82 degree tank. How warm is too warm?

[3000kelvin]

Started up a BioCube 29 and long story short, I can’t get the dang thing to cool down below 82 degrees. And I have two more ideas that I am going to try but if I cannot lower the tanks temperature is it going to be too hot for fish and coral? Wanting to set up a mixed reef tank with fish.

 

[stoney7713]

Started up a BioCube 29 and long story short, I can’t get the dang thing to cool down below 82 degrees. And I have two more ideas that I am going to try but if I cannot lower the tanks temperature is it going to be too hot for fish and coral? Wanting to set up a mixed reef tank with fish.

It will be fine. I've ran my tank at that temperature before too.

 

[shcrimps]

toward the summer months my tanks heat up pretty bad, i keep a couple bottles filled almost all the way with RO water (frozen) and rotate them in n out of the tank to cool it down
RO and not filled all the way because i had one burst from sudden temp change and i got some bad stuff into my tank last summer
but yeah i’d try this or maybe a fan pointing at the water surface

 

[bushdoc]

Not ideal, but acceptable. Problem will arise if temp goes higher. Did you try fans, raising lights higher?

 

[3000kelvin]

It will be fine. I've ran my tank at that temperature before too.

Ok thanks

 

[3000kelvin]

Not ideal, but acceptable. Problem will arise if temp goes higher. Did you try fans, raising lights higher?

Can’t raise lights due to BioCube hood. I tried some fans but they didn’t work well. Going to try another set of fans tonight.

 

[I never finish anythi]

Can’t raise lights due to BioCube hood. I tried some fans but they didn’t work well. Going to try another set of fans tonight.

Make sure the fan is blowing a across the top of the tank . Otherwise you might need a chiller

 

[Jared Bryant]

Back in the Metal Halide days it was normal to run low 80's just fine. Hell the only way to get it below 80 was a chiller.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

82F can be done without issue. The highest I've heard of for successful tanks is 86F, but - personally - I wouldn't go above 82F (for reasons discussed below).

I’ve been reading through a bit of literature on corals and temperatures, and - generally speaking - 83F is considered the safe limit you don’t want to go beyond, so some people might recommend not going above 82 as a precaution.
Edit: when accounting for the slight inaccuracies of our heaters/controllers, I personally would set 82F as the limit.

That said, though, there are a number of caveats that determine what temperature is too high. To list a few:
1) the location the coral was collected from (some coral reefs have higher temperature tolerances based on their geography than others - 83F [technically like 83.6F or so] is the limit for the least heat resistant reefs, if I recall correctly; I believe somewhere around 87-89F was the limit for the most heat resistant).
2 ) temperature stability (the more stable the temperature the coral is used to, the less it’ll like changes to temperature).
3) how long the coral has to acclimate to the higher temperature (slow and steady wins the race).
4) corals can handle temperatures above their temperature limit for a limited amount of time (if the temperature is only slightly over, the corals only start showing distress/begin bleaching after a few days [four days at 1-2F over, if I recall correctly]; if the temperature is significantly above the limit, the corals will show distress/bleaching within hours).

So, as Tamberav and a few others I’ve seen here on the forums can attest, 86 may not be too hot, but - personally- if you’re going to run a tank that hot I’d take things nice and slow (likely ramping up over the course of a month or two) to get the corals there as a precaution.

Also, as is mentioned in the thread my quote is from, the higher the temp of the water, the lower the dissolved oxygen content in the water (so the more flow/oxygenation you need to keep the water properly oxygenated for your tank inhabitants). Beyond that, many types of algae and bacteria grow/reproduce faster at higher temps.

 

[3000kelvin]

Back in the Metal Halide days it was normal to run low 80's just fine. Hell the only way to get it below 80 was a chiller.

I found a cheap imported chiller on eBay that I may pickup if my last attempt at fans doesn’t work.

 

[3000kelvin]

82F can be done without issue. The highest I've heard of for successful tanks is 86F, but - personally - I wouldn't go above 82F (for reasons discussed below).

Also, as is mentioned in the thread my quote is from, the higher the temp of the water, the lower the dissolved oxygen content in the water (so the more flow/oxygenation you need to keep the water properly oxygenated for your tank inhabitants). Beyond that, many types of algae and bacteria grow/reproduce faster at higher temps.

Thanks for the detailed response. Gives me something to think about.

 

[paragrouper]

Can’t raise lights due to BioCube hood. I tried some fans but they didn’t work well. Going to try another set of fans tonight.

Had the same problem with my 32 gal. Fluval Flex. I made a riser out of 4” wide PVC sheets. Temp now sits a 77.

 

[Celestion]

Let's just get this out of way , reefers don't like hearing this , all the best marine reef fish prefer water temps of 81 , 82 , and 83

 

[Dr4gula.f32]

I just got a 4 fan cooler from amazon for 35 bucks, I put it on my tank about 35 minutes ago and it has already dropped the temp almost 1 full degree F. Ambient in this room is 82 right now. The tank is usually 78. When I got home it was 79.3

 

[3000kelvin]

Let's just get this out of way , reefers don't like hearing this , all the best marine reef fish prefer water temps of 81 , 82 , and 83

I keep reading the same

 

[3000kelvin]

I just got a 4 fan cooler from amazon for 35 bucks, I put it on my tank about 35 minutes ago and it has already dropped the temp almost 1 full degree F. Ambient in this room is 82 right now. The tank is usually 78. When I got home it was 79.3

That’s exactly what’s getting delivered tonight. Hoping I can make it work with the BioCube

 

[Spare time]

Consider removing the lid and getting a mesh top.

 

[3000kelvin]

Consider removing the lid and getting a mesh top.

Can’t with cats. WAMP wamp

 

[Spare time]

Can’t with cats. WAMP wamp

Hahaha fair. You could try and install tiny 90mm fans at the rear to push air in.

 

[3000kelvin]

Hahaha fair. You could try and install tiny 90mm fans at the rear to push air in.

Tried that last night. Couldn’t get temps below 82.

oh. And the cat.