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rob toonen
3K views 6 replies 4 participants last post by  horge 
#1 ·
I was really fascinated by horge's post about water movement on the reef, based on his own empirical measurements in the ocean. He concludes that most of us don't have nearly as much H2O movement in our tanks as we should. I find this pretty convincing. Another item of some controversy is temperature in reef tanks. I must admit that I seem to belong to the old school and try to keep my tank in the mid to upper 70 range (I consider 76-78 ideal), but I know some people are now advocating considerably higher temps--so to make an already long post short, I'd like to know if anybody on the board has ever done his or her own actual temp readings on the reef. Horge?

Best,
BA
 
#2 ·
Hi BA,

Would you believe a range of (rounding out decimal points since I'm converting from degrees Celsius) 78 to 91 degrees Fahrenheit within the span of one day in summer? The longest temp plateau (5 hours, 10am to 3-ish ) averaged 84F. Corals down the reef wall naturally deal with a cooler range, but below 79F average, coral diversity and density very noticeably decreases on that reef. Still purdy though, hehe.

I could drown you with stats if certain friends would allow me. But the above range is from my own personal data and so I can freely share. It was taken on a crest, depth of about 1.4 metres at high tide, maybe 10 metres from a drop-off. I and three others basically bored ourselves to death's door in a roofed canoe parked out there for 19 hours straight with 3 temp probes and a drum type data recorder. We did catch a lot of fish that night
But I digress...

You've seemingly put your finger on the sore that our corals feel keenly:

Today's reef tanks provide poorly for them with regard to quantity and quality of lighting, temperature water motion, gas exchange, available food, general diluton of dissolved organics, and above all contextual biodiversity.

Do I advocate that you run higher temps?
That reminds me of a discussion with Kirby Adams, Rob Toonen and others on AL some months back (...I think it's been archived there). I probably run warmer tanks than either of those two --and I was the one urging caution in rushing to warmer temps!

If you raise temp AVERAGES (because daily swings are IMO vital) from the 70's, corals are more at home. They DO more things, so you have to light them better and feed them more. Then you have to have the biodiversity and water movement/volume to deal with all that digestive/respiratory waste.

Bottom line?
A stable, cooler reef beats an unstable warmer one. But...

IMHO nothing beats a stable, warm reef --and that requires great lighting and water movement/volume, full embrace of the beauty of biodiversity and the living food it can provide.
--and oh yeah, warmer temps


PS: I'll see if I can post pics of the reef I frequent, by Saturday


horge

[This message has been edited by horge (edited 09-27-2000).]
 
#4 ·
from what I have expirenced with my own 75gal reef, Horge is right. my nightime coolest temp (8am-before lights come on) is 80F. highest temps are 86. (after lights have been on all day) Some of the corals that are in there are leftovers from my "stable" 55, wich did not change much on any level. betwixt the new lighting- halide, vho combo, increased water (mag 18) movement, and warm temps, they are looking and acting fantastic!

Gene
 
G
#5 ·
A word of caution, before raising temps to higher levels be sure and examinr the dynamics of the whole tank, i.e. previously mentended lighting food, water movement, ect. Taking a cooler temp,low light, near starved reef tank up several degrees will show where your biosystems weaknesses are

------------------
I thought I was me, but I was wrong
email: geeflipr@internetcds.com
 
#6 ·
more pics Horge can't wait its been a while since I have seen new pics from the reef by you.

interesting and helpful info and views as always.
(I could drown you with stats if certain friends would allow me) Thats a shame I would really like those Stats.
I will have to train someone up to take care of my system so I can spend some time on reefs in your area and do some tests

Regards
Martyn

[This message has been edited by Martyn (edited 09-27-2000).]
 
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