Robb in Austin Posted February 13, 2010 Share Posted February 13, 2010 Mike and Mama, What temp do your tanks run? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill B Posted February 13, 2010 Share Posted February 13, 2010 I'm curious why this is okay in the winter???? In all of my time of having livestock in water almost inevitably the most important aspect cited for a healthy tank is stability. I'm not saying it is not true but I don't understand why it is not a problem to have, what I would imagine, is about a 10 degree swing = if the ambient temp is 65 it seems overnite the tank would go to maybe 68 and if you have hot lights it would easily reach 77,78 by the end of the photo session. Inquiring minds wanna know? Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mcallahan Posted February 13, 2010 Share Posted February 13, 2010 I follow Mike's philosophy on this one...my house sits at 70-73 on the digital thermostat and in all 7 aquariums there has never been a heater.... 70-73? that's an oven! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pbnj Posted February 13, 2010 Share Posted February 13, 2010 Just say "no" to heaters. Don't buy them. It's just not worth the risk. +1 My skimmer & return pumps are all the heaters I need/use. Hope you get your tank up and going again soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
offroadodge Posted February 13, 2010 Share Posted February 13, 2010 so i have a heater in my sump( be it a small one), I have never had a problem with it but i think the reason i havent had a problem is cause it doesnt control itself.....I control it with my RKL3. It seldom comes on and when it does it cause the water is colder than 76.0 degrees. I also think a HUGE temp swing isnt good for SPS corals but thats just from reading. Havent tested it. (dont think i wanna loose over $1500 of SPS) But anyways hows your tank doing dweyant? Hope the water and light helped. LMK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dweyant Posted February 13, 2010 Author Share Posted February 13, 2010 If I didn't run a heater in the winter my tank would be well under 70 degrees, from everything I've told that is bad, right? I'm using T5 lighting currently, so that doesn't heat my tank a lot, and I don't keep my house that warm (72 when we are home, 62 at night and during the day). So, unless I am missing something I have to have some sort of heat. The real question is, what heater can I get that won't fail in a catastrophic manner? It shouldn't be that hard to design a heater that fails to an off position, and doesn't literally explode, leaking posion all over your tank... -Dan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dweyant Posted February 13, 2010 Author Share Posted February 13, 2010 Just about have the 40 degree water that the Aquatek service brought out yesterday up to temp (still really don't understand that entire deal) I'm going to do a forty gallon water change with that water, and hope we are almost back to normal. Shane analyzed everything last night, and said the O2 levels where almost normal (they had been virtually 0 the day before) and everything else was ok to good. I'll still run the mega carbon filters for a couple more days just to be sure, and I stuck in a polyfilter last night. It has not changed color as of this morning, so hopefully that indicates the toxins are gone. The death toll is: Bi-Color Blennie Clown (Flirty, daughters favorite) a number of snails not sure on the brittle stars. I haven't seen them since the first night, hopefully they are just hiding in the rock, but I'm worried about them. If everything goes well with the water change today, we will likely justlet everything sit until next weekend, and then look at reintroducing a couple CUC things (still have some algae issues). Thanks for the suggestions from everyone. -Dan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laura Posted February 13, 2010 Share Posted February 13, 2010 70-73? that's an oven! Really??? I guess the elderly run a little chilly....... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pbnj Posted February 13, 2010 Share Posted February 13, 2010 Really??? I guess the elderly run a little chilly....... That sounds reasonable. I keep my temp at 69-70 at night and I consider myself a polar bear. No winter ARC sleepovers at Mark's place! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laura Posted February 13, 2010 Share Posted February 13, 2010 Mike and Mama, What temp do your tanks run? My tanks run 76-78 in the winter....remember though, I do not have any SPS...all softies and LPS...many of you have seen all my tanks, and I have no problems whatsoever. It is the summer that gets me...during the day my tanks get to 82-84, even with the fans running and the house at 76-78. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caferacermike Posted February 13, 2010 Share Posted February 13, 2010 In the wintery (you can't call it winter in TX) our house is set to 65 on the T-stat. My tank never falls below 76F at night and during the day the lights keep it around 80F. The large volume of water does not shift temperatures that quickly. It is very apparent to me that it only drops off 4 degrees over a 12 hour period before the lighting begins to come on. My halides are only on for 6 hours a day, from 3:00pm to 9:00pm. In the summer months we set the AC to 78-80. When the temp soars up to 100 we set the T-stat to within 15 degrees of the outside temp. My tank gets up to about 82 during the hottest part of the year and cools to about 78 at night. So it seems to me that the set up is very stable. Not to mention it has been running for 6 years now. I lost everything, and I mean every single thing, in the tank about 2 years ago when I moved and hooked the ozone generator back up to the tank. I hadn't ran it for about 3 weeks and something happened. My understanding was that the ozone was able to bind with the available O2 in the tank in such a way as to suffocate everything, triggering a chain reaction that broke the nitrogen triangle and allowed deadly amounts of ammonia and nitrites to overwhelm the tank. I then swore off these little electrical gizmos that are supposed to be helping us. I only run powerheads from quality manufacturers, return pumps, and a pump on a skimmer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
offroadodge Posted February 13, 2010 Share Posted February 13, 2010 I agree mike, my tanks temp cycles about like yours, i mean almost identical. Except in the summer i dont let the tank get above 81 degrees, i let the chiller keep it below that. If i add the 2-250wMHs, i know that ill have to run the chiller more. Cause then id have a little over 1400ws of lighting....:-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dav_nolen Posted February 13, 2010 Share Posted February 13, 2010 +2 for no heater...my tank has been running heater-less for around 2 years, in the winter at night the tank will get down to 69-71 degrees and during the days it will come up to around 75-77 an it hasnt changed anything with my SPS. I do run a space heater next to the tank if it gets really cold outside and that seems to help quite a bit.. @ Mama- Same for me! Its the summers that you have to worry about. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NonSequitur Posted February 14, 2010 Share Posted February 14, 2010 I agree about no heater.. I have a 300w titanium heater in my sump that I usually don't even plug in, I typically just use it for warming up water change water, I close the valve on the return line, open the valve allowing the return pump to circulate in the sump, and use the heater to bring the water up to temp before releasing it into the display tank. I can typically control tank temp within a few degrees just by adjusting the number of fans running, with the pumps and MH lamps providing plenty of heat. We keep the house at 72-73 in the winter (way too hot for me, but the rest of the family disagrees), 78 in the summer, and the tank tends to stay between 77 and 78 in the winter, 78-82 in the summer without a heater or chiller. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+KeeperOfTheZoo Posted February 14, 2010 Share Posted February 14, 2010 I didn't realize you could let the tanks get below 76. We keep our house cool in the winter, the heater is set at 66. We live rural and our c. heat runs on propane which is expensive. If I don't keep the heaters in my sump running the tank eventually dips down near 70 and stays there. I have PC lights that don't generate a ton of heat. I dont see how going without a heater would be possible. Can the fish and corals really handle temps of 70 to upper 60a? I don't even let my frehwater tropical tanks get that cold. Keeping the house warmer isn't an option. In the summer with no heater the tank hovers at 80-82. That'd be a big swing winter to summer. Not sure what to do! How do you safely heat a tank if you don't want to nuke it with halides (and then run a chiller). Dan, glad the maker of the heater maker is helping you out. Liz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+dapettit Posted February 14, 2010 Share Posted February 14, 2010 Dsn, Update us on your tank. How is everything doing? Have do any water tests? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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