Moohlight and open zoa polyps

[skimjim]

This is my first week having a programmable LED system. From 12am to 6am i have the program use 1% of the blue LEDs which casts a faint moonlight in the middle of the night.

Before this LED system my ton of zoas would all close up in the middle of the night when there was no light. Now that there is moonlight all the zoas stay open all the time.

QUESTION: is having a zoa polyp stay open 24/7 good for the zoa or hinder its color or growth?

i'm not sure if breaking its natural cycle of opening and closing will make an impact of all my zoas....

[Rob6311]

My one colony of zoas stays open 24/7 even with no lights on it's kinda weird but they're actually the colony that's doing the best, so idk about your specific case but maybe that'll help a little bit

[whosurcaddie]

My actinics go off at 8 and my moonlights go off at midnight then come back on at 6 am I like to give the fish a little time of pure darkness but I have never heard of any adverse reactions to leaving them on 24/7 for corals or fish. My zoa colony's close about halfway in the moonlight but I only have about 5 1 watt led's for moonlights so its not much at all over a 120.

[bundybear1981]

I wouldn't think it would cause any issues. Most nights there is some level of light. Its not very often its pitch black. I run my blues at 5% from 9pm till 6pm before it starts to ramp up (currently peaking at 60/55% power on the Photon 48 from Reefbreeders)

[shesacharmer]

Tidal Gardens, a commercial coral greenhouse, has an interesting youtube video on the subject. They said that in their experience, trying to simulate moon phases caused them quite a lot of problems, I believe with spawning. They recommended avoiding it. You might check that out as it was pretty interesting.