube 32 in my office. Work-at-home means I'm on web...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[i cant think]

For me , below 76 and above 82
I use a chiller but for summer extremes, the icepacks you get with shipments or at dollar store work well. Place about 6 of them in freezer and add two to sump and as they soften, place two new and place the soft ones back in freezer. It will gradually bring down temp safely. Zip lock bags of water also work well

This is what I do, I have about 6-7 ice packs on standby incase of a heatwave striking. Here’s one of them in the fridge.

I have about 5-6 others but this one is always in the fridge because of my nano. I maintain temperature by running the heater at the same time - If it’s above 25 degrees C I’ll turn it off but when it drops to 23/24 I’ll turn the heater on and keep both the heater and the ice pack.

 

[DaJMasta]

An excursion to a temperature is way less of a problem than a prolonged hold there, but it sounds like my tolerances for immediate corrective action are a lot looser than most people's - I'd probably get to heating at 74F (75F if it's noticeably dropping) and get to cooling above 82F or 83F (or 25-28C as approximate limits). I think the target temperature regulation should generally be tighter than that, especially in the short term (if you have a few degrees of change in your seasonal average it's no problem at all, but the same swing in the course of a day is starting to get dramatic).

In practice, I don't like to see more than about 2 degrees (1 degree C) change over the day, and my temperature generally changes by half that, with a little bit of longer term fluctuation over the seasons. I've kept a system for raising fry/larvae at 28C (82F) in the long term with no ill effects, but it doesn't have much in terms of coral.

 

[JCM]

I believe temperature is much less important than internet forums would lead you to believe.

I have a small heater that kicks on around 72-73 degrees, im not sure if it ever needs to actually run. I dont have any real means of cooling the tank or of measuring/recording temperature. If my house is comfortable for me, it's also comfortable for my tank.

I do have a large enough generator to heat/cool the room in case of a power outage, which is the only time temp would deviate far enough to be concerning.

I'd never know my tank hit 81.2 degrees, but assuming all it's inhabitants looked good/not stressed, I wouldn't do anything about it.