With the chiller, just make sure you have an 'exhaust' that goes outside. Where my tank is located it is impossible to do this resulting in the warm air being expelled into the room. At the moment I have my chiller set to 27 degrees. It kicks in if the temperature goes up to 28 degrees. Normally, I have it set to 26 (kick in at 27) but I found this was too low for the summer with the chiller coming on at least 8 times a day, so the tank does run warmer in the summer. My tank always seems to run about 4 degrees above the ambient room temperature. It's 32 degrees outside today. If I keep the ambient room temperature down to about 24, then the tank will run at 28, meaning the chiller will be kicking in quite often today.I was watching a video on sky news last night about this, it did go on about flip flops and plastic but then onto mass corals deaths and it just got me thinking in particular about temperature control... this is nothing heavy scientific and it’s a ‘news’ article but quiet interesting. This is the write up
https://news.sky.com/story/deep-ocean-live-daily-blog-coral-critters-under-threat-11650034
I know it’s very well documented with the numerous reefs affected but it makes me realise now that temperature stability is a key part of maintaining a reef tank especially with SPS corals long term.
Basically unless you can maintain stable temperature by other means you need a chiller and the variations I get from 25c (winter) to 29.5c (around now) are not acceptable and although my fan helps to some extent it’s not a long terms solution
My new system will have the Teco SK2000e installed as soon as it’s required or as soon as it comes with the heaters installed which should be shortly.
And I have decided that the only occupants not moving to a new larger home, are the anemone (because I don’t want it wandering and killing corals, or mincing up in an MP60!) and the Blue Face Angel. I’ve been watching him, yes you with the blue sweet face, and I know for sure hes eaten 2 elegance corals and has started on some softer corals now.
The Emperor Angel may be partially responsible (or at least joined in the party!) but do to his beauty he can stay and I’ll sacrifice the odd corals for him!
As for temperature with the coral reefs, I have seen fantastic corals off the coast of Sudan where the water temperature was 31 degrees. I have also seen fantastic corals in the Indian Ocean where the water temperature was 24 degrees ! Corals, like all things with nature, adapt and overcome. Personally, if the water temperature in the ocean was to rise one degree over twenty years it is my opinion that it wouldn't affect the corals in the slightest. As someone who has dived in many places around the world, the most damage to coral reefs always appears to be storm damage.