TEMPERATURES

The temperature at which you decide to run your tank
is a decision you will face. There are many options,
and perhaps most important, like salinity, no one answer
is the only correct one. You can choose within a
many-degree range, as with salinity, and your tank
will run fine. Whether or not it runs GREAT will be
dependent on things besides temperature and salinity.
Probably no one combo of those is the exactly ONLY right one.
Everything has been kept at every combo with success.

We recommend cooler temperatures (degrees Fahrenheit-dF)
for curing your live rock. Those are (the lower 70's)
for curing live rock and not to be taken as advice on running
your tank. Your live rock WILL cure faster in cooler temps,
and with lower salinity. However, there are also some tanks
that will do better at the low 70's dF, rather than higher.

It depends on what you are keeping. IF in fact you are keeping
a Tonga tank, that is, a tank with fish and corals from Tonga,
it will do much better in the low 70's than the low 80's.
The water in Tonga is in the low 70's, due to the 30,000' deep
Tonga Trench and its coldwater upwellings. It has some of the
coolest reefs in the world. These animals can be adapted to
higher temperatures (which starts at the holding facilities there)
and do fine, though real long-term studies on effects are few.

If you intend on having a tank with a mix-mosh of stuff
from all over, then you should average your temperature.
MOST of the Indo-Pacific is much warmer than Tonga, running
in the 80 to low 80's degrees Fahrenheit range. I have seen
public posts on message boards that state "84 or 85" is
the one and only temp to run a reef at. There is no one way.

Our suppliers tell us that the location where the corals are
collected from in Tonga has a water temperature of
about 72 dF (degrees Fahrenheit), and Fiji, Vanuatu, much of
Indonesia, is 82 dF. Some lagoons in these areas run 84 dF.
Outer-reef upwelling areas, often run a little cooler.
So, a box of assorted corals from one given site, probably has
some of each, therefore habituated to different temperatures,
slightly, just like water flows, etc. The important thing
is they are adaptable and will do fine a couple or few dF any side
of just about any point you pick on the scale of normal ocean
temps, though you can't change flow preferences.

Of course, sea surface temps are widely available on
the Internet, but keep in mind your Flame Angel and encrusting
Montipora didn't come from the surface. Like ground temps,
they vary several degrees in very close areas.
Surely you have hot and cold spots around where you live ...
well the same thing happens in water ... ever dive down 8'
in the river or lake and hit that cold spot? Does the local
weather data always exactly match what is at your house?

Where is the sensor?

What you must know when choosing your temperature, is
that there is DRASTICALLY LESS available oxygen in 85 dF
water than 75 dF water. And that very few corals can
stand it much a couple, or few, or many degrees above 85 dF.
In fact, many start to melt real fast past that.
At 85 you have very little to no margin of error in my view.
A couple or a few dF, and I gotta start worrying a lot.

Keep in mind that all them cool gadgets we use add heat;
pumps, and the all-time worst offender usually, is lights.
Especially metal halides. Hang 'em high, if you can.
It is harder fighting heat in summer, than cold in winter.

I choose to run my tanks at the cool end of the scale.
Lots of OX, and lots of margin for error (think power failure).
At lower temperatures with higher consequent OX levels,
you have easier respiration for the animals, and I think a
better more efficient (good) bacteria farm. I prefer 75-80 dF
over 80-85. Then, during the worst of heat waves,
if it goes up, it goes to 85, not to 90 dF when corals can
start melting. I got latitude. Unless you have a
Red Sea tank ... remember it is not just saltier than all
the rest of the seas, it is also warmer. Maybe that's why
those Sohol Tangs are so pretty, and mean.

Like salinity, pick a temperature and stick to it.
Too much fluctuation is generally believed worse for and
harder on the animals than any given value selected.
They live in fairly stable environments. That chaos on
the reef is not random.

If you like 82, try 80, or if you like 80, try 78..... you'll
like it, and so will your animals and bacteria. I have kept
virtually everything available at 72-85 dF without a single
loss I could attribute to temperature. Of course I have had
losses attributable to temp, outside of that range however.

Consider that during shipping, heat is far more the
danger than cold. Essentially all items 10 degrees colder
than the low end of normal (65 dF) make it. Very few things
10 degrees above the high end of normal (95 dF) make it
(unless they are out of water). Due to those ox content and
respiration thingies I mentioned. In fact many things I have
seen survive in less than 60 dF in winter shipping, with
fewer problems than if that water gets 95 dF in summer.

For the most part, due to expense of chillers and ease
of air conditioning, it is easier to cool a room than a tank
(though the reverse is not true). Start working on
a back-up plan for emergencies (how to buy that
generator & chiller)

When you get that generator,
remember: food is far more replaceable than fish and corals.

Keep it cool,

birdfish

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