[Phantom Phish]

OK, sorry about the subject line, but I thought I needed to get your attention for another dreaded temperature poll.

If I understood correctly from Tom's talk last night, he was suggesting that an optimal temperature for our reef tanks is 80-82 degrees. I have done some reading/searching on this and other boards, and am aware or R. Shimeks article on temperatures and salinities in the Indo-Pacific. I believe he suggested 82-84 degrees as optimal as thats the average temp. many of our corals have evolved in. I have also read some stuff by J. Sprung and C. Delbeek that suggests lower temperatures might be better (slower metabolism, ability to keep greater bioload, less nutrients produced, etc..). So I know there is some disagreement about all of this, although the current trend seems to be more in the range of 80-84 degrees. None the less, my searches seem to indicate a number of people still keep their tanks around 78-79 degrees.

So I'd be interested in seeing what other club members are doing.

My question: What temperature do you keep your tank(s) at, and why?

 

[Joel]

IMO everything seems to do better (growth and color) in the 80-82 degree range. And with most of our lights today without a chiller it is often difficult to maintain a temp lower than 80. I did recently try to lower my temp to the 78-80 range and had too much fluctuation in temp so I opted for a little higher temp with less fluctuation.

 

[jokermgp]

It's not so much that I keep my tank at 80-82, it's more like the lights on the tank keep it at that temp....

Cheers...Michael :beer:

 

[Ray1214]

I couldn't lower it..in the winter it may go down to 78-80 at worse. But I run fans just to get it stable at 80.

 

[wasabi]

i keep mine at a pretty stable 80 degrees and the salinity at a pretty stable 1.027- 1.028. it has worked very well at these params for going on three years. i have no reason for the temp other than it seems like a good average. the salinity is by my own choosing i've thought about lowering it, but i have learned the hard way if it;s not broke dont fix it.

 

[Phantom Phish]

For my own tank, I'm currently running at 79.0 in the am and it reaches right at 80.1 before lights out. Its been very stable between those temps. for the past number of months. I chose those temps because it seemed, at the time, like a reasonable compromise between the higher temps recommended by the Shimek article, and comments by other people published in this hobby. Now I'm kinda wondering if by trying to split the difference, and not keeping my temperature high enough, I'm going to stress my corals and cause them to bleach or something.

Also, after taking another look at that article, it seems like Shimek is suggesting that at my temp. I'd be better off with the salinity at 1.026-1.027, like Wasabi's doing (I'm at 1.025).

 

[Phantom Phish]

Oh, and by the way, for anyone who hasn't seen this article and would like to you can find it here....
www.animalnetwork.com/fish2/aqfm/1997/nov/features/1/default.asp