What temperature do you keep your mixed reef at?

[twwety]

A heater and 2 fans keep my tank at 78.2-78.9. House stays at 74 all year round.

 

[Poof No Eyebrows]

Low 80’s and higher salinity.

 

[torombolo]

Summer in PR is too hot, no chiller on my 75 gallon so I range between 77 - 79 night time, 79-82 day time

 

[Little c big D]

Your poor electric bill.

You think... lol. It's all central air.... I have a 2ton for my master bed and bath and then a 3 ton running the rest of the house. And you would think my electric bill would be rediculous.Its not bad at all! Well insulated I guess. ‍

 

[NigelRichardson]

25.3 of your Australian Celcius...

I am fascinated to see the oscillations in the temperature graph as the heater kicks in, does its thing, then the tank slowly cools before the heater kicks in again.... I'm assuming these small oscillations don't do anything untoward and they're just the nature of the beast when you have "binary" devices like heaters that are either on or off...

 

[Topreefer92]

76.5 to 78.5 is when the heater or fan kicks on from my apex. I like that buffer just incase the air conditioner were to ever go out.

 

[rusty hannon]

My tank stays at 78, the wife's seahorse tank stays below 74 , big difference in our chillers( about 500. So couldn't imagine cooling one of you guys tanks over 90 gal. I was surprised that a small tank fan could drop 3 degrees but it does work. New Mexico, high desert August and the last few years humidity is much higher. That seems to even make it worse but don't know . Is humidity a factor we should consider in at all??

 

[dk300reef]

Florida also 77-79 I don't have a heater instead I put pumps in each overflow and 3 more in the sump so when they come on they serve as a heater and also kick up any detritus that may have collected.

 

[ReefRondo]

25.5

 

[TheGulag]

Kept it at 78 for a year or so but recently bumped it down to 77.5 might even go to 77 just because of some benefits of running the tank a little bit on the cooler side. Few spikes on hot days before I got the AC replaced at the end of July.

 

[RedReefer]

Steady 79

 

[agame2021]

Mine has been at 81-83.9 at the highest I have seen it. I bought a cheap zoa to watch and see how it does with my lights and temp… I have a purple fire fish goby in there rn.
I put a fan on top of my tank’s hood and it finally got under 80! But I also just got a 1/3 jbj chiller and I hope to keep it around 76-78 when I get it all set up.

 

[Brent Bohannon]

I’m in Virginia and keep the house at 72 during the summer. Tank stays at 75.5.

 

[Avp]

78-79

 

[shwareefer]

Floats between 76-77 most of the year (in the basement) but hits 80-81 some weekends in the winter if i'm using the woodstove.

 

[hart24601]

I keep my tank 80-81. I used to keep it at 77-78 but when fighting dinos I raised it to 82 which did work but I also noticed a great deal of alk consumption with the higher temp via trident readings indicating greater growth or precipitation. I don’t run high alk so the precipitation is not likely and I never noticed any. So now I run the tank higher than I used to as that was enough evidence to me of increased growth.

 

[Aboynamedsous2]

I think it depends on where you live because of the climate and where it’s located inside.

 

[notsobigtime]

78-79F

 

[Mike Butler]

25.5.

Me to

 

[Rocketfish]

Over the past 2 years my tank has gone to 84 in the summer and 78 in the winter. It is in the sunroom but it is away from the windows and even though the AC in the house is set to 72, it is never that cool in the sunroom.

It is a small tank, 30 gallons, and I have been keeping some more expensive acros in it the last year and had been concerned about the temperature being too high. I survived snowmageddon in Texas with a hastily assembled backup power system without losing a single coral or fish.

In early August, however, I had the AC go out on a Thursday night. started working on a replacement on Friday morning. I made a selection for a replacement and unfortunately could not get it installed until Monday afternoon.

In the days that followed the tank temp rose to 85 and 86 in spite of borrowing some portable AC units to try and get the temp back down. An ASD Rainbow millie started to show signs of slowly melting the flesh away from the bottom up. I reduced the light cycle a bit to try and keep the temp down but felt there was little to do otherwise. The PC rainbow, Yellow times, Green slimer, Bubblegum digi, Branching hammer, and zoas were just fine. The Trachy was not happy though it wasn't looking too bad.

I managed to find a somewhat oversized 1/2hp used chiller for sale and picked it up to try and get the temp down a bit. After a thorough cleaning it was installed and set to 76. I was told it will keep the tank about 2 degrees warmer than the setting as it cycles. This has proven to be accurate.

After a day at the lower temperature, the melting flesh on the rainbow millie seemed to slow way down, and the trachy started perking back up. I pulled the Rainbow millie, did a dip in lugols solution and applied a bit of super glue to the lower area of the regressing flesh as a last ditch effort. After putting it back in the tank and watching for 24 hours it appeared to be working. A day later the flesh regressed a slight amount away from the super glue, then stopped. 3 weeks later I now have a rainbow millie with a bit of color at the very base, and 3 tips about 1/4" long that appear to be recovered and starting to grow again. I have since dropped the temp on the chiller another 2 degrees and it keeps the tank at 76. After reading about bacteria and sea horses in a recent article I am considering dropping another 2 degrees!

All told, it appears I dodged a bullet with a piece of coral I really liked, but all of the other corals handled it with no real problems. I suppose it is quite dependant on exactly what coral you have. I am back to my biggest challenge again of keeping an appropriate level of calcium and KH in the tank with that much coral!

I am curious what the temperature sensitivity of different corals might be and if anyone has done some research on that...

Everyone here with much warmer tanks, I applaud you, and fully understand why you don't have a chiller. I justified it to my wife because the new AC was around $8k, and I was able to slide another $200 for a used chiller in there without much complaint! I am sure I should have picked a place in the house with less natural light and heat and it wouldn't need the chiller, but now that I have it, it is one more thing I just don't have to worry about anymore! With the value of the coral in the tank and future coral I would like to add, this ends up being a worthwhile investment for the future for me!

One more 2021 tank catastrophe dodged!