DRASTIC temp swings...

[dadstank]

so now i have a new battle to conquer...

i thought, great it's getting colder, no more a/c, easier to keep a constant tank temp, WRONG!!

the super turned on the heat this weekend, five full days earlier than he said he would (i asked because i was traveling during the holiday), when i came home sunday night the apartment was 86 and the tank was close to 83. when i left wednesday avg temp was closer to 75-77. this morning with lights off the temp was 82.6. i turned the a/c on and a fan (not blowing directly on the tank) thinking that i could just drop the temp gradually. WRONG!!

i left after an hour and the tank had dropped .7 degrees, came back after two and the temp was down to 77.4. opened the windows and set airflows up as normal. at this point i had to go to work and i assumed that the tank would remain around that temp becuase the temp in the apartment was about 78. WRONG!!

i came home at 6 and the temp was back up to 80. i just did a water change and the temp held constant at 80.2 and hour later and the temp is still holding at 80.1...

anybody have a chiller sitting in a closet they want to sell?!?!?!?!?!

i think i may end up being the only person who HAS to run the a/c during the winter!!!!!

 

[LA-Lawman]

how big is your tank??? is it a 20gallon? talk about swings.... those are temp tides!!

can u set your t-stat in the apartment??? why is it so moody...

tell us how big the tank is and how much pull down you want and we can reccomend a chiller...

 

[Anonymous]

I think 82-83 degrees is a fine temperature for a reef tank. Temperature stability is more important than the specific temperature.
IMO, I think you would be better off keeping your tank at a constant 82 or so degrees than attempting to fight the heat in your apartment and subjecting your tank to drastic swings. A chiller is another option, but they are pricey and generally unnecessary in most situations (I've never used one).

Another option if you are really worried about temperature is to fill up empty 2 liter bottles of soda and keep them in your freezer, whenever your tank starts to climb up too high you can drop one of those in your tank or sump and you have an easy/cheap DIY chiller... but like I said, I don't think there is anything worng with keeping your tank at 82 (that is about where I keep my tank year-round).

 

[dadstank]

55 gallon tank, 20 gallon sump, total water system of 43 at low and 45 at high.

no, there is no manual adjustment for individual apts. i happen to be on the sixth floor so i am almost at the end of the loop for my section. (could you imagine being the first!!!)

i'll be honest i don't know what pull down i should ask for. i like the tank to be around 77-79. i guess it would have to be a 5-6 degree pull down at a max, and a 2-3 degree at a max.

 

[dadstank]

Another option if you are really worried about temperature is to fill up empty 2 liter bottles of soda and keep them in your freezer, whenever your tank starts to climb up too high you can drop one of those in your tank or sump and you have an easy/cheap DIY chiller... but like I said, I don't think there is anything worng with keeping your tank at 82 (that is about where I keep my tank year-round)

can you really do that???[/quote]

 

[Anonymous]

That what I do.
I keep 2 or 3 in our freezer (not in the winter though since I control the thermostat), but when one of them thaws out I swap it out with a frozen one. Works well IMO.

 

[Anonymous]

I meant fill up the soda bottles with water, in case I wasn't clear... I don't put frozen soda in my tank (though that would probably be fine).

 

[dadstank]

i think of that as like an ice cube in a warm glass of red wine. get's pretty chilly pretty quick.

has that not been your experience?

 

[Anonymous]

No, the ice thaws really quickly in my experience.
In a 55 gallon tank you might be better off using frozen 20oz bottles of water and rotating those, I use 2-liters, but I have about 350 gallons in my system.

But again, I don't think there is anything wrong with an 82-83 degree reef tank.

 

[dadstank]

350 gallons to 45, i think an 8 oncer would be enough!!

 

[Anonymous]

My tank swings from 77 at night to 81.9 after MH's are off. My corals are growing fine and everything looks good. Fish act normal and all my inverts are present and accounted for at all morning formations. I feel as long as it is swinging the same everyday, they will adjust to it.

 

[npaden]

I think those temp swings are within reason. IME anything in the range of 4 or 5 degrees is fine.

Keep your high temps under 85 and your low temps above 75 and don't swing more than 5 degrees in a day.

My tank temps swing about 4 degrees from top to bottom on a normal day and about 10 degrees from the lowest low in the winter (around 76) to the highest high in the summer (around 86).

This is strikingly close to the average temperatures in Fiji.

FWIW, Nathan

 

[dadstank]

i found the same picture last night when looking for info about Fiji water temps. i agree that it is the same temp range that the area sees, however they see it over a 12 month period, i am producing it over a 12 hour period.

 

[dadstank]

i found the same picture last night when looking for info about Fiji water temps. i agree that it is the same temp range that the area sees, however they see it over a 12 month period, i am producing it over a 12 hour period.

 

[dadstank]

everything has been coming back to normal since the most recent splurge of temp. mushrooms, button polyps, christmas tree coral, and star polyps. everything except for my leather. i have a HUGE leather that has not opened up a single polyp all week, and most likely since last wednesday or thursday (that was the last time i saw the tank before last weekend). it has just been looking almost glazed over with a very think cobweb, only the cobweb is almost like a blanket. i tried to blow it down gently with a turkey baster, but no real result. it still opens and closes as a flower should, but none the less...

will my friend be ok?

 

[npaden]

It should be okay. It should shed the cobweb stuff and end up better than ever.

FWIW, Nathan