Does tank temp. depend on what you are keeping? My tank temp. is set to 79 degrees, is this to high? A clown fish book I bought a few months back says about80 degrees. I just wanted to get everyones opinion. I thought it was like 77, 78 degrees.

Personaly i keep my tank at 81-82 degrees. All of my corals are happier at a hotter them. My clowns dont show effected either way.

When does bleaching start occuring? around 85?

i believe bleaching starts at or above 85ºF but only if its a constent temp, not just a temporary jump up there. i keep my tank about about 80-81ºF. anything in the 76-83º range is fine. but its real important to keep it consistent. the lower the temp the slower the animals in your tank metabolism will be, and the slower they will grow. the higher the temp the higher the metabolism, and faster they grow. to a point. i think fish are more effected by that than corals, and other inverts. but im no expert :D.

Also keep in mine that some creatures like turbo snails perfer colder water where more tropical snails perfer warmer water. so you just kinda have to find that happy place..

cool sounds good! I think I will stay at around 79 and bumped it up if I need to. Thanks :)

Mine goes no where near 80.

what temp does your get to?

77-78. That's as far as I go. When it hit 81 one summer before the chiller I bleached my maze... thankfully he recovered.

Temp debates are right up there with DSB debates.

wow. oh ok I will keep mine around 77

To a certain degree it depends on what you are keeping. Seahorses for example generally like a bit cooler water. The most important thing though is to minimize temp swings. Those are what usually stress the fish out. IME

The seahorse tank stays at about 73.

Exactly what I was saying.
What kind do you have?
I have kudas and love them.

I have Reidi and Erectus at the moment.

my reef stays between 78 and 81. no ill effects, just have a hard time keeping it stable when the halides come on. a 3 degree swing really isn't bad though, considering that i have 3 x 250w MH and 4 x 110w VHO actinics !!

With my one MH my tank swings about .3 degrees but i also have a fan that comes on with the MH. My sump doesn't move at all. its 81.1 degrees most of the time.

Average reef temps is around 82.
Reef Stability, A Moving Target by Ronald L. Shimek, Ph.D. - Reef Hobbyist Online Magazine (http://www.reefland.com/rho/1105/reefc7.php)

I keep both reef tanks at exactly 80. If I had FOWLR, then I would go lower.

Stability is more important than what temp u choose.

I finally got my temp. to stay at 75. I want more but I am in my cycle phase right now, and I dont have a tank cover yet. I also live in Vermont so it's a little cold out, even with my house at 70. I am also losing a little water to evaporation due to no cover.

Even with the cover you will lose some water to evaporation. That is what an auto-topoff is for. :)
Stability is the most important thing for temps in our reefs. Just make sure you have no more than a couple of degrees swing in temp through the day and you should be ok. 75 is a bit low unless you are keeping seahorses or another cooler water fish. I would try for something closer to 77 or 78 personally.

thanks lcstorc, yes I am having a problem to heat sump and tank, I think it might be a circulation problem, I do have a 200 watt heater. I also think a lack of light on top of the tank might be an issue as well.

I have a dual phase temp controller and my heater comes on at 79 and chiller at 82. Crazy weather we've been having my chiller is still running. I figure that even if we have a huge temp swing in the house the most my tank would swing is 3 degrees.

oh wow that is nice. I hate having two heaters to heat my tank. I cant wait until my powerhead gets here from marine depot.

I just bought a chiller that comes with a heat controller and heater. I am really looking forward to hooking it up to minimize my temp swings since central Fl gets very warm during the day (when the mh are on) and quite cool at night.

oh wow who makes that?

Mine is a Pacific Coast but I believe several people make similar models. This one was recommended by a fellow reefer on another site and was about mid price for a chiller. Since it has not arrived yet I am not yet sure how well it will work but loved the idea.

cool us know :)