Do we run our tanks too hot?

I saw this article on Seriously Fish and thought it might interest some of you. A lot of the points made make sense to me. What does everyone else think?

www.seriouslyfish.com/whaddaya-mean-too-hot/

Nice read although it seems based on fishkeepers taking the original info as factual... yet we cannot replicate a piece of wild in our aquariums and what works for some mightn't work for others so I wouldn't rush his method.
Its like my thought on lighting and plants... some amazon species come from conditions of little or no light and maybe a specific few plants yet aquarists persist on keeping them in high light planted tanks... now thats too bright but we all take example from what has been done and inspire to them aquariums instead of whats natural to the species...
Wats been said to me before was "sure tankbred fish won't know the difference" so if few of us keep w/c fish is that artical even relevant??
Just my thoughts confusing as they may seem

That's an interesting read for sure! The author, as far as I can see, doesn't talk about the effect of these temperature fluctuations on the nitrifying bacteria we keep in our filters. It's all well and good if the fish can deal with the changes but if the bacteria suffer that surely must be a negative?

I have no idea if it does impact on the bacteria but it wasn't talked about and I think it's another factor to consider.

I think big swings between temps would be damaging for both fish and bacteria. I certainly wouldn't want major fluctuations in a small tank. They happen very slowly in larger tanks though. And I don't think he's necessarily talking only about removing heaters. He seems to be also talking about setting them lower than we usually do.

I'm always of two minds about the "tank-bred" argument; does that mean the fish don't have a preference? And to my mind it's almost only every mentioned in reference to pH and hardness. For example, my Diamond tetras are pretty happy in a tank with moderate flow, but still, despite having never been in the fast flowing Venezuelan streams they hail from, they only really come into their own when there's increased flow. Despite the fact that there are slower parts of the tank where they'd have to do less "work", they are almost always found in the current. I'm not sure certain characteristics get bred out so easily, despite being raised in captivity.

I have 3 tanks in the room I'm currently in. Two have heaters and one (the blind cave tetra tank) doesn't. With the summer we've been having the cave tank is at 24^oC right now, actually at the upper end of their range (some sites say 30^oC but if you find yourself in a cave that reaches that temperature, then you're probably sitting in a volcano ). Because we have a 3 year old here, our home is generally always reasonably warm, so while I don't think I'd do away with a heater in smaller tanks, I would be interested to find out what inching the temp down over a longer period would do. While I do realise our tanks are closed systems and rivers are not, I find myself sometimes wondering about the received wisdom we sometimes rely on in the hobby.

Due to the sheer difference in water volume when comparing a river to an aquarium we simply couldn't replicate what happens in the river and expect a tank to stay stable and safe for the fish, some will take it whereas some won't...

Believe very little of what you read and take it as a guide instead... its not as if we know the people coming up with these theories so I'd take it all with a pinch of salt

Yeah, too often I've had guys tell me that you need to do this, that and the other to keep such and such a fish only to hear someone else tell me the opposite! And then realising that neither keep them the way I do

I think wackoo has a good point re bacteria as they are not as efficient at lower temps. I guess some fluctuation may make things a little more natural but I don't think I'll be pulling out the heaters in a hurry.

Q_Comets wrote:

I think wackoo has a good point re bacteria as they are not as efficient at lower temps. I guess some fluctuation may make things a little more natural but I don't think I'll be pulling out the heaters in a hurry.

It does beg the question, what defines lower temperature, ie low to the point it'd affect the bacteria significantly?

edit: we should have some kind of bat signal for Ian millichip in situations like this

Da Na Na Na Na Na ....

As Davey said, we try to replicate the wild scene, maybe more visually, but also keeping it stable.
If you want to create subtle flucuations you could look at under/oversizing the heater and increasing/ reducing the flow or moving them away from each other.
Again all info is a guide of where to start or move back to if theres an issue and we do put or own spin on it and keep them our own way.
I'll just add to the turning heaters off option.
If you turn the heaters off in the summer, then you should take regular room and tank temperatures so that in winter when you turn the heaters back on you don't exceed the summer temps. If you think of the natural light in the room being longer in summer and shorter in winter then you wouldnt want to mismatch the temp with incorrectly set stats.