Full Moon Action

[Reef Nanna]

I'm new to reef tanks and forums and this is my first post.. I'm curious about something. The other night during the Full (Wolf) Moon to my surprise three bristle worms presented themselves and were very active. One was pink with white bristles and another tiny pink/white and a large grey/pink bristle. They must be all hitchhikers from LFS. My tank is a cycling newbie but another reefer said he noticed the same action with his worms. Is it possible that the tank is influenced by the full moon.

 

[lubricus]

Wow! your first post! way to go Mom I'm not to sure about the full moon thing? good question? I have seen them spawn, in the tank maybe it was a full moon that night not sure

not my pic

 

[lubricus]

Did a little search for you, didn't fined to much about the moon thing. you may fined this thread interesting, i haven't read it all yet but it might help you learn a little bit more about your new critters.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1155729&highlight=bristle+worms

 

[Reef Nanna]

Proceed at your own risk, I guess. It might make sense that even a reef tank has an ebb and tide and the critters are effected by it.

 

[lReef_lKeeper]

i know that things in our tanks ARE affected by barometric pressure, i would assume that the full moon effect on the earth would also affect our tanks.

 

[OneDayMatt]

An ebb and tide in a reef tank would be interesting, but that will not happen. Gravitational effects on oceanic waters occur mainly because they are part of a body of water that surrounds the whole earth. You could simulate them. A full moon most certainly doesn't make a difference either. A new moon affects tides the same way a new moon affects tides. *This is not a flame, just info* You could simulate tides in your tank if you don't mind figuring out a way to move water one way in the tank for part of the day and the other way during other parts of the day. It would be interesting to place powerheads on opposite sides of the tank and control them to simulate the changes in currents due to tidal forces. In parts of a reef as small as our reef sections, a tide may only increase or decrease the current on that specific part of the reef. You may not get truly opposite effects on an incoming or outgoing tide.

 

[lubricus]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10291714#post10291714 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by OneDayMatt
An ebb and tide in a reef tank would be interesting, but that will not happen. Gravitational effects on oceanic waters occur mainly because they are part of a body of water that surrounds the whole earth. You could simulate them. A full moon most certainly doesn't make a difference either. A new moon affects tides the same way a new moon affects tides. *This is not a flame, just info* You could simulate tides in your tank if you don't mind figuring out a way to move water one way in the tank for part of the day and the other way during other parts of the day. It would be interesting to place powerheads on opposite sides of the tank and control them to simulate the changes in currents due to tidal forces. In parts of a reef as small as our reef sections, a tide may only increase or decrease the current on that specific part of the reef. You may not get truly opposite effects on an incoming or outgoing tide.

how about the moonlight? that has an effect on marine organism's.

 

[OneDayMatt]

I use moonlights, but I'm not cinvinced they do anything other than make the tank night time viewable without actually harming the inhabitants.

 

[Reef Nanna]

The moon phases effect people's moods and bodies and so I think they would effect every living thing.

 

[greenbean36191]

There isn't a whole lot of evidence to support the idea that moonlight has much of any influence on sealife. Think about how quickly the light is attenuated underwater and how unreliable a signal it can be due to cloud cover. Most likely the triggers for spawning are a combination of seasonal variations like temperature changes and increased plankton, along with shorter term changes like tidal strength and maybe light to some small extent.

 

[rbursek]

I and my buddy notice in his and mine that the Plate, Brain, Cats Eye get huge in the full moon stage at night.