Can temperature kill

[Javisheppard]

I went out of town for 2days and when I came back all of my fish and snails had died... While I was gone my a/c shut off and when I came home the temperature in my house was 91 degrees and when I felt the water it was very warm... Would hot temperatures kill your fish?

[reefreak]

I would be almost positive it will they are basically cooking in your tank

[jroescher]

I can tell you from experience that fish and corals are much more tolerant of cold than hot.

[Big_Pun]

yes it can kill... above 83 is bad news

[Gseclipse02]

yes it can kill... above 83 is bad news

I wouldn't say terrible above.83 I ran that as a constant temp some times 84.when really hot and no issues

[SoLiD]

After talking to Paul Whitby a little on Sunday, he mentioned about corals contracting Brown Jelly Disease much more easily in water warmer than 78 degrees. If you can avoid it, don't run your temps past 82. That's usually when things start to go wrong with most of the nicer corals.

Here is a link to Paul's tank Re-Build from 2008.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1423726

[allan]

You know I am losing an acan colony, siphoned off a good deal of jelly this weekend. Temps are at 81, I don't think it ever gets to 82 though.

[SoLiD]

Paul said anything past 78 degrees is not good; so at 81 you're past it. Also, once you get that type of Bacterial Infection (brown jelly) inside the tissue, it is almost always a death sentence. You have to cut off all of the infected parts and a little beyond that to save the remaining living parts. It will spread to the remaining good tissue and no amount of dipping or medications seem to work. Do it soon Allan or it's a goner.

[Mr Cob]

I agree David, I have found my corals do best...color, growth, stability, less algae etc at 78 or less. I'm struggling with keeping the system where I like it right now since I took the 220g off line from the 85g. Prior I was able to keep it 76-78. I thought that was perfect. Now, I'm running 78-81.7 and me no likey.

There's always exceptions and people will successfully run stable systems with the warm temps...I think our corals and fish will adjust to most reasonable temps with stable temps being the key. I think 76-78 is a sweet spot for reef tanks.

[alton]

While I was out of town my ac also went out, lucky for me my controllers shut lights off at 79 and my son came home from work and called me.

[Zack]

While I was out of town my ac also went out, lucky for me my controllers shut lights off at 79 and my son came home from work and called me.

That reason alone was enough for me to get a controller. Since I've had it, I've had a minor A/C failure while I was at work and my tank shut off the lights, turned on three fans, and had an audible alarm that woke my roommate up to call matinence.

[Bill S]

As noted, a good reason for a controller: If temp exceeds say 82, turn out the lights!

For a short period, corals and fish are pretty tolerant - corals in particular. In the wild, we've been on reefs with the temp over 90. The fish go to cooler water, the corals close up.

[allan]

Didn't save the colony, that colony had been with me since I got the 190.

I've always had my temp around 81-82, but about a month ago I started experimenting and brought it down to 79. But the room was pretty unpleasant. For what ever reason this new tank runs hotter.

I think I'm going to get a few smaller fans to blow across the surface of the water.

Honestly that that with the added space between my lights and water that my temps would have been a bit cooler. On the flip side it seems as if my rocks are purpleing up, not something that happened before.