MH - How little is to little?

[Awibrandy]

Hi Guys/Gals, with this heat the lack of an A/C cause I'm still waiting on the electrician to come, and run the wires to the circuit breaker box my reef has hit 84.3 degrees today. The hottest yet this summer. I had shorten the MH photo period to 4 hrs., today I turned it back even further.

I now have them to 2 hrs., is this to little?

 

[Awibrandy]

Anyone? Is two hours to short a photo period? I also noticed that my digi has lost a little flesh as well as my slimer, can this be due to the heat?:sad2:

I know you need para. I'm too hot to do this now. I'll do it in the morning.

But for now can someone answer the photo period question please...:hug:

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

I would say that a few days with a 2 hr light cycle is ok there are rainy days in the topics after all right? The tissue loss is probably due to the heat and water parameters due to that heat increase. I would do a test and see what is what in the tank.

 

[scumonkey]

I hear you.......my ac burned out 2 nights ago :knockedou
It wasn't a problem until today, when I woke up and the tank was already 80 :Yikes:
Went out for an hour & 1/2 -came back and temp was pushing 83.5
That's with a Vornado in the sump, the two large Thermaflow fans in the hood,
and two large room fans blowing across the tank.
My lights (except actinics) have been out all day.
I was smart enough to start freezing large blocks of ice in closed containers when the AC went,
putting them in the sump is helping but barely!
They melt in less than an hour and it takes 2 days to freeze one.

 

[Awibrandy]

Thank you Chief!!!

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

Awilda fill a couple of 2 ltr bottles with RO water and freeze them. then when the temp starts getting high float them in the top of the tank that may lower your temps a little but you either need to get a chiller hooked up to that tank or that AC needs to get turned on.

 

[Awibrandy]

Eric, I know. Thing is I have a 18,000 BTU A/C sitting here waiting for the electrician. My electrician passed away, my contrator friend that is suppose to do all the work on my house is missing in action. Now I'm waiting on someone else. I'm roasting here. May sound rediculous but I stay with my animals in the heat cause I feel to guilty to go in the bedroom where that A/C has no problems running.
By the way my reef has 2 4" fans blowing across the water in the canopy, and 2 more in the light fixture pulling the hot air out of it, and 6" clip on fan blowing at the sump. Got the ceiling fan blowing, and we brought our patio fan into the living room. I won't even begin to tell you guys the temp in the fowlr.

 

[Awibrandy]

Chief if I put a chiller on that tank, I'll have to put another on the fowlr. Then I'll be cooked. I just have to pray this other person comes through for me.
By the way we are suppose to have cooler weather tomorrow.

 

[fritz]

There was a really long thread on RC in the advanced forum I think about water temps and some studies done in the Acro homelands. It seemed high temps were not so bad after all in fact it was quite normal. In fact the temp swing was quite astounding from morning to night in these tidal pools. Deep water acros of course wouldn't have the same temp swing.

Another experiment found corals that were exposed to temp swings were more tolerant of large temp swings whereas corals more accustomed to steady temps could not tolerate temp swings. A few hobbists had anecdotal examples of tanks with a constant temp of 80 years round having rtn at 84 degrees where others who have large temp swings had no trouble at 86 degrees.

My personal tank has hit 86 degrees this summer and for the most part has been at 84 and up each day this summer. I have no RTN or STN events to report. My corals also have been none for the worse color wise and to top it all off I'm pretty sure that I have AEFWs.

 

[scumonkey]

By the way we are suppose to have cooler weather tomorrow.

My AC is in a window- 12 feet off the ground.
It's gonna cost mucho $$$$$$$$$$ to get it out.
It's a 24,000 BTU which has to be replaced (more$$$$$)
Now the co-op board tells me I can't put it back in the window
it's been in for 20 years- I have to replace the glass,
break out a hole in the wall, near the floor to reinstall it-
I live 84 feet off the ground in midtown (even more $$$$).
A chiller is outta the question.......dang this reefing is getting expensive :screama:

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

Ummmmmmmmm the AC needing to be replaced has little to do with reefing and alot to do with living comfy in a NY summer.

 

[autoponicz]

i think the a/c is good for reefing and comfort if theres no chiller involved.....my temp has been in the 83 range all day this summer with multiple fans funning....but the corals dont seem to mind..... anything above that might piss them off....i thought the tank being in the basement would be cooler......but this heat is too great......

 

[scumonkey]

Ummmmmmmmm the AC needing to be replaced has little to do with reefing and alot to do with living comfy in a NY summer.

In my home it does....I hate AC and rarely turn it on-a good fan with open windows suits me just fine.
Only since I started reefing have i "NEEDED" to turn it on:wink1: and now it's mandatory.

 

[Awibrandy]

Fritz, so it seems that it is not the heat after all from what your saying. Could it be my reducing the photo period from 6 hrs. to 4 hrs.? In which case my reducing it to 2 hrs. is going to make matters worse, and tomorrow I should put them back to 4hrs., and slowly bring it back up to 6hrs.. Seems that the only corals having any problems is some of the zoas & the two sps that I mentioned earlier. All the others, mostly lps are doing fine.

 

[fritz]

Nah I don't think it has anything to do with the photo period. Seriously. There are cloudy days, rainy days, weeks of rain, tropical storms, hurricanes, monsoons, etc. These guys are built to handle different photo periods. It could be the high temp. My tank may be more accustom to wandering temps / high temps than the corals in your system are.

Often when I think I've found the cause of something it turns out to have been something else, like wandering alk. FWIW.

 

[Awibrandy]

Well! As promised here are the parameters. I messed up, had family over a few times, got lacked with weekly w/c. Allowed 3 weeks to go by.:frown:

:redface:
Amm. 0
Trites .1
Trates 5
PH 8.4
SG 1.23
Cal 260 Adjusted the doser. Will check tomorrow again.
Alk 11.9
P04 0-0.25 Picking up Hanna Meter this weekend
Temp today so far 81degrees

Guess now we know what happening to the SPS. Hope going back to weekly w/c will be enough to reverse the damage done.:happysad:
Thanks guys for all the input!!!!:grouphug:

 

[fritz]

If that alk reaDING is in DkH than I would suspect that to be the cause of your STN.

Other than that any that trite level would cause problems in my tank but your may be used to it. A trite level that out of whack corresponds to an amonia spike somewhere in the not so distant past.

 

[multivit]

I even shut off the MH yesterday because of high temperature, with only the actinics on.

Every coral reef in mother nature has cloudy days, am I right?

 

[Awibrandy]

If that alk reaDING is in DkH than I would suspect that to be the cause of your STN.

Other than that any that trite level would cause problems in my tank but your may be used to it. A trite level that out of whack corresponds to an amonia spike somewhere in the not so distant past.

Alk is in DkH, guess I better go and adjuster the doser. I have the Aqua Medic Reef Doser Duo. What should the numbers be set too?

Only thing that I can think of that caused the ammonia spike, the addition of scarf's, NRA, & drperetz fish all within a couple of days. A totall of 7 I think, and the lnhawk I got from another mr member. :Yikes: Didn't even realized what I'd done til just now when I added them up.

 

[fritz]

I keep my Dkh under 8 I think most sps keepers do as well. Off the top of my head I think 6-7 is the optimal range, over that and your sps can get burnt or STN.

edit:
I've found some sources on the net that say 7-10 is good even one linked by RHF that says 7-11 is good. FWIW zeovit says 6.5-7.5 is optimal for sps growth and coloration.