high turnover, day and night?

[kevensquint]

Since this is prolly the forum with the most tank current, I'll post this here. My friend has an SPS dominated tank and he has about half his pumps connected to the same timer as his lights. So at night the current is about half. I thought this was a great idea, especially in a tank with 50+ times turnover. But before I try it, I wanted to see what all you are doing.

 

[Larry Waughon]

My current stays the same 24 hrs a day.

 

[kevensquint]

Do you have really high turnover?, I find that on paper, it would make sense to give the corals a break at night and give them more chance to catch food.

 

[MiddletonMark]

IMO, they might want more flow at night [lower oxygen levels in the aquarium at night ... though they're still breathing].

While I've had mine decrease during the dark period, I don't anymore [laziness?].
IMO, the high flow keeps any potential food in circulation.

 

[Larry Waughon]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7363503#post7363503 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by kevensquint
Do you have really high turnover?, I find that on paper, it would make sense to give the corals a break at night and give them more chance to catch food.

I run two tunze 6100's, a wave box, and an 1100gph return pump on a 180 gal tank.

 

[jsweir]

I have my wavebox turn off when the lights go out, but only because the tank is next to my bedroom...

 

[MCsaxmaster]

Why would one want to do this? I've heard this idea here and there for years and have yet to hear a good explanation as to why one should reduce water flow at night. Most of the water flow on reefs is due to currents (tidal and otherwise) and that doesn't stop at night, nor do the waves for that matter I'd concur with Mark's comments on DO at night too--if anything it would seem to me that daytime is the time we could get away with less water flow, considering they corals are actively photosynthesizing (though one begins to walk a fine line with reactive oxygen species too and bleaching). Anyway, I'm rambling, but I see no benefit to this and a good potential for harm.

Chris