Temperature Question

[bmp]

I recently upgraded from a RSM130 to the RSM250 and have a quick question about the temperature...

My 130 ran fine for 4 and half years and with the help of a chiller held a steady temperature of between 25 and 26 degrees.

My 250 is in the same location but is running a good few degrees more.

I have a Halea 1/4 chiller and I am concerned that this appears to be almost constantly running to keep the temperature down to 25 / 26.

I took the temperature as high as possible on the chiller to see when the temperature may flatten out. It appears to be fairly stable at 28 degrees and now just kicks in once every hour or 2.

So I have a few questions...

Is my chiller under powered for this tank ?

Is 28 degrees too hot?

Could it be better to maintain a more steady 28 degrees rather than a constant change from 25 to 26 and back down to 25 etc .... ? If that makes sense !!

Thanks for your help.

BMP

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

Here a good :read:

Ron Shimek's Website...Critters

an extract...

The average temperature calculated for all 1000 + coral reefs was 81.7°F. Over all reefs, the average lowest temperature observed was 76.4°F, and the average highest temperature was 86.4°F. One way that these data could be interpreted would be to say that for most corals and coral reef animals, the best conditions would be between 76°F and 86°F, with the average being about 82°F.

My RSM 250 stays at 80F, my 130D stayed at 82-84

28 degrees Celsius = 82.4 degrees Fahrenheit

 

[bmp]

Thanks for the info - very useful.

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

You are very welcome mate !

 

[bmp]

From your reply you have a 130 and 250. Just going to read through your tank threads in a minute.
Do you still have both ?

I had both side by side for 2 weeks. If I had the room I would have kept both going.

BMP

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

I finally sold my 130D ...

 

[Leo]

So in your humble opinion, for a mixed reef/ fish combo, what would you say is the best acceptable water temp.


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[nanoreefing4fun]

The best temp... is pretty subjective & you will get a number of answers, some fish do like it a bit cooler, as do some corals.

I have found the below... to be true for my corals & fish... all have and are thriving

The average temperature calculated for all 1000 + coral reefs was 81.7°F. Over all reefs, the average lowest temperature observed was 76.4°F, and the average highest temperature was 86.4°F. One way that these data could be interpreted would be to say that for most corals and coral reef animals, the best conditions would be between 76°F and 86°F, with the average being about 82°F.

My RSM 250 stays at 80F, my 130D stayed at 82-84

Not sure what I would say is "best"... imho it can be a range, but stability is key and more importantly great husbandry skills, water changes & maintenance.

 

[DianaKay]

So in your humble opinion, for a mixed reef/ fish combo, what would you say is the best acceptable water temp.


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To that ??...my thoughts are to see what temp is recommended for what you are wanting to keep in the tank. And I usually check the liveaquaria site.
Here's what is recommended there for most easy kept fish:

Some fish & corals require different temps to thrive.
I keep my tank temp near 77°F and it is doing good

 

[ziggy]

I agree that the average, middle temperature is somewhat subjective based on what the livestock are but I'm more concerned with then NOT varying that temperature during the course of the day by more then about 1 degree..... IMO

 

[Snelly40]

i keep mine at 76, a little on the low side, corals are growing and fish are great, mainly my bsjf likes it a little cooler. my old tank was at 80 and similar growth rates. I do feel more comfortable staying away from an extreme that way there is more room for error... if your tank is 82 and heats up to 85 you may havce issues, if its at 79 and heats up to 82 then you're still in the clear..

 

[Leo]

Thanks everyone. When I went to test out my chiller, and recalibrate, it had a setting of 77 deg. That's what I thought was doing, but so many opinions. Going to stick them with trying to keep it at 77.


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[Pat24601]

Just so you know, you'll run into that a lot in this hobby. Different opinions. For the most part, it just means there are different ways of doing things, multiple versions of which may all work-- whether they are optimal or not.

Of course, sometimes people are just wrong too.

On these boards people are really good about stating opposing views without getting personal about it. It's one of the good things about these forums.

 

[pablomay28]

The hottest i let my RSM run is 81.5 thats 27.5c

 

[Pat24601]

BTW, I'm personally probably laxer on this than I should be given the other comments. Basically, I noticed that with my T5s my temperature can get up to 81ish, but is more commonly down in the high 70s. So, I set my heater to 79 to keep the temperature semi-stable and called it a day. I don't run a chiller and I don't want to.

Now that I have LEDS we will have to see what happens. It appears to me that my temperature is staying stable at 79 with my heater keeping it there, but I'll know more after more time passes after I turn the intensity up. If I'm not getting up past 79 ever, I may lower my heater a bit and see what happens. Or not.

I don't have a generator like Diana does, but there is a real chance that will come back to bite me some day. I'm just not practically sure how that would work. So far it hasn't been a problem, but my house does lose power from time to time. Usually not for very long, though.

 

[TEA]

After my tank cycled, I turned my heater off to run some experimentation. If, I say, IF, I can maintain a constant ambient temp in my family room of around 70 degrees my tank hangs out in the low 80's with just the lights on about 8-9 hours a day. If my room gets up to 72 then my tank creeps up to high 83-84. The highest my tank has been was 84.1 with the ambient temp at 72. This was without running the cooling fans in the back. Turning those on will keep the tank around 81-ish. Like Pat, I'm trying really hard to NOT have to run a chiller. I think having a heater on AND a chiller running is just a huge energy suck and my $ is better served elsewhere than at the power company. That said, keeping my house at 70 during the heat of the summer will not be cheap either. I expect to keep playing and adjusting. I do agree with the Ron Shimek thought of keeping the water in the lower 80's.

 

[Pat24601]

I'm a little disappointed. My temp got up to 81.5 today after holding at 79 all day yesterday. Not sure why. I was hoping with LEDs I could run without a chiller or fans, but maybe not true.

Going to monitor for a bit and see what's up.

 

[Pat24601]

Well, overnight with lights off my temp was 81.2. Higher than I'd really like to be running, but it was running nearly the same exact temp with lights on. So, maybe my house just warmed up. Or maybe I had my skimmer turned off when I was at 79. I can't remember.

Still, I'd like it to be running a little cooler. Maybe I'll have to turn the fans back on. I really didn't want to. It's so much quieter without them.

Anyone with any water cooling fan recommendations for the RSM C-250 that might be better/quieter than the stock ones and still fit where they need to?

 

[Keno]

Not sure if you found a set of fans or not, but when I switched to LEDs on my standard RSM 250 I used Gelid fans. I also added an extra set of fans for the LEDs there was an extra set of slots so I added the 2 extra fans.

Gelid makes some of the quietest fans, plus some of them have a temp control sensor, so as the temp goes up the fan speed will increase. When the temp goes down, so will the fan speed. I don't use any other brand. You can't beat the low noise of a Gelid fan.

 

[Trinny]

My 250 was running around 28.5 before I got a chiller, I got a small 1/10hp chiller that only notice it kicking in once a night when I'm home and the lights are on, it now runs between 25-26 Guessing it might turn on every couple of hours for about 15 mins. Before the chiller all the corals and fish looked happy, was just worried about summer.