do you cut back your flow at night?

[jbird69]

Do you think its beneficial to do this? I read somewhere that its a good idea.

[ReefCrazy101]

Ya you should cuz corals feed at night but that's just my answer

[Sisterlimonpot]

I remember reading that with the lunar tides it actually gets more turbulent at night.
However when I night feed I turn all the powerheads and pumps off.

[Sisterlimonpot]

Originally Posted by ReefCrazy101

Ya you should cuz corals feed at night but that's just my answer

To Reef Central

[Mike31154]

My VorTech powerheads have a night mode and I do use it. No idea how beneficial it is for the critters, but they seem to be fine with it either way. The benefit is more for me, power savings, less wear on the pumps and a lower sound level.

[greenbean36191]

No, there is no reason to believe that there is any benefit to doing so (at least for the animals) and several reasons to believe that it is potentially harmful.

At night respiration is so high on the reef, even in nature, that a hypoxic layer usually forms close to the reef structure. That means it's hard for corals and anything else in close proximity to the rocks to breathe. The thickness of this hypoxic layer, and in turn how hard it is for the animals to breathe, is determined by water flow. Higher flow makes it easier to breathe and lower flow makes it harder.

Corals do not need the flow reduced in order to feed. In fact, reducing the flow tends to reduce coral feeding efficiency unless the starting flow is extremely high.

[sedor]

FWIW I do not cut back the flow at night. I rely solely on fish poop to feed my coral and have never really night fed so I never found a need to do it.

[spleify]

I too, believe that you should not reduce flow at night. I leave mine on 24/7. Always have, always will.

[Playa-1]

My flow is 24/7.

[Juruense]

nope

[Firefish76]

I don't turn the flow down at night either, flow is on 24/7 unless I'm feeding corals then I leave them off for 20-30 min

[jbird69]

okay, Thanks for the great response greenbean (and others)

It is interesting that companies that are building high end wavemakers and controllers that seem to do tireless R&D on captive reef health, would have a night mode like this.

[dalee26]

I turn my pump intervals to run 15 minutes every hour when the lights go out. When I watch the reef at night I will see the night critters (e.g. Brittle stars, pods, other things I have no idea what they are) scurrying over the rocks and cleaning away. When the pumps were on they would be blown off pretty quickly and fly around in the water column. I turn them on less so that they can take care of what they need to and still will get some water movement going to keep things happy. Just my 2 coppers.

[jbird69]

hmmmm. I wonder what benefit might come from cutting the flow for like 2-3 hrs a night via timers. I may try this. Not completely but maybe cutting 2/3 flow.

[Sisterlimonpot]

Originally Posted by jbird69

okay, Thanks for the great response greenbean (and others)

It is interesting that companies that are building high end wavemakers and controllers that seem to do tireless R&D on captive reef health, would have a night mode like this.

I always wondered that as well, Has any of these companies gave reason why there is a night mode?

[Playa-1]

I suspect it's more of a Marketing gimmick aimed at the first time buyer. The old "we've got more bells and whistles then the other guy" routine.

[hyperfocal]

Originally Posted by Playa-1

I suspect it's more of a Marketing gimmick aimed at the first time buyer. The old "we've got more bells and whistles then the other guy" routine.

Exactly -- it's a competitive disadvantage to not have a feature that the competition does, even if the feature is useless/junk. You see the same thing on computer equipment, consumer electronics, etc.