Should I always leave my lights on with corals?

Riley Pasha

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So I am new to corals and only have one at the moment, a zoanthid. I am only using the stock LED lights that came with my aquarium kit so I was not going to introduce any corals until upgrading my lighting system at all, but it seems I gave in to try out one that was known for not needing much light. I noticed that in the beginning, it did not look very healthy and when I went to turn off the light when I went to bed, it would be very shriveled up and not look vibrant like it usually did. To maximize the effectiveness of my lights that I did not have much faith in, I have my zoanthid very near the top of my tank (the highest point) so it gets the most light possible. I noticed that one day when I left the light on while I slept, the zoanthid looked much healthier in the morning and was 100% open. This leads me to ask the question of whether or not I should look into keeping my lights on all the time, though I know this could contribute to algae growth and I am not 100% sure if it will be bad for the fishes sleeping. I am very good at keeping up with water tests and changes and have seen 0 algae so far this is not a huge problem for me.

CURRENT SPECS

Ammonia - 0 ppm

Nitrite - 0 ppm

pH - 8 to 8.2

Nitrate - 10 ppm

Salinity - 1.023 (bringing this up slowly)

Temp - 80 degrees

LIVESTOCK/CORAL

2 Ocelaris Clownfish

1 Valentini Puffer

1 Cleaner Shrimp

6 Hermit Crabs

1 Zoanthid
 

Mike in CT

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If you have a week light, you might want to leave it on longer then you normally would (aprox 8 or 10 hours).... But your corals would still appreciate a time of darkness like they experience in their natural environment. Most corals with close up at night and it is totally normal.
 
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Riley Pasha

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If you have a week light, you might want to leave it on longer then you normally would (aprox 8 or 10 hours).... But your corals would still appreciate a time of darkness like they experience in their natural environment. Most corals with close up at night and it is totally normal.

I noticed though with 8-10 hours of light, then about the same of darkness for a few days half of them were closed up and not vibrant at all. Then one day I was at another house and left them on overnight and it looked insanely better when I returned.
 

trido

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Zoanthids close up at night for me no matter what.They close up at night for protection and come out in the day for feeding. Do not leave your lights on for 24 hours a day. I run my high light system for 13 hours a day.
 

Daniel@R2R

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Try a 12 hour period and see if you like that better. I also concur with what everyone else has said. Corals (like practically all critters) need their rest from the light of day. A good way to think about it is by recognizing that in their natural habitats they have day and night cycles.
 

MmmmBalf

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You should not leave the lights on all night. Your reef is an ecosystem & will have many nocturnal feeders, including coral polyps. The Polyps of many corals only extend at night to feed. The fish also have a sleep pattern, so you should give them a regular period of darkness (I do have a very faint moonlight on at night, but I've been told even that isn't good for SPS corals.)
 

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