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Do plants care about temp swings?

Nick potts

Nick potts

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Joined
25 Sep 2014
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Torbay
Basic question, but do plants care about temp swings? I keep my tanks at room temp and the tank in question has no livestock apart from hitchhiker snails, when I do a water change I usually leave the water overnight to come up to temp, but it would be easier for me to just mix up my water and do a WC.

Will the plants care if the temp drops to that of the mains cold feed (I don't like to use the hot tap water)? I typically do 90% changes.

TIA.
 
I think so, lost a load of c.ulsteriana(sp?) when a heater broke (tank went from 21c to 28c)

Possibly that plants are more sensitive to heat that cold tho.
 
Thanks @castle, yeah I would think heat would be a killer more than a drop in temp, but that's just a guess.
 
Hi
I personally wouldnt do a 90% water change with cold mains tapwater, plants like stability and some can tolerate temperature swings better than others!
 
Yeah your all probs right :)

What are peoples thought of hot mains water? My cold water is only around the 50 TDS mark at the minute but the hot is a fair bit more hence why I don't like to use it.
 
Hi,
How big is your aquarium? Anything from a bucket or a 25l container through to a 100l slimline water butt can be filled, warmed up with a spare heater, dechlorinated, water changed in a couple of hours and then stored in a shed/garage or outside when not in use. If time is a major factor then the tank can be emptied while the change water is warming, I wouldn't have thought one or possibly two degrees would make that much difference if it's still a little on the cold side. Just out of interest, how come you are doing 90% changes, doing 60% is enough and saves 33% in space, time and money.
Cheers!
 
It's only a small tank, around 20ltrs, the reason for the large changes is simply because 1 full bucket is around that volume and as no livestock I can pretty much fully reset the nutrient levels.

Think I will just leave it to warm up like I normally do.
 
I have an unheated shrimp tank which gets a heater thrown in fairly regularly for fry raising, so whilst the swings aren't sudden, from a water change, it can go from 17-18 up to 26 for the fry, then back to room temp when they move on. I haven't seen any issues that I can directly attribute to the temp swings, but as I say, they're gradual and remain stable for a few months before gradually dropping again.
 
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