Thoughts on Reduced Flow at Night in a SPS Tank

[masharp1126]

As title suggests, looking for thoughts/suggestions/recommendations on reduced flow at night. It was recently mentioned to me by one of our sponsor vendors that a lot of people reduce their flow on SPS tanks at night. Just wondering if there truly is a benefit, other than savings on electric bill. I'll have 3 closed loops running on my 430g system and trying to decide if I should cut it back to only one of them running at night.

What's your opinion on the subject?

 

[UtahReefer]

I have a tunze wavebox in my tank and it comes with a light sensor so automatically I have less flow at night time. I have other powerheads in the tank that run through the night so there is still flow, but it is quite a bit less without the wavebox running.

I think it is natural in the ocean to have rises and drops in the amount of waterflow and turbulence. I have had positive results with my sps even though I don't have the crazy flow going all the time.

 

[Amphiprion]

Lots of threads on this:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1421118&highlight=flow+night

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1414121&highlight=flow+night

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1481056&highlight=flow+night

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1576558&highlight=flow+night

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1606614&highlight=flow+night

I've personally never found it necessary or even beneficial, but those are just my observations.

 

[sportzfish]

Most of my sps have all their polyps out at night and with greater extension, so I am sure they would rather have the flow during that time to take advantage of it.

 

[jedi31]

Most of my sps have all their polyps out at night and with greater extension, so I am sure they would rather have the flow during that time to take advantage of it.

+1 on this concept

 

[luther1200]

I think its just as, if not more important to have flow at night. There is less O2 in the water so the more circulation the more gas exchange you will get, and the more water that passes corals the better than can get the O2 that they need. Plus like others said, SPS extend there polyps more at night and more flow will help them catch food. I have never been diving a reef at night, but I have been to the beach and out fishing, and the currents definitely do not subside at night.

 

[tcollins]

After doing a brief search on the net, seems as if there are two major factors which influence currents, tide and wind. Tides occur twice a day, high and low tide, unless there is a Neap tide which is a very minimal tide with little change between high and low. The second factor is wave action which is driven by wind and this seems to affect current at depths below where coral live. Strong winds are a product of the sun and resulting heat, which typically drop off at night due to night time cooling. So it would seem that the strongest currents would occur when tide movement is at it's strongest during the day, when wave action should also be at it's strongest. It would also seem reasonable then that night time currents should always be less, given that the wind action is not a contributing factor to the tidal effect.

 

[colgan10]

Just off my diving experience i would say that the current is generally much less at night than during the day, seems to be much easier to dive in surge environment at night then the day

 

[soulsigma]

I think its just as, if not more important to have flow at night. There is less O2 in the water so the more circulation the more gas exchange you will get, and the more water that passes corals the better than can get the O2 that they need. Plus like others said, SPS extend there polyps more at night and more flow will help them catch food. I have never been diving a reef at night, but I have been to the beach and out fishing, and the currents definitely do not subside at night.

X2 :thumbsup:

 

[chiclet]

so do you guys not put your vortechs on night mode?

 

[shaggy14]

Never have here. Sometimes I do turn them down a little but mainly if I have added any new corals or fish, just to help them get used to my tank conditions.