pecan2phat
Aquarium Advice Freak
I know this issue has been talked about but I just wanted to get a feel of what others are doing.
25 years ago when starting out in the hobby, I read books like Martin Moe & Thiel and they wrote that temp should be about 78 degrees & SG should be 1.022, so that's what I did for about 10 years.
Then you had guys like Sprung & Fenner that suggested lowering temp to 76-77 degrees & SG to 1.017-1.018. Some even kept theirs at 1.014, so for the last 15 years or so that's what I did. Why? Because it made some sense to me that lower temp afforded higher oxygen saturation & lower SG enabled easier osmoregulation. Based on the added theory that our fish are (or back then) all caught from the ocean & the ocean affords them an infinite volume of water, thereby no detectable levels of any ammonia, NO2, NO3, PHO4 etc. Now when we keep these guys in such an enclosed finite amount of space, then you have all those levels to deal with including stress & parasites. If the lower SG provided less effort for them to expel the salt within their bodies, then it made sense to me.
Now that I have found this fabulous forum, I have read so many helpful & educating materials dealing with our wet friends. I've read where most members (and a link to an article published by a PHD) like to keep their temp around 80 degrees and SG at 1.025.
I also understand the theory that was laid out that these are the parameters of the home that our wet friends come from and why would we think that changing this would benefit them. I'm starting to question my past practice and with the ongoing conversion from a FO to a FOWLR, I started to raise both parameters to about 79.6 for temp & 1.024 for SG due to the LR and mushroom rocks that I have placed in the tank. Of course I did this slowly over a few water changes & a about 2 weeks time. I've always kept my mini reef at 75-76 degrees & 1.025 SG (I started to raise that temp to 78-79 degrees).
So what do FO A.A. members keep their parameters for temp & salinity at? I like to know, TIA.
25 years ago when starting out in the hobby, I read books like Martin Moe & Thiel and they wrote that temp should be about 78 degrees & SG should be 1.022, so that's what I did for about 10 years.
Then you had guys like Sprung & Fenner that suggested lowering temp to 76-77 degrees & SG to 1.017-1.018. Some even kept theirs at 1.014, so for the last 15 years or so that's what I did. Why? Because it made some sense to me that lower temp afforded higher oxygen saturation & lower SG enabled easier osmoregulation. Based on the added theory that our fish are (or back then) all caught from the ocean & the ocean affords them an infinite volume of water, thereby no detectable levels of any ammonia, NO2, NO3, PHO4 etc. Now when we keep these guys in such an enclosed finite amount of space, then you have all those levels to deal with including stress & parasites. If the lower SG provided less effort for them to expel the salt within their bodies, then it made sense to me.
Now that I have found this fabulous forum, I have read so many helpful & educating materials dealing with our wet friends. I've read where most members (and a link to an article published by a PHD) like to keep their temp around 80 degrees and SG at 1.025.
I also understand the theory that was laid out that these are the parameters of the home that our wet friends come from and why would we think that changing this would benefit them. I'm starting to question my past practice and with the ongoing conversion from a FO to a FOWLR, I started to raise both parameters to about 79.6 for temp & 1.024 for SG due to the LR and mushroom rocks that I have placed in the tank. Of course I did this slowly over a few water changes & a about 2 weeks time. I've always kept my mini reef at 75-76 degrees & 1.025 SG (I started to raise that temp to 78-79 degrees).
So what do FO A.A. members keep their parameters for temp & salinity at? I like to know, TIA.
