Summer Heat Issues

arts007 · 07/08/2007, 08:46 AM

With summer upon us and temperatures rising, keeping our tanks cool is important during these times. I thought I would share a little experience I had yesterday to keep these concerns in our thoughts.

I run a different light cycle, lights on at 5pm and off at 5am since I work late. Well I left for the day yesterday and accidentally flipped the switch for the a/c in my laundry room, and I got home at 11pm and I noticed it was rather warm in my house, so my first instinct was to run to the tank to check the temp, by the way I dropped all of my groceries on the way to the tank, when I got there the temp was 87 degrees..yikes..the next thing I did was logged my findings and the proceeding is from that log

a/c switch was turned off--

time- 2300 temp 86.7

time 2315 temp 85.4 and dropping due to a/c switched on,lights turned off, fan on tank and ice in sump and overflow
frogspawn and hammer coral appear wilted and receeding as does the caulastrea and leather corals
green star polyps 100% retracted..

time 2330 temp 84.7, placed pints of ice cream in bags and floated in sump
GBTA now retracted and shrunk into rock

time 2340 temp 84.1 GBTA opening slightly, frogspawn and hammer still shrunken

time 0005 temp 83 GBTA still shrunk, as well as frogspawn, hammer opening and star polyps are opening..lights remain off except for actinics

time 0025 temp 82.0 GBTA opening more, frogspawn beginning to open hammer is opened but not full, caulastrea flesh beginning fatten up more, star polyps 75% open, leather corals still shrunk.. T5HO's turned on

time 0050 temp 81.4 GBTA opened normal, frogspawn opened more, seeing some tissue recession on one of the 2 heads, hammer in normal state, GSP 100% open, caulastrea in normal state all heads full, leather still shrunk

time 0110 temp 80.3 (normal) GBTA normal state..and all corals have returned to normal state except for frogspawn and hammer as they remain in a "deflated" state..both halides have been turned on

Time will tell if there will be any lasting effects from the temp rise, I was gone for 13 hrs so I have no idea how long the temp was up that high. I had to use pints of ice cream as I ran out of ice cubes, desperate times call for desperate measures

. Just a little reminder how important cooling for our tanks are during these hot times.

-Joe

Randall_James · 07/08/2007, 09:07 AM

85-87 is not that bad for a short run. Not great but not typically fatal to everything

A bigger issue could be bringing down the temp too fast, 2 or 3 degrees in under 30 minutes could cause some problems.

arts007 · 07/08/2007, 09:33 AM

Yeah I thought about that half way through about bringing it down too fast, so I eased it up a bit.. didn't want to add the additional shock

ihopss · 07/08/2007, 09:48 AM

My tank got to 87 degrees last summer maybe a little higher, I had some snails about the size of a pencil eraser,and they were in their like roaches at night , they were hitchhikers off of my live rock, and they multiplied, well needless to say they all died at once and I could not keep up with the water changes,so I lost everything in my tank in four days. I should have known to much of one thing is not good,

07/08/2007, 08:46 AM	#1
arts007 Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Illinois Posts: 600	Summer Heat Issues With summer upon us and temperatures rising, keeping our tanks cool is important during these times. I thought I would share a little experience I had yesterday to keep these concerns in our thoughts. I run a different light cycle, lights on at 5pm and off at 5am since I work late. Well I left for the day yesterday and accidentally flipped the switch for the a/c in my laundry room, and I got home at 11pm and I noticed it was rather warm in my house, so my first instinct was to run to the tank to check the temp, by the way I dropped all of my groceries on the way to the tank, when I got there the temp was 87 degrees..yikes..the next thing I did was logged my findings and the proceeding is from that log a/c switch was turned off-- time- 2300 temp 86.7 time 2315 temp 85.4 and dropping due to a/c switched on,lights turned off, fan on tank and ice in sump and overflow frogspawn and hammer coral appear wilted and receeding as does the caulastrea and leather corals green star polyps 100% retracted.. time 2330 temp 84.7, placed pints of ice cream in bags and floated in sump GBTA now retracted and shrunk into rock time 2340 temp 84.1 GBTA opening slightly, frogspawn and hammer still shrunken time 0005 temp 83 GBTA still shrunk, as well as frogspawn, hammer opening and star polyps are opening..lights remain off except for actinics time 0025 temp 82.0 GBTA opening more, frogspawn beginning to open hammer is opened but not full, caulastrea flesh beginning fatten up more, star polyps 75% open, leather corals still shrunk.. T5HO's turned on time 0050 temp 81.4 GBTA opened normal, frogspawn opened more, seeing some tissue recession on one of the 2 heads, hammer in normal state, GSP 100% open, caulastrea in normal state all heads full, leather still shrunk time 0110 temp 80.3 (normal) GBTA normal state..and all corals have returned to normal state except for frogspawn and hammer as they remain in a "deflated" state..both halides have been turned on Time will tell if there will be any lasting effects from the temp rise, I was gone for 13 hrs so I have no idea how long the temp was up that high. I had to use pints of ice cream as I ran out of ice cubes, desperate times call for desperate measures . Just a little reminder how important cooling for our tanks are during these hot times. -Joe __________________ Genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99% perspiration, which is why engineers sometimes smell really bad. Current Tank Info: 120g SPS reef tank. 2x 400 watt Reeflux 12k on lumenbrights

07/08/2007, 09:07 AM	#2
Randall_James Premium Member Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 6,727	85-87 is not that bad for a short run. Not great but not typically fatal to everything A bigger issue could be bringing down the temp too fast, 2 or 3 degrees in under 30 minutes could cause some problems. __________________ "It's a dog eat dog world and I feel like I am wearing milkbone underwear"

07/08/2007, 09:33 AM	#3
arts007 Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Illinois Posts: 600	Yeah I thought about that half way through about bringing it down too fast, so I eased it up a bit.. didn't want to add the additional shock __________________ Genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99% perspiration, which is why engineers sometimes smell really bad. Current Tank Info: 120g SPS reef tank. 2x 400 watt Reeflux 12k on lumenbrights

07/08/2007, 09:48 AM	#4
ihopss Premium Member Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Gilmer,tx Posts: 751	My tank got to 87 degrees last summer maybe a little higher, I had some snails about the size of a pencil eraser,and they were in their like roaches at night , they were hitchhikers off of my live rock, and they multiplied, well needless to say they all died at once and I could not keep up with the water changes,so I lost everything in my tank in four days. I should have known to much of one thing is not good,