Does my reef get enough sleep?

[Pizza2049]

My tank is extremely important to me and I like to try to keep everything as close to “perfect” for them, as possible. It might be a little overboard, but it’s a very quick process that takes less than a minute.

I do this for my parrot every night! No hating here!

 

[Yazannreef]

I personally wrap my tank in aluminum foil every night. I also have a “lid” made from an old cardboard box and aluminum foil tape. I then drape towels over the top to ensure that my corals always get 12 hours of pitch-black. Definitely seem to be happier when they get their beauty rest, in my opinion.

You can't be serious!!! I had to read your post about 10 times thinking I missed "I'm just joking " somewhere.

Power to you sir. Very interesting indeed.

 

[Sleepingtiger]

My lights turn off and never worried about the fish and coral not being able to settle down for the night even if a room light is on while we are watching tv or reading, never heard of all this until reading this post.

The only reason I bring this up was because I saw my tang swimming around at 1am. I know wrasses have an internal clock and they sleep even with the lights on at full intensity. Some other fishes don't have that and that is what got me concerned a little

 

[DeniseAndy]

Photosynthesizing plants need a dark time. Since our corals contain them and they are in our system, we need to make sure we give them the dark hours too.
I do not go to extremes, but I so make sure the lights are off and the sump light that runs opposite does not spill over too badly to other tanks.
My family is in bed early enough and my hubby hates lights on except his computer (which is in the other room), so no issues with my main system. I do periodically check my downstairs system for light and spill over by going down late with only a flashlight. Make sure they get dark time.
My fish like their beauty rest.

 

[kados]

I personally wrap my tank in aluminum foil every night. I also have a “lid” made from an old cardboard box and aluminum foil tape. I then drape towels over the top to ensure that my corals always get 12 hours of pitch-black. Definitely seem to be happier when they get their beauty rest, in my opinion.

Huh?

 

[RossV]

I personally wrap my tank in aluminum foil every night. I also have a “lid” made from an old cardboard box and aluminum foil tape. I then drape towels over the top to ensure that my corals always get 12 hours of pitch-black. Definitely seem to be happier when they get their beauty rest, in my opinion.

wow that is dedication

 

[Hans-Werner]

No way.... If you go through that much trouble, it must be a very important. Maybe this needs to be discussed further or researched?

I think there is a lot of scientific research about blue light effects, cryptochrome and circadian rhytms already available. Even very weak blue light can inhibit the night rest and alter the circadian rhythm of nearly all organisms on earth, including plants, bacteria, yeasts, fungi, algae, corals, fish and humans. It has nothing to do with photosynthetic pigments and photosynthesis.

In corals blue light triggers the contraction of the polyps from their expanded night mode for catching plankton.

Light as weak as the light of the full moon under water can set or reset circasemilunar rhythms of i. e. corals. The light of the moon is in fact low in blue light, it has proportionally more green and red light as normal sunlight. The moon, viewed directly, doesn't look blue but a bit yellowish and so is its light.

In contrast to incandescent light leds emitt quite a lot of blue light of the most effective wavelengths (ca. 450 - 470 nm) because in white leds the stimulation wavelenghts usually are ca. 450 nm blue light.

I have never tested it thoroughly because I work with fish and corals as a professional and at night the tank rooms usually are plain dark, but the theory to explain effects and justify measures is already available.

... and please don't use blue moon lights!

 

[Mywifeisgunnakillme]

I think having a rest leriod for ourselves and any animal is extremely important for the health and fishes seem to get more stressed than us ( easier i mean and have greater effects from stress)
I wouldnt go as far as poster above wrapping tank in foil and blanket every night.
But for me i try to gove them darkness and try my best not to shine light from phone in at night but looking at all the pods/ critters interests me so this thread reminded me not to be shining light at night ha ha
Maybe draw curtains in room where tank is at night then natural sunlight wont get in tank in morning so they get longer darkness there ( some lined curtains or black out curtains/ blinds)

My rest period for fish is when the lights are on. Flow is a minimum. Corals open up and the tanks just looks the best. Then at night i crank the flow super high and send the fish scampering into nooks and caves. The corals are put to bed this way too, lol

This cycle seems to keep the substrate and water clean, and the fish don't seem to mind.

 

[SillyReef]

I think your getting trolled lol

 

[James_O]

The reef gets 15 hours of light, with soft ramp up and ramp down. After the lights shut off, there’s still just a LITTLE bit of light from the control panel, but its barley anything. The clowns go to sleep pretty much as soon as they go off, so I never worry about them. The coral also starts to sleep when they ramp down starts. The freshwater tanks get 14 hours of light with no ramp.

I remember going to 24hr fitness. There was a fish tank full of cichlids. Because its a 24hr fitness, the lights are always on. The fish were the worse looking fishing I have ever seen. They didn't move, colorless... basically zombies. Normally with cichlids they are fighting, aggressive behaviors and chasing. None here, they just floated.

This is showing that they are trying to sleep but are unable to, making them extremely uncomfortable.

Cichlids especially need their sleep, so they can keep up their high energy level. That’s just cruel to have the lights on for 24 hours a day.

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

I give my 50g total darkness for 6 hours and 7 hours of low moonlight split between morning and night (which the inhabitants all treat as night and go to bed). Not sure how I arrived at that but I think it had to do with working the tank into human schedule as well as fish schedule. I've been toying with adding another hour of daylight to the tank but I'm not sure how to go about it.

My 10g has moonlights on all night. I used to give it the same schedule of total darkness as the big tank but it's one and only fish inhabitant would go nuts when the lights went out and even jumped once (found her on top of the mesh lid in time to save her). So moonlight it is!

 

[LadyMac]

I’ve noticed all my fish enjoy their dark period. The clowns in the teef go into their barnacles and the corals close up. The little indigo dottyback finds a crevice to lay in. In my wild betta tanks they will settle into their spots in the plants and I’ll watch the color slowly fade. The fancy’s will also just slow down, most of the time giving me a silent yawn. Stretch their fins and just settle into their spots as well. I like to see them go tuck themselves all in.

 

[Operator Wrasse]

I remember going to 24hr fitness. There was a fish tank full of cichlids. Because its a 24hr fitness, the lights are always on. The fish were the worse looking fishing I have ever seen. They didn't move, colorless... basically zombies. Normally with cichlids they are fighting, aggressive behaviors and chasing. None here, they just floated.

So I am a night person. I have the lights on my reef to go dark around 11pm. However, i usually stay up until 1-3am. Even though the lights in the aquarium goes out, the lights in my living doesn't. The sun lights up my house and aquarium early in the morning because of the skylights. Do you all think there could be issue in the future? Now I am not like 24hr fitness, but my reef doesn't go dark like in nature where they get complete darkness for about 10hrs

My 75G gets strong ambient light in the summer mornings and weak ambient light in the winter mornings. If you take that into consideration with a standard 12 hour cycle, it reflects the cycle of the sun as long as you're not comparing it to the sun revolving around the equator year round, which doesn't happen.

 

[sghera64]

... and please don't use blue moon lights!

Excellent post Hans-Werner. Thank you for this.

I've used the blue moon-light setting on and off with my Kessil and I concur that my tank has more Goniopora polyp extension problems when I use this setting compared to when I do not.

What are your thoughts on using the red LED's for the moon-light setting? Kessil has a red moon-light option.

 

[Kennya]

There was astudy conducted a couple of years ago showing artificial light at night caused reproductive failure in clown fish.

Artificial light at night causes reproductive failure in clownfish | Biology Letters

The Earth is getting brighter at night, as artificial light at night (ALAN) continues to increase and extend its reach. Despite recent recognition of the damaging impacts of ALAN on terrestrial ecosystems, research on ALAN in marine systems is ...

royalsocietypublishing.org

 

[Sleepingtiger]

The reef gets 15 hours of light, with soft ramp up and ramp down. After the lights shut off, there’s still just a LITTLE bit of light from the control panel, but its barley anything. The clowns go to sleep pretty much as soon as they go off, so I never worry about them. The coral also starts to sleep when they ramp down starts. The freshwater tanks get 14 hours of light with no ramp.



This is showing that they are trying to sleep but are unable to, making them extremely uncomfortable.

Cichlids especially need their sleep, so they can keep up their high energy level. That’s just cruel to have the lights on for 24 hours a day.

Its a 24hr fitness, they have their fluorescent light on 24/7. The people at 24hr don't know, its the company that manages that aquarium that I blame. They are the one who stocks it and maintains it. They should of known better. They only care about the money and little about the welfare of the fish. I kept African cichlids for a very long time now. They are extremely active. These African cichlids were just floating. Their colors were faded.

I guess for my welfare and my reef's welfare, I think i will try to get to bed at midnight.

 

[James_O]

These African cichlids were just floating. Their colors were faded.

That's very sad. The color fading is also probably due to a poor diet, and unhealthy food. Most people don't know that African Cichlids need on a daily basis.

 

[Hans-Werner]

What are your thoughts on using the red LED's for the moon-light setting? Kessil has a red moon-light option.

I don't know whether red moonlight LEDs are the best option. I see a few possible problems you should critically take care of:

- Red light is another wavelength which has signalling function in plants and I think also in zooxanthellae. It is a trigger in the phytochrome system.

- Red light is photosynthetically very active.

- Visibility of red light is not good. I guess then you could leave it away completely.

My suggestion would be a weak yellow-green led and also a warm-white led with its low blue proportion should be suitable. Advantages: Good visibility to you and the fish and lowest photobiologic effect, low or no circadian or trigger function.

 

[Celestion]

All good posts , no zombie fish (24 hour fitness) having a ligit cover , then if you decide leave the lights on late from time to time fish and corals don't suffer in morning hours . better stronger reef.

 

[sculpin01]

Minimal light contamination at night significantly impacts performance of Symbiodinium (zooxanthellae) during daytime hours. In addition, nighttime illumination is directly correlated with coral (and a variety of other organisms) reproduction timing, specifically via moonlight cycles with secondary association with temperature and several other factors. So yes, artificial light at night definitely has an impact on our tanks.

Frontiers | The Endosymbiotic Coral Algae Symbiodiniaceae Are Sensitive to a Sensory Pollutant: Artificial Light at Night, ALAN

Artificial Light at Night, ALAN, is a major emerging issue in biodiversity conservation, which can negatively impact both terrestrial and marine environments...

www.frontiersin.org

Light pollution at night severely disrupts the reproductive cycle of corals

Studying the reproductive cycle of two coral species from the Indo-Pacific Ocean over the course of three months, researchers found that light pollution caused delayed gametogenesis and unsynchronized gamete release. To shed light on the findings, they created a first-of-its-kind global map that...

www.sciencedaily.com