Water temp drop

[WidebodyFish]

I have 220 gal tank with 3 250 watt mh. During day my tank temp is 79. I dont use chillers or heaters cause my office has central. i came to work early at 6 am an noticed the temp drops to 74. Is that of. My fish are great, my corals are not.

 

[BrooklynReef]

I was wondering the same thing. Would a second heater help, or a higher wattage heater?

 

[rebelson]

Your temp should remain as steady as possible. Large fluctuations in temp is not good, purchase a heater.

 

[JARRETT SHARK]

I had the same problem at my office, temps get in the 60's and i bought a apex to monitor the temp, i would get 1-2x 500w heaters to be safe. That is to much of a swing for coral to feel comfortable and can cause death

 

[reefs4life]

I run two of these on my 210 http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002TMTGGQ/?tag=reefs04-20 pretty good so far. You should definitely look into getting some. I thought I could leave my tank without a heater since the pipes to my heating run right over my tank but when the heat is off then that's when you have an issue so it's just better to play it safe

 

[jrobbins]

you can run 2x 500w heaters on a DC8? are they both on the same strip or did you have to split them up?

I had the same problem at my office, temps get in the 60's and i bought a apex to monitor the temp, i would get 1-2x 500w heaters to be safe. That is to much of a swing for coral to feel comfortable and can cause death

 

[JARRETT SHARK]

I have 2 enegy bars(one on each) and i think they sell the high output ones if you want to run both on one strip if you think its to many amps

 

[jrobbins]

yeah, thats what i figured. thanks man

 

[reefs4life]

I have 2 enegy bars(one on each) and i think they sell the high output ones if you want to run both on one strip if you think its to many amps

What are high output energy bars? I know there's the DC4HD which is what I run mine on but I'm switching over to the Apex and I was wondering if there's something similar to the DC4HD for the Apex

 

[KathyC]

Widebody - what temp are the heaters set for?

You may need to run them slightly higher and run fans when the lights are on to take the edge off the heating.

Also - heater are BEST run off a controller so it can shut them down if it gets too hot in the tank. 74 is too chilly

 

[jrobbins]

What are high output energy bars? I know there's the DC4HD which is what I run mine on but I'm switching over to the Apex and I was wondering if there's something similar to the DC4HD for the Apex

Pretty sure thats what he is talking about

 

[WidebodyFish]

Kathy, I don't have heaters installed. i will install them now.

 

[JARRETT SHARK]

I would buy one for now or if you need to borrow i have some laying around

 

[Chris Jury]

Ditto what Kathy and others have said: 74 F is relatively cool. A heater and a small fan should, in combination, allow you maintain pretty comfortable temps. I would probably set the heater to 77, 78 F--somewhere around there--and would make sure the tank isn't rising above about 82 F or so during the day. That's a pretty good working range IME. A couple degrees higher or a few lower isn't the end of the world, but is probably suboptimal for our purposes.