Do you decrease/alter flow at night?

Lylelovett · Mar 31, 2019

Hi all,

I'm beginning to fine tune my wave makers and was curious what you all do at night, if anything? Do you decrease your flow? If so, by how much? Adjust waves? Etc?

Any other thoughts?

Thanks!

Brian1f1 · Mar 31, 2019

I don’t, but could, so Following.

WVNed · Mar 31, 2019

mich2599 · Mar 31, 2019

I do. I go from 45% pulse during the day to 25% random on my Nero.

My other tunze wavemaker stay the same day/night.

DarkSky · Mar 31, 2019

Ocean currents don't slow down at night, so why should we slow ours down?

ZipAdeeZoa · Mar 31, 2019

DarkSky said:
Ocean currents don't slow down at night, so why should we slow ours down?

I think that could be open to debate. The currents of the ocean are remarkably complex and constantly changing. Just like in our tanks, one new branch of coral can change the entire dynamic of how the water moves around the rest of the colony and that impact occurs in the ocean albeit on a much larger scale. As the shapes of coral reefs, winds and storms, amounts of hydrothermal vents, erosion and countless other variables are constantly in flux the currents are subject to constant change.

Considering the truly epic proportions of the worlds ocean, the ever changing dynamic of its currents and the tidal ebb and flow it seems extraordinarily unlikely that currents wouldn't slow down at night in at least some parts of the world although some would surely speed up as well.

I think that establishing a variable rhythm that works for your particular tank is what you should focus on although I would personally try and avoid drastic changes through the night as I think it would be a little unfair to expect the sleeping fish to be able to address those changes (based solely off the fact that I can't address any changes while I'm unconscious but thats anthropomorphism at its finest;Hilarious)

Wen · Mar 31, 2019

Long ago, I had an elderly pair of Banggai Cardinalfish and would decrease flow at night to give them a rest.

My latest tweak was notching up the flow dramatically a few hours every night to clear detritus while the fleshy LPS are retracted.
This has been a huge improvement to the health of my tank!
Hammer the flow for an hour when the tank is dark if you have big softies or giant lps that would be damaged or lean into a neighbor when expanded during the day.

madweazl · Mar 31, 2019

Jay Z · Mar 31, 2019

I reduce my heads down to 20% at night. Not for the fish but for the inverts (for cleaning) I even incorporated a 1 hour window around dinner time for the heads to shut off (main stays on)

I noticed my inverts are afraid to roam the tank while the flow is on, which resulted in them not cleaning the upper areas on my rock. Turn it off or drop it down and the whole tank comes to life with everyone cruising around cleaning.

I was just out of town for 4 days, right after I changed over to my new sump, skimmer ran away right after I left. ATO refilled it for me with 15 gallons of fresh water over 3 days. End result when I got home was salt at 26 and main pump dry, tank 6" low. Had a dragon, some zoas, couple mushrooms, war coral, and dragon coral exposed for 4-5 hours.

Got home, filled sump back up, got salt to 30, set ATO to pull from salt tank at 45 to bring her back up over the next week. Turned heads off last night and watched my cleaning crew go to work on my corals. This morning everything looks as it should, missing some coral mass for sure, but the rest was cleaned up.

It might not be for every tank, but works for my application.

McFly · Mar 31, 2019

I have my (2) gryes run at -10% at night. The other 5 pumps stay the same.

The gyres run at a high percentage during the day and move a ton of water, so I want to give the fish a break a night to settle down in their spots.

I can't comment on the underwater current but the Aransas bay (Gulf Coast, South Texas), where I fish, sure does calm down at night and the water can be smooth as glass first thing in the morning before the wind kicks up.

Cheers!