Devastation...frogspawn is dying...

[DurTBear]

It's been unusually hot in SF the last few days and when I got home last night, my tank was at 90 degrees. Everything has somewhat recovered except for the frogspawn which looks like it's dying, the GSP's haven't opened up yet and the the hammer coral looks bad (although it looks like it might survive). A sad day for me...

[macman7010]

90 degrees is far, far too hot for just about any reef dwelling animal, and honestly I am surprised your fish made it through. You will want to be on the look out for signs of bacterial infections, (fungus, etc) since huge spikes in temperatures promote the growth of bacteria and the stress of the temperature hike may have weakened the fish's immune system.

Judging from the picture of your frogspawn it doesn't look good. Temps in just the high eighties can bleach SPS corals and cause LPS corals to slime and eventually perish. If you can get those temps down where they should be, mid-seventies to low eighties at max, the frogspawn may pull through but it looks pretty desperate in that photo.

I would recommend either a tank chiller, fanning system, different lighting interval, or room A/C unit to prevent this from happening again.

[MSU Fan]

my tank was up at 83 degrees due to the heat in WI yesterday too - it was 81 in my house!! I have to turn on the AC to get the temps down, as well as point a fan at the top of the water to get it to cool down. I feel for you, truly!

[melosu58]

Sorry to hear that. I would get a fan and blow it across the top this will bring it down some. I know a couple of those clip on fans would work fine. Dont give up yet and get those fans blowing across the top. Hope all goes well.

[produceb]

I live in florida also, how do you not run your AC all the time. I think you will find it is better to set it at 76 or so when you leave instead of have to recool the entire house when you get back. the power usage may actually go down.

[Kurt_Nelson]

Uhhh... the two folks talking about AC live in Wisconsin and California. San Francisco is a pretty mild climate and normally doesn't need AC. Think ya misread something there.

[Dr.Nate]

maybe I missed something but was does AC have to do with temperature?

Also, to bring the temp down I agree with everyone else

[melosu58]

Air conditioner

[artoledo]

I leave my AC on at all times. Its been real hot here in FL lateley and i just cant afford for my tank to die on me after all the hard work i have put in. Leave that AC running and point some fans over the tank. Good luck.

[DurTBear]

Yeah, I have a clip on fan which is now blowing across the top of the water surface. It normally doesn't get that hot in SF so I was really surprised that the temperature got that hot. But hopefully I'll be more prepared to deal with something like this in the future.

Unfortunately, the frogspawn is basically dead now. One of the heads has almost completely melted away. It sucks because it was actually splitting before the heatwave. It grew a second mouth and looked like it was pulling apart. And the GSP's haven't come out ever since the tank got hot. As for the fish and inverts, they all look and seem to be acting fine. You're absolutely right...I'm probably lucky to have escaped with just losing the frogspawn and GSP's. But I'll keep a close eye on everything else and watch for bacteria/fungus.

Thanks for all the suggestions guys.