SPS and Temp

d2mini

Reef enthusiast
If you read my near disaster thread, you know that my water temp recently skyrocketed due to a busted ac system. 87-88 degrees for at minimum 5 days, maybe longer... i really don't know.

One thing I noticed is that my two little SPS actually seemed to do better!
I was having a problem several weeks ago where I was introducing sps and they were bleaching on me and my new leather withered away just as quick. I didn't think that maybe it could be temp related?
Normally with my two heaters, i can only get the temp as high as 79 and sometimes it drops a degree or two from there, like at night. Do SPS do better at higher temps? What would be the optimum temp for SPS or corals in general? I'm thinking I may need a stronger heater. Or I need to not keep my house so cool. :mrgreen:
 
i had the same question when i was going to start a coral tank. I know that in a ROWLR tank you should keep it around 74-78 in a Coral tank its different 85-89. Since most corals come from the Indo Pacific and the Caribbean were the temp there is around 85-89... Hope that helps...
 
I'm not 100% sure on your answer, but my tank is normally around 81-82 degrees. It will drop to around 79 at night. My SPS have never been doing better.
 
SPS do grow in the more shallow and warmer waters in the wild.So maybe the warmer water does them better.
 
i run a FOWLR tank when i had mine up at around 82 the matabolism inside the tank was really high which is one reason i started getting algea outbreaks. Once i dropped the temp to 76 the algea stopped growing and spreading.. Im not sure on coral that is just what i was told by my Reef Pro....
 
Someone on here post an article a few months back from a well respected reefer that stated that our reefs would actually do better if kept at a higher temperature. I think it said around 85*
 
I keep my tank in the low 80s, and that's without a heater. My pumps (return and skimmer) seem to heat the water up significantly. I've never had any problems, and my tank's temps have been staying between 81 and 84 lately. I would be pretty nervous about making it even warmer, though!
 
I agree with Sarah. I think I'd be quite nervous with temps at 85+. About 2 weeks ago my tank shot up to 86 and some of my zoanthids started to look wilted and closed up.
 
Dr Shimek (coral expert and hobbyist) has said many corals around the world thrive in temperatures of 82 and higher. I'm not surprised your corals are doing fine.
 
From all the stories I've heard, read, and experienced first-hand, it does seem that 90 is the cutoff point between a melt down and just a worrisome event. I had my tank get above 90 before, and only the fish survived.
 
Dave, you may want to look into the Reefkeeper Lite. It's about the same price as the Ranco and it comes with a 4 plug connector so you would be able to control 2 fans and 2 heaters with it.

If you go with the Ranco, check Ebay for an unwired 2 stage controller. You may find them cheaper than the Ranco store. They are simple to wire. I'm afraid of electricity and wiring, but this was really simply. I followed these instructions.
How to wire a Ranco ETC 2 Stage Temp Controller - The Reef Tank
 
Back
Top