60-80° *room* temp okay for a reef tank?

[pricewayne]

Hi everyone,

 

I moved two years ago and I'm finally ready to start setting up my 40g IM AIO in the new place. The room I'd like to place the tank in is connected to an insulated sunroom. The sunroom does not have heating for the winter but it does have AC for the warm months. The indoor room temp where I'd be placing the tank averages between 60° in the winter and 80° in the summer. I previously ran one Eheim Jager TruTemp 125W in this tank at my last place and it maintained temperature without any issues, but the room temp was better regulated.

 

Would running two Eheim Jager TruTemp 125Ws be enough to counter/regulate reef tank temperatures if the room temp is 60°?

 

If helpful, here's a graph of my area's outdoor average high/low temperatures:

[natalia_la_loca]

I imagine it would. Maybe use one heater with a higher wattage instead of two. And get a temperature controller because that will alert you if the temp gets too low (or too high).

[seabass]

Here's a rough guide to heater sizing:

https://www.thesprucepets.com/aquarium-heater-size-guide-1381033

 

You'd need at least a 150W heater (200W is probably better) to raise the water temp ~20°F, so two 125W heaters should be fine.  I'd put them on a temperature controller to make sure they don't get stuck on and fry your tank someday.  Having two heaters adds some redundancy should one of them fail off.

[pricewayne]

Thank you both!!

 

Hopefully I’ll have a new tank journal started in the next few weeks 😋

[mcarroll]

7 hours ago, pricewayne said:

Would running two Eheim Jager TruTemp 125Ws be enough to counter/regulate reef tank temperatures if the room temp is 60°?

If you're shooting for about 150 watts then I'd suggest that three smaller 50w heaters would be a safer, more ideal setup – with or without controller.  Heating would be more even since they can be spread out in the tank and RISK in the event of heater failure is much lower.  

 

I notice from your chart and reported room temp's that all three heaters would need to be in the system only for a few months out of the year...also seems like having no heaters could be ideal for a few weeks of the year.  Just thoughts.  Keeping a tank in a non- or partly-air conditioned space is a different challenge!