How Important is Household Temp. to your tank ??

Does keeping your house temp. too warm or too cool effect your tank any?
Sorry, I'm a newbie with lots of ??s....

TIA

 

Hi,

Simple answer is "yes". If your place is too cool your heater will work overtime. If your house is too hot, then your tank may overheat. From my experience as long as your house doesn't dip below ~60 degrees or climb over 75 then you should be OK. A decent heater will keep your tank warm and at 75 you can still get enough evaporation to not need a chiller. If you place does get above 75 degrees then you might need to look into some active cooling (i.e. chiller).

 

Yes, If you are concerned about heat, your tank temp with all the lights on and everything running with no equipment to reduce heat will run 3 to 7 degrees higher than ambient temperature. Especially with metal halides. There are however ways to reduce this.
With your lights off and everything running your tank should equalize with ambient temperature. Thats what heaters are for if it gets too cold

Jim

 

The main thing with aquariums temps is as little fluctuation as possible . Its better to figure out where you can keep it the most stable in the 77 to 82 F range if where you live in hot then use fans and ambient room temps to keep it steady if where you live is cool to colder then use a heater to keep it as warm in the winter as you will in the summer using the fans and ambient room.

It was harder to keep them cool in Va. to humid for much evaporation unless keep the house cool like 72 F then the fans did a good job But I kept t at a steady 79
Here in Ct it easier to cool it in the summer through evaporative cooling and 79 is not hard to do so I keep it warm all winter with a large heater water here evaporates really fast.. So you location and what temps you like to live in dictate the need for a chiller or fans ? just find a steady temp you can maintain 24/7 365 and settle it in that range.
I know many who run there at 83 84 with great coral growth and no problems .. Nothing is written in stone its just about trades off and stability.

 

While we are on the subject of ambient temperature, something else that should be mentioned along that line is regarding CO2! Low pH levels of your water can many times be attributed to lack of oxygen in the particular room housing your fish tank! This could be due to gas appliances nearby, pet and human respiration as well as poor exchange with the outside of your house!
Ways to combat this are to open a window, dose Kalkwasser, turn refugium lights on to restore photosynthesis due to your macroalgae or add a powerhead at the top of your tank at the water/air interface. This will help to bring beneficial oxygen to your livestock and help to raise your pH values of your water.
just some words of wisdom along the same lines as temp. in your room IMO!

 

absolutely

 

Thank you all for the great words of wisdom!!