Seasons in Reef Aquaria?

[RocketBunny]

Hello everyone, it has been a long time since I visited this thread and posted anything... But, here I am.
So anyways
Winter is approaching (at least in my hemisphere, US) and it is approaching the ocean as well. The water is getting colder, the corals stack up food in their cell vacuoles, to last through the cold and keep themselves alive. Nature is preparing for winter... Now take a look at our aquariums. We don't change temperature to match winter, we keep it the same. We also don't make their light day shorter and less bright. There are many things that we DON'T do that mother nature does.

So here is what I thought. If you start lowering the temperature from summer (through fall) to winter and keep them at winter levels for the winter season, then start rising them back up (winter-spring-summer... etc) as well taking away light and making their 'day' shorter (maybe even decrease the amount of food). Will that make the corals stronger and more hardy? Since they will have to improve their biological systems and functions through adaption to the new parameters in the aquarium.

So the question is this : If you create a more realistic ' season' environment (winter-less light, less food, colder, more current. Fall- temp lowering, light decreasing, food decreasing, spring - food increasing, temp increasing, light and day increasing. Summer-max all) will it be beneficial to the corals biologically?

Thankyou for your answers

 

[Dsnakes]

Interesting thought. Not something that has ever crossed my mind. I had imagined most come from locations that hold a stable warm temperatures in a tropical reef.

I am interested to hear from others on this.

 

[RocketBunny]

Interesting thought. Not something that has ever crossed my mind. I had imagined most come from locations that hold a stable warm temperatures in a tropical reef.

I am interested to hear from others on this.

Yes... many come from warm tropics (carribean, fiji, philipines, solomon sea, etc) but they do have a fluctuation of 4 degrees when winter comes along. Food also decreases and current becomes MUCH stronger. Daylight intensity and its time depends on the regions - so I can't say anything about that.

It is an interesting topic, i agree. Just came across my mind today
Since we also have all these awesome technological systems (apex, neptune, etc. etc. etc.) it is SO EASY to program that... and watch the seasons unfold in your aquarium...

 

[vetteguy53081]

I run same schedule all year as I try to keep everything stable, including water flow, lighting, feeding and dosing. I tried at one point to duplicate the ocean schedule but found myself burning up coral and stuck to what made coral happy instead

 

[ca1ore]

I agree that most of the animals we keep come from places closer to the equator with much less of a seasonal swing from Summer to Winter; but, as noted, it's not NO difference. I typically run my tank at 77 during the months that require heating and 81 during the months that require cooling. I do it primarily for energy reasons, but that it 'mimics' a natural rhythm is gravy.