Slow flow at night

[invincible569]

For those of you who own Tunze's or other brands and have the functionality of using the night mode operation... do you see your SPS respond better by minimizing flow? Have some of you tried it with and without it to see a difference in coral health? It's mother nature to have calmer flow at night, but does this benefit our SPS growth/health in our aquarium? Please share your experience.

[gasman059]

Originally posted by invincible569
For those of you who own Tunze's or other brands and have the functionality of using the night mode operation... do you see your SPS respond better by minimizing flow? Have some of you tried it with and without it to see a difference in coral health? It's mother nature to have calmer flow at night, but does this benefit our SPS growth/health in our aquarium? Please share your experience.

I do use the function since I run 6100x3 and 6045 x 3 plus penductors . I figure why not give them a lil break.

Does it make a dif. I dunno since I have not kept an eye on that particular scenario.

Sorry could not add much more.

[panic]

I use an RKII for my lights and pump control on my reef. It has a standby mode that can shut off everything in that zone for any time period. I turn off the closed loop and return for 20 minutes every night when I feed (5 minutes before lights out at 10pm) and again at 6am when I feed some flakes. I use this time as a "tide" effect. The corals respond well to it, I believe, because the polyps can grab some food without it being blasted back into the water column. I'm still playing around with the time frame. I'm interested in others results as well.

[ycnibrc]

I put it on the night mode with 20% pulse but I dont' stay up and watch the corals so don't know if it help or not. By the morning thing look goods anyway. BTW I have 2 x 6100, 2 x 6000 with the 7095 controller.

[nava405]

in the first 2 months, i just let my tunzes do their things, but then later on i put it on with night mod just so fish would probably feel safer or something...however, i don't see any different in corals..and that's a good thing since you can use less power doing the night time.

[wcpeixoto]

Read "Feature Article: Water flow is more important for corals than light. Part 1. Introduction to Gas Exchange"

"...Corals, on the other hand, have no specialized respiratory structures. Their external anatomy only features tentacles, a mouth, some tissue in between the polyps and, in the case of soft corals, they also have some pinnules along the sides of the tentacles. None of these are differentiated into specialized respiratory structures even though they have to rely on these anatomical features for gas exchange. If you had to breathe (respire) as a coral breathes,this would be the equivalent of holding your lungs outside of your body, inside out, and just hoping that the wind would blow hard and long enough for you to be able to breathe. This is how corals breathe in their environment and the scenario above illustrates the importance of water flow for adequate gas exchange in corals. This perspective might make you think twice about reducing your aquarium's flow at night."

These articles are very educative:

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2006/6/aafeature2

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2006/8/aafeature

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2006/9/aafeature2

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2006/11/aafeature

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2007/1/aafeature

[Gary Majchrzak]

regarding "mother nature":
I thought it was the tides that had the majority of affect on water flow in and around coral reefs- not time of day.
I'm not trying to stir the pot here but it's my experience that slow flow at night isn't beneficial for corals or anemones. Do others feel differently or am I in the minority?

The first thing I usually do is unplug any light sensors from my pumps/powerheads

[GreshamH]

Ditto what Gary and Wesley said, although, my night time mode on my Tunze just stops the "wave" action. I have my lowest setting pretty high so nightime flow isn't really decreased, just the pulsing effect

[reeferpnoy]

I run 2 vortech and 2 6100 on a 7095 controller and not in any way I turn it on a night mode or decrease flow in my tank at night time...

[Gary Majchrzak]

Originally posted by GreshamH
Ditto what Gary and Wesley said, although, my night time mode on my Tunze just stops the "wave" action. I have my lowest setting pretty high so nightime flow isn't really decreased, just the pulsing effect

Gresham.. might I ask why you decrease the pulsing effect at night.... is it for the sake of your fish by chance?

[lecher]

I used to use the night time mode on my Tunze multi controller. Now I just run my streams 100%(no pulsing) 24/7. I really don't even need the multi controller anymore.

[GSMguy]

I run my wave 24/7 and the tunzes 24/7 on a pulse.

[killagoby]

Tunze is big into slowing down the current at night so plankton can rise in the water. That's what they state anyway. I use it and like it...

[chessmanmark]

The ocean isn't on a wave timer. I purchased the photocell 3 years ago but never used it.

[killagoby]

But the currents in the ocean do slow down at night.

Ocean Currents are influenced by two types of forces

1. Primary Forces--start the water moving

The primary forces are:


1. Solar Heating


2. Winds


3. Gravity


4. Coriolis

[coralite]

Originally posted by killagoby
But the currents in the ocean do slow down at night.

This is not entirely true. Tidal forces are the main source of currents on reefs and this effect does not change at night.

The only thing that does change at night is surge which is due to the switch between sea breeze and land breezes. During the day the land heats up faster than the sea. The rising air over land causes the breeze to blow towards land. The sea breeze blows shore waters on land increasing the amount of surge. At night the latent heat of the water reverses the direction of the breeze towards the sea, effectively dampening surge.

But in any case, the amount of flow during night time surge is still orders of magnitude greater than what we typically provide in an aquarium so IMO there is no reason to consider reducing flow at night.

BTW I wrote the article which was quoted above. (and coriolis is an effect, not a force)

[killagoby]

I just copied and pasted. Thanks for chiming in!

[GreshamH]

Originally posted by Gary Majchrzak
Gresham.. might I ask why you decrease the pulsing effect at night.... is it for the sake of your fish by chance?

Purely for my sleeping pattern not to be disrurbed (tank in room). I can hear it switch back and forth and me being an insomniac, the less repeating noise like that the better

[j.prostrata]

2-6200 2-6100 4-6045's full force 24/7 365 Plus main return.

[miwoodar]

Originally posted by Gary Majchrzak
regarding "mother nature":
I thought it was the tides that had the majority of affect on water flow in and around coral reefs- not time of day.
I'm not trying to stir the pot here but it's my experience that slow flow at night isn't beneficial for corals or anemones. Do others feel differently or am I in the minority?

This has always been my approach too. 24/7. Even if I thought my corals wanted less flow at night I wouldn't do it because I rely on the flow to dissapate the CO2 from my CA reactor.

My PE is good during the day but not as much as some other folks I've seen on here. I definitely attribute this to the high flow rates I run in my tank. Night time PE is as large as any I've ever seen.

Most of my corals have doubled in size in the past year (SPS flow rates of ~6 inch/second to ~15 inch/second as my tank surges). Regarding LPS, since upping my flow in 06 my frogspawn stays very tight and never looks like it did before (flows range from ~2inch/second to ~8 inch/second)...but it's gone from 5 heads to more than 30 in the past year and a half so I'm not apt to make a change.

[Mikigo]

I turn my cl and power heads off at night time not for corals benefit but for my wallets. Been doing this for 16 months without seeing any coral deteriation.

[mysterybox]

A few weeks back I put my Tunze's on night mode for my pipefish, and I have noticed nothing at all. I did put the sensor (moon light) on my fuge that has chaeto, so it's a shorter "night mode", like 6 hours or so.

[invincible569]

Well it seems like reducing flow at night is not necessary. I used to have mine on 24/7 in my previous tank and know of people who have insane growth who also dont use the night mode. I wanted to make sure I wasnt missing anything.

[Oldude]

I have some other powerheads I run 24/7 and help create a little different flow pattern when the Tunze's are on night mode. I don't really know if it helps but I figure it can't hurt.

[clownnrnd]

My wave box is on the photo cell but my 4 x 6100's are on a 6hr tide/pulse mode.

I shut down the wave box to increase the life expectency of my tank

Chad