Temperature changes causing stress?

[TheBigB]

One of my tanks is in the garage and especially on cold nights the temperature might drop to as low as 76 degrees. Most of the time it stays between 79 and 78 but will drop below that if its really cold out. The heaters I am using are 2 300watt and 1 400 watt.



Would this cause my fish stress? Would it make them grow at a slower rate? What about causing them to not have as much color as they potenially could have?



I have 5 festaes (1.5in - 3 in) and they seem to be kind of dull. The most color Ive seen out of them is when I add new fish. Is this from the temperature changes, them being too young, or could they just be a bad strain?



One of the fish is in my avatar and was right after I added a green terror to the tank

 

[Dylz]

i dont think 3 degrees over night would cause stress for SA cichlids.

 

[TheBigB]

Ok thanks, I didnt think so at first but wanted to see what everyone thought just to make sure

 

[Gervahlt]

i dont think 3 degrees over night would cause stress for SA cichlids.

+1. I know I've varied it that much just during some water changes in the past without any problems. Anything over about 5 degrees would have me looking for a better heating solution though. That's a lot to swing though on a daily basis.

 

[aldiaz33]

I'm curious, how cold does it get in your garage? Have you tried insulating the tank to prevent heat loss? If you are running 1,000 watts of heaters on your 300 gallon, that sounds like it should be enough to keep the temps up. Do you have lids on the tank, or is it open top?

 

[TheBigB]

Not sure how cold it gets in the garage. I will get a thermometer and find out. The daily change isnt but about 1 maybe 2 degrees, its only when the outside temps drop below freezing that I see a larger drop in the waters temperature. The tank is a only 135 gallons, its a growout for a 300 gallon that i will be getting soon.

 

[boldtogether]

Think about these fish in the wild. The water will fluctuate through the day/nite cycle. Its when you rapidly increase or decrease the temp that you stress the fish.
In the summer I will put two or three 2L bottles of frozen water in the tanks to cool them as I think the heat is more of a stress to the fish than the cold is.
Again, a couple degree off of "optimum" wont hurt anything, in fact, as you probably know, fish will spawn when there is a cooler temp swing.

 

[Jc1119]

Your fine with the temp. The fish looks good too for it's size. IME festae dont really color up till around the 4-5" mark. Here's the one in my avatar through the growth and color changes. 3" when I bought her and 6" now

 

[aldiaz33]

Not sure how cold it gets in the garage. I will get a thermometer and find out. The daily change isnt but about 1 maybe 2 degrees, its only when the outside temps drop below freezing that I see a larger drop in the waters temperature. The tank is a only 135 gallons, its a growout for a 300 gallon that i will be getting soon.

Wow, 1000watts on a 135 gallon? That's almost 7.5 watts per gallon. I'm guessing it's a glass tank with no covers? I would cover the top to keep the heat in, but as others said, you are fine at those temps. But the more you insulate it, the less your heaters will have to cycle on.