What is a good temp?

AutoTopoff.com

 

this is my only one, and it's brand spankin new

 

I have not heard good things about those. There was a thread about how off they were on 3reef a while back. I use a good old fashioned glass thermo.

 

cool i'll check it out

 

Your tank is always going to trend higher than room temperature even if the heater is off. This is due to heat generated from your light, pumps, powerheads, etc... Lower the temperature of your house and raise your tank's heater to 80. Fluctuating water temp is a problem. If the heater is set to 80 it will fluctuate between 80 and 84 rather than 76 to 84.

84 is the highest you should let your tank get to. Use fans to cool the tank through evaporation. It works great but you'll have to top off more often.

 

+1. Stability is key.

 

ok, during the day i can't do anything about the temp in the house. And my parents refuse to run the AC during the day when no one is home, so i think i'll be stuck with fans. How many do you think i should get? i was thinking about buying 2 fans

 

You don't have a sump or a fuge right? So you'll need a couple smaller fans on the top of the tank. Let me find an example.

 

Yikes. If the house gets to 88 during the day, the tank will be lucky to stay at 83. Keep the lights off during the times the A/C is off, because they do get hot (not like MH, but still hot). If my house was at 88, my tank would most likely be in high 90's. Fans will help, but frankly, I'm surprised it's staying at 83 and not going higher. Double check with a standard thermo not the coralife electronic. It probably is higher. This very well could be the source of the constant die off and ever-continuing cycle and ammonia in your tank. Look at AV8's thread - his temp was much higher than the thermo stated. Those have a bad repuation for being innacurate.

 

Here you go. A couple of these will work great.

Azoo Cooling Fans