• Why not take a moment to introduce yourself to our members?

duke62

Advanced Reefer
Rating - 100%
224   0   0
So again with my time i decided yet again to actually pick up and read my reef book insted of just looking at the pics LOL and i came across temperature best kept for SPS.In Ronald Shimeks reef invertebrate book he states that the temperature for a SPS dominated tank should be between 82 to 84 degrees for maximum growth.Does anyone with a SPS tank keep there temps tht high.i was under the impression for years that 76 to 78 was the norm.
 

motortrendz

Mainland Aquatics
Vendor
Rating - 100%
82   0   0
from article 3.. thanks dom! good reading though

It therefore makes little sense to say that the thermal optimum is precisely 78.5 F. High growth rates of 80-100% of the maximum rate were attained within the range of 75-82 F, whereas low growth rates <25% of the maximum rate were obtained below about 72 °F or above 84 F. Very similar results were obtained by Marshall and Clode with the corals Galaxea fascicularis and Dendrophyllia sp. collected from the cool, southern part of the Great Barrier Reef. High growth rates of 80-100% of the maximum rate were obtained within the range of about 75.5-79.5 F with a thermal optimum at about 77 F. Low growth rates of <25% of the maximum rate were obtained below about 72.5F or above about 84 F.
 
Location
Brooklyn, NY
Rating - 97.4%
74   2   0
76-78 here. The Shimek recommendation was always controversial and not followed by the vast majority of hobbyisits as it flew in the face of other expert opinion and widely accumulated hobbyist experience.

This is a really good example of a qualified, knowledgeable person interpreting data and drawing conclusions that bore serious consideration and response from other qualified people who drew different conclusions from the available data.

In the end, I think overwhelming experience has shown that while the 82 recommendation is fine for corals, it is too close to the upper limit and not worth the risk.

I'd also like to add that the series of articles by Chris Jury listed by Dom above are IMO the definitve work on the subject in the hobbyist literature---- and I ain't just sayin' that because I'm the editor :)
 
Last edited:
Location
Brooklyn, NY
Rating - 97.4%
74   2   0
No experts and scientists don't always agree, in fact often they don't. If you have ever been to an academic conference you know that it can get ugly fast. The difference between these debates and those between untrained hobbyists is these folks have the ability to reasonably argue their positions supported by their training, experience, familiarity with the literature etc.

Hobbyist experience is valid too, but not in the same way as it is almost always anecdotal.
 

salpet

Advanced Reefer
Location
westchester
Rating - 100%
31   0   0
there are a lot of different hard corals that live in shallow pools that are sometime during low tide exposed to to air with no water covering them and seem to do just fine with temps reaching in upwards of 85 to 89 degrees i guess they must have some kind of survival mechanism, i have seen first hand were rock anemones and some other softies live in shallow pools were the temp reached up to 90 degrees during low tide although i keep mine no higher than 80 in the summer
 

Sponsor Reefs

We're a FREE website, and we exist because of hobbyists like YOU who help us run this community.

Click here to sponsor $10:


Top