80 degrees too warm?

...um...is there an "explain like I'm 5" version of m2434's comment?

As for temp, we have our temp alert set to go off for anything above 82 and anything below 77, and right now our tank is a solid 79.0 degrees. I've heard of successful reefs being run in the 77's, as well as successful reefs being run around 82. Anything within that range is perfectly acceptable, and is all a matter of preference, IMO.

 

Thanks for the great and thorough responses guys. My tank seems to do great at 80, so there it stays

 

Stability in an enclosed glass box is different that stability in the oceans with an endless supply of water changes.
In your aquarium when the temperature goes up the dissolved oxygen goes down and it is harder on the inhabitants. In the oceans the dissolved oxygen is more stable since it is such a large volume.
Studies in the ocean and on coral reefs are great but not everything can be directly applied to our hobby where we are keeping things in an enclosed glass box with a limited amount of volume and turnover.

That being said, until switching to LED's about two years ago my tanks all averaged 79-81 pretty much year round and things thrived. Now with LED lighting I was able to sell the chiller, shut the fans off and now actually have to use the heater to keep it at 78. I don't notice any difference in the livestock or corals but I realy like not having to worry about overheating in summer months!

 

My 1st two tanks were always kept at 82-84. My new 220 has LEDs and I don't run a heater or chiller. Water stays between 76-78 now and everything seems to be so much happier. Corals are fuller and fish are more active. Don't seem to have and much of an algae problem either, but that could just be me.

 

could also be the LEDs

 

I have never objected to scientific research. But, as noted below, we are talking about two different things. The vast ocean versus the 12 gallon tank sitting on my desk. AZ put a lot of my thoughts into writing before I did. When the temp in my tank changes there are a myriad of things that happen very rapidly. Simply due to the water volume. The biggest thing is O2 levels going down which alters pH which affects a million other things. And those effects simply aren't as drastic in the ocean as they are in an aquarium.

When people ask "what size tank should I get?". My answer is ALWAYS "the biggest you can afford". And the reason is that the larger the volume of water, the easier it is to maintain stable *parameters*. Not just temperature, but all of the parameters since they are so closely related to one another.

I can see where a temperature fluctuation is a good thing but I would wager that its very difficult to find a complete system over 100 gallons of water where the water temp doesn't fluctuate several degrees just from different areas of the day and from day to night time. What you get with a thermometer is a snapshot of the temperature in one spot in a tank.

Even where the thermometer is relative to heat producing equipment will matter. A thermometer at the overflow box and one at the return from the sump will very seldom show the same temperature. Especially the further they are from one another. My 90 had one overflow box and the return was at the opposite corner. Had a skimmer and a return pump in the sump. I would see a 5 degree difference when checking temperature from one corner to the next.

Given the choice to tell a new person to try to maintain a stable temperature and telling that a 15 degree swing is ok because "it happens in the ocean", I will tell them stability, and take it as an opportunity to teach them if time permits.

 

O2 is always brought up, but the difference in dissolved O2 in the range I stated is negligible. 7.95 to 7.39 mg/l. Also O2 levels do not effect pH by the way...
PH is effected by alkalinity and CO2, neither are effected by O2 (re: ideal gas law).

It's also prett easy to saturate and even over saturate O2 in an aquarium, as O2 is forced in from skimming and photosynthesis, whereas in the ocean O2 is more just a simple partial pressure function of O2.

Idk, we have been debating this subject for a good decade on the forums, lots have argued that their tanks do fine with minor swings and or higher temperature ranges. There are now some scientific results and plausible explanations for that observation.

Not arguing that you should subject an aquarium to stress though, but you shouldn't necessarily subject yourself to unnecessary stress trying to maintain 78 def F +\- 0.001 deg either though LOL.

Off topic, but interesting. For many, many years argued that, as have most, reefers. Recently though, there seems to be a change away from that belief. Numerous refers have found nanos to be easier to maintain than expected and I've seen more and more suggesting that they are easier to maintain than large tanks. Jake Adams for example, the creator of the "gyre flow" method told me that he believed this to be the case and thinks that the reason is because it is easier to get consistent flow "everywhere" in a smaller tank.

I don't know, having now kept a large range of sizes, I would say that small tanks can be easier than large tanks in some cases. I don't think I would try to make any general rules though, but very large systems do seem to start getting tough, for me at least.

I don't think I've ever argued anyone should do something because it is that way in the ocean. I may use the ocean as a starting "guess" but my best guess comes from combining all of the available replacment information that I can find and a lot of that honestly comes from trial and error with my own systems and reports from others with their systems. It's true ome reefs may swing 15 degrees in a day, and also tru i'd never recomend that for an aquarium. I wouldn't worry excessivly about a few degrees either though...

 

That's interesting.
I had never heard it called the "gyre flow" that I remember but probably have. It was something I looked into about 4 years ago with changing water direction to imitate the tidal action that most corals are subjected to in the wild. Even went so far as designing moving overflow boxes for my 120 to let them up and down to make it easier to change flow. Mostly some of my overthinking at 3am type things.

I would definitely agree with being able to get more consistent flow in a smaller tank. I once put a mag12 in a 12 gallon tank just to see if anything would ever settle on the bottom - it never did.