Do you bring your tanks flow down at night?

[KMS.Kyle]

Hello,

Just curious here - does anyone support bringing the flow of your tank down at night? (I.e turning off one of the power heads) - I'm wondering - because I see that my clowns tend to hide up behind my skimmer at night where its calm to sleep - Would it be a bad thing to turn the one power head off? I still have my pump and 1 other power head in there that would still create some good flow - the one I would be turning off is the one shooting across my tank.

Thank you for the help.

(PS - I just got a RTBA so I also worry about keeping the flow up for it.. But not sure if this matters at night?)

 

[CHizer]

I go with the thought of the ocean doesn't move less at night so I keep my flow the same.

 

[DubiousMaximus]

It does move less depending on moon position or at the change of the natural currents

?.."Tides produce oscillating currents known as tidal streams. The moment that the tidal current ceases is called slack water or slack tide. The tide then reverses direction and is said to be turning. Slack water usually occurs near high water and low water."...

How long these slack tide currents stand still depends on weather & location, jm2c

 

[whosurcaddie]

Dubious maximums is right the ocean does become calmer at night because of the tides. If you have a controller for your pumps that can go into night mode I would do it. Like on my Jebaos it can detect light and can tell when your aquarium lights go off, it then switches to night mode. It wont shut off completely it just reduces to the lowest flow setting and is constant. If you don't have a controller then don't worry about it. It will become a chore to remember every night, but you could also put it on a timer to turn off when your lights do.

 

[shifty51008]

While my tunze pumps can slow down at night i dont, they run the same way during the day as night. The ammount of flow we put in our tanks isnt even close to the flow in the ocean.

 

[Dkuhlmann]

I don't slow them down at night and I don't slow them down when I feed my fish. I do however slow them down when I target feed my corals which is once every week maybe two. I don't slow down the current when I broadcast feed my corals twice a week.

 

[DubiousMaximus]

True, there is no way we can reproduce natural currents and tidal flows in a glass box but not every sp of coral or fish is found at the reef crest or even near high current zones, just not that safe for divers to collect in. Most are collected in areas protected from surf

 

[Sapelo]

I do slow the pumps down at night. I run a strong nutrient export mode shortly after evening feeding and then pull pumps down to a constant mode for 6 hours. It works for me.

 

[cincyjim]

I have Tunze power heads which are adjustable for flow. During the day they are 60 - 80% alternating and at night, they are turned down to 40 - 60% steady flow (not alternating).

 

[skeeter_ca]

I use the night mode on my Jebao's. I figure the fish in the ocean seem to hide in low flow areas to sleep but in the tank there is no low flow areas if the powerheads stay the same. So on night mode it slows the pumps down so they can find low flow areas to rest.

 

[Marchillo]

I slow down my wireless mp10's. The one that isn't wireless doesn't change but it's peak Flow rate is lower than my others. I don't think it matters much though.

 

[AZRippster]

I've been diving since '91 and have been on numerous night dives. On average, the ocean does calm significantly at night to the point of being dead still. This isn't always the case, and normally there is some motion/current, but that is one of the nice things about night diving is not having to deal with as much force as one has to during day hours. Maybe it's natures way of giving the fish that do sleep an opportunity to "relax".

 

[hobbzz]

As others have said there is no need. I didn't in the past. But since getting larger powerheads and fish snails getting sucked in I do. Not that it makes an actual difference, just a false security blanket really. I figure it doesn't hurt though, the fish will expend less energy while sleeping.

 

[Ejazzle]

The ocean does not slow down at night.

But if you have some serious pumps it might be harder for your fish to rest easy since there are a lot less places for them to hide from the current than out in the wild.

 

[AZRippster]

It may be due to the wind often calming at night which in turns effects the waves. We found this true in November when we were in the Yucatan (Akumal). We had some pretty good waves throughout the day but by the evening things had calmed a bit.

 

[yellowRubi]

I lower my MP40's to 30% at night

 

[Bent]

I run mine at 30-40% minimum on a random alternating mode. The ramp time is about 3 seconds it Ramps up and down. Sometimes it hits 100%.

Two RW-15s in a 55g.

I stop the ramp at night. I figure it gives the fish more places to sleep without being blasted.

 

[KMS.Kyle]

Awesome thanks everyone!

 

[daquan44]

I run the nutrient export mode at night when I am sleeping and don't need the tank to be silent. Once that finishes in an hour and a half or so, I run a calm lagoon flow.