My 1st kinda crisis

Skipponator · 07-22-2005, 06:02 PM

Gotta share, this morning on my way out the door I decided I'd go down and look at the tank, and I see my temp is 74.9* and I was like, wtf, one of the heaters musta kicked the bucket as it is supposed to be no lower then 77.2*. So I turn on my flood light to supply some heat and turn my fan off so when it comes on, it wouldn't. Come home, 76.8* after all day, so time to find which heater it is, my sump one was hot, the one in the tank must be the culprit, so to get to it, it is hidden by LR, so I am trying and all of a sudden all my LR from the middle and right side come crashing down, bust up corals and land on others. So I get the heater out which was on (light) but not heating, replace it and put it back in, then I had to pick up all my newly fragged pieces and re-glue things and re-aquascape as I also get ready to host a large party for my Wife's work in just a few minutes. So now I am going to have 5-+ guests over and they will see a bunch of cranky, fragged, and small corals as all my branching stuff broke.

So how is your evening? Time to break the beers for me!

-Skip

PS: What is the ideal temp of water, and any fluctuations throughout the day? Mine now doesn't get more then 77.3* with full day of lights and 77.2* at night time. Is that too cold?

Frogbone · 07-22-2005, 06:11 PM

That's why I am going with Grigor's acrylic rod aquascaping system. I had rocks and corals tumble before too while monkeying around in the tank

smeese · 07-22-2005, 06:36 PM

If it makes you feel better I took my fan that blows across surface, when halides are on to dry up some spillage, and never put it back. I am now at work till ten and hope my tank does not exceed 84 or so. ****!

Superman · 07-22-2005, 06:52 PM

Your tank temp fluctuation is very good, keeping things within a degree is often hard for many of us to do. I do think that 77 is kinda on the cool side, I keep mine at 78 and it fluctuates to just a hair under 80 during the day. I always shoot for fluctuations that are less than 2 degrees. Obviously if you are keeping your tank temp really high or really low a fluctuation of 2 degrees in the wrong direction can really hurt your tank, but you get the idea. I know that water temps in the ocean can fluctuate greatly, but a direct comparison can not be made when relating the ocean to our tanks. Fluctuations of water temperatures in the ocean stress fish slightly as well. But since the fish are healthy in the first place the fluctuation of temp doesn't really make a large difference when concerning the health of fish. But since we are already keeping fish in an artificial environment, and the fish can already be stressed out about things in its false environment that we may not even know about, if we know of a certain aspect of this false environment (temp in this case) it is imperitive that we try and keep it as predictable and stable as possible. Doing this can insure that we can rule out temp fluctuations as a culprit should our fish ever become sick. Long story short, control parts of the environment that you can, thus making it less likely that your fish/corals get sick. WOW that was a long thought. Jeesh

dodge41 · 07-22-2005, 06:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frogbone

That's why I am going with Grigor's acrylic rod aquascaping system. I had rocks and corals tumble before too while monkeying around in the tank

I too finally redid mine using fiberglass rods. After doing it I wondered why I hadn't done it sooner.

Frogbone · 07-22-2005, 07:26 PM

Paul, if the temp in the ocean fluctuates at least the fish can go to deeper water levels to adjust. The corals of course are stuck

( most of them)

Skipponator · 07-22-2005, 07:53 PM

Well I have mostly Tonga Deep Rock and it doesn't like to be drilled, really starts to crumble when I get to the thickness of the rod, so I need to figure something out.

Superman · 07-22-2005, 10:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frogbone

Paul, if the temp in the ocean fluctuates at least the fish can go to deeper water levels to adjust. The corals of course are stuck

( most of them)

Great point Frogbone. Yet another reason why temp fluctuations in our tanks should be minimized. Of course if you are trying to mimmic seasonal changes this is another subject.

smeese · 07-22-2005, 11:01 PM

My temp was ok when I got home, I thought for sure I would be selling skeletons to people with Ca reactors.