Cali Kid Corals

Do you heat your ATO tank?

Here's an interesting way of looking at things, you can ...

1) put a heater in your ATO, pay for the electricity to heat that amount of water, the water loses energy to the environment, you continue to heat and fight a losing battle against thermodynamics

2) don't put a heater in your ATO, the water goes into your display, you heat the water as it's needed, still lose the battle against thermodynamics but you're only on the hook for keeping one body of water at reef temperatures.

Now if you were going to do a sizable water change, then sure heat that water, but for ATO don't bother.
 
Not for top-off water but if you mix your own salt, you could the day before, bring it to about the same temp as the tank but only for a big water change.
 
xcaret said:
Not for top-off water but if you mix your own salt, you could the day before, bring it to about the same temp as the tank but only for a big water change.
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Wait, you guys don't heat your water change water? o_O

Not to derail the discussion, though I think the answer is clear by now, but I've always heated my water change water. I always assumed mixing / salinity measurements were best done at the same temp as the display.
 
kinetic said:
Wait, you guys don't heat your water change water? o_O

Not to derail the discussion, though I think the answer is clear by now, but I've always heated my water change water. I always assumed mixing / salinity measurements were best done at the same temp as the display.
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Nahhh. It is the bay area. No big temp difference.
 
kinetic said:
Wait, you guys don't heat your water change water? o_O

Not to derail the discussion, though I think the answer is clear by now, but I've always heated my water change water. I always assumed mixing / salinity measurements were best done at the same temp as the display.
Click to expand...
Nope. My tank drops about 3-4 degrees when I change 100 gal
 
kinetic said:
Wait, you guys don't heat your water change water? o_O

Not to derail the discussion, though I think the answer is clear by now, but I've always heated my water change water. I always assumed mixing / salinity measurements were best done at the same temp as the display.
Click to expand...
I feel as you do. I don’t want my salinity to change at all when I change larger quantities of water, and salinity measures differ with temperature. So I bring my mixed water to 78, and make sure the salinity matches my tank before initiating the change. I guess some might trust temperature correction more than I do...but I like to double check salinity at the same temp.


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kinetic said:
Wait, you guys don't heat your water change water? o_O

Not to derail the discussion, though I think the answer is clear by now, but I've always heated my water change water. I always assumed mixing / salinity measurements were best done at the same temp as the display.
Click to expand...

I don't either. A lot salt mix instructions usually say not to heat during mixing as heat can encourage precipitation to occur. I think Red Sea says something about using water in the high 60s and Fritz says 70.

You're supposed to heat just before using if you do want it to match tank water temp.
 
Gablami said:
I feel as you do. I don’t want my salinity to change at all when I change larger quantities of water, and salinity measures differ with temperature. So I bring my mixed water to 78, and make sure the salinity matches my tank before initiating the change. I guess some might trust temperature correction more than I do...but I like to double check salinity at the same temp.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

If you use a refractomer, it is not really doing what you think.
The few drops you add to the refractomer to measure, very quickly change temperature to that of the refractomer.
That is important and required.
The temperature compensation is based on the refractomer temp, not the water temp.
So for salinity measurement, water temp does not matter.
 
When I had my 30 gallon tank I would heat up water in a pot on the stove since it was much faster and cheaper than using an electric heater. When I upgraded to the 120 I pretty much stopped doing water changes.
 
For those using an internal pump to mix water the heat generated helps a bit so fish and corals don’t feel a “cold shower”
Danner Mag pumps are excellent source of heat for water mixing; specially the 9 and 12
 
ATO = no. Negligible amount of water added to primary at any given time to have negative effect.

Water changes = absolutely yes. Don't shock the inhabitants

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