Hot Weather

[Mania25]

I've just run my led lights today without the t5s and everything is shrunken up. No corals have opened up without my t5s.

[MellowReefer]

Originally Posted by serbusfish

I was thinking of just running my 2x blue T5's for today, I take it that wont be a problem if corals can go with no light at all for a few days?

Yes, you can try running just blues and see if your temp stays low enough, so at least the corals get some light. It's kind of like a cloudy day for them.

For my tank, if I know it's going to be a warm day I just program only the blues to be on. If it's going to be a hot day I just leave the lights off completely. Then when I get home if the tank is not too warm I run the lights from 6-10pm (normally they are on 2-10pm) But here in San Francisco we have weather similar to UK where we only have a few random weeks in the summer with hot weather. If you have a long summer of consistent high temps you need to find a more permanent solution, like removing glass/acrylic tops and replacing with clear netting and running fans pointed at the surface of your water.

[manilaboy1vic]

Originally Posted by Mania25

I have a firefish too and that worries me as well. That's why I've never done it before, left the lid off. However, he always goes into hiding when the lights go out. So not sure if I should risk it.

my buddy has a firefish, no top..

how long you had that fish?? he comfortable with his environment?

[MellowReefer]

Originally Posted by Mania25

I've just run my led lights today without the t5s and everything is shrunken up. No corals have opened up without my t5s.

Yes but they're okay like that for a few days. Better than overheating your tank which may kill them.

[AirForceAquariu]

Originally Posted by Mania25

I've just run my led lights today without the t5s and everything is shrunken up. No corals have opened up without my t5s.

Think about it like this: Coral is at risk of polyp predators or damage when it extends so if there is no light or insufficient light to outweigh the risk it does not take the risk of extending. Shouldn't be harmful for a few days or even a week. The LED alone probably is not optimal but will give it a little snack.

[MellowReefer]

Somewhere there's a long thread about the benefits of keeping your lights off for 3 days straight once a month. Somebody noticed that his corals actually looked better and had more color from doing this occasionally. He started doing it to reduce algae and kept doing it, and others posted that they had good results doing the 3 day blackout. From what I remember no one had anything bad happen from it. People with cyano routinely do 3 day blackouts with no ill effects.

[Mania25]

I've had my firefish for about two months. Yeah he's happy with his environment. He shares burrows with my watchman goby and pistol shrimp.


Ok I'm going to just leave the blues on for most of the day. As you said it's better for them not to open rather than kill them with a really high temp. The three day a month blackout is new to me and might be something I might look into for the future if it gives the coral more colour.

[Silly clownfish]

Another option I used a few tiems before we had central air installed: do you have any unnecessary powerheads in the tank that you can turn off during the day? They add some heat to the water too. I had a coue of small ones in my old tank and put them on timers to be off during the hotest part of the day. Or if you can move them to add a little more agitation to the surface of your water, that might help with cooling - similar to the fan.