Should we SLOW our FLOW at night time in our reef tanks? Are you?

[Wolters_88]

Research shows the ocean actually moves more violently at night. The reason why waves move more during the day is because there is more human activity on the ocean during the day. But naturally at night the ocean moves with stronger force.

Where are you getting this research from?

 

[Wolters_88]

Just trying to explain how gravity works with the ocean at night.
Wait what? Are you trolling or being serious? I thought you were kidding but now you’re doubling down.

 

[Shevlin77]

Research shows the ocean actually moves more violently at night. The reason why waves move more during the day is because there is more human activity on the ocean during the day. But naturally at night the ocean moves with stronger force.

Can you please post this research?

I have a mixed reef tank and turn my flow down at night to give my LPS and softies a bit of a break.

 

[Blknovass]

I have always turned off my wave maker at night. But my return line has a random flow generator on it so at night i still have some waves just not the wave maker.

 

[BBGoby]

You've said this twice now in the first 10 comments of this thread. We get what your opinion is.

Flow/currents may/may not change based on location. It really depends on the specific reef your looking at more than anything.

I scuba dive, and I've been on the same reef day/night and I've noticed significantly calmer flow at night than during the day. I've also noticed no noticeable change between day/night.

Having said all of that, I personally slow my flow in my tank down at night, and switch to lagoon mode. Extended polyps have plenty of movement still, but it give all of my fish a break and allows my CUC an opportunity to easily do its job.

In my experience diving at night vs day in the same location has generally been calmer as well.

 

[Shevlin77]

Seriously. Sounds like a lot of people here need to go back and take a middle school science class. Kinda has me questioning whether the advice I get on here is of the same caliber.

Amen, at a loss for words reading some of this. Looks like there’s a handful of people here that I’ve never really spent any significant time on the ocean…. both day and night. You don’t need to take a science class to know that the ocean is calmer at night and that gravitational pull and tides happen every six hours doesn’t matter if the sun is out or not.

There is only ONE thing in nature that creates waves (well minus an earthquake etc) and that is wind. Wind Is stronger during the day because of the effects of the earth heating up.
The vast majority the time the wind dies out overnight and picks back up the next day.

 

[HBtank]

Tides also affect waves though. There is more turbulence around reefs at lower tides. This is a really complex thing. This is all plain to me as I grew up in New England, home of some of the biggest tides in the world (Bay of fundy are the worlds biggest, and Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island are close behind)! Tides and seabed formations affectn majorly!

Oh, of course, I spend every day looking at the swell and tide and the waves they will produce, because I like to ride them

The problem in the context of this thread is that it (tide) isn’t related to day/night.

Also, if there is no source of waves, and the ocean is calm, tide will not matter much. I wish it did, as it would make surfing much more consistent, but tides themselves don’t create waves. If the ocean is flat… it’s flat.

 

[Layton (OR)]

Alternating random intensity seemed to most closely match my experience when swimming over a reef. The commentary in here has been gold though, thoroughly enjoying what everyone remembers from Science Class many, many, many(for some of us) moons ago.

 

[Tonycass12]

Waves get stronger at night since the distance between the Earth and moon decreases and gravitational force increases.

This makes no sense since the moon rise and set times always change in nature. Sometimes the moon is up all day and not at all in the night.

I think the sun has much more of an effect on weather and wind. I lived on the coast in Puerto Rico in rincon. Giant Elkhorn corals the size of small houses grew just off shore under the bigger surf breaks. The waves always calmed down a bit at night unless a storm was approaching. The rising mass of air from the sun warming the land could help drive winds into the coast and build the surf.

 

[brandon429]

No the practice isn't safe for all reefs.

Only experimental

Means already exist that grow wall to wall corals, not much is lacking for us in the ability to grow captive corals game that slower current at any time will address

Any reef tank having a massive old never cleaned sandbed inside the display, which is common, or a heavily stocked fish system requires o2 support that supersedes any slight increase in growth for the experiment.


Very few tank parameters have a real status as elevated/ needs address at all times like 02

One loss cascade started could be the domino, this is not advised as a reef tank practice unless you're maverick in top gun then you may do it

The dilution of the ocean doesn't carry over into our tanks

They're in dark phase photosynthesis at night...I forget is that Calvin cycle


That's an 02 consumption phase
So all your plant life (copious in reefs) becomes oxygen tax in competition with fish


Vs light phase which is oxygen pumping. If you demand to slow currents, do it in the daytime

 

[fish farmer]

All your powerheads/pumps are always at one speed? Interesting.

Mine are, that is until they need a cleaning.

I don't have the capability to turn up or down flow, so mine stays the same, 24/7.

 

[Screwgunner]

My wave maker has a light sensor so when the lights go out my wavemaker turns down to low.

 

[StarrJ]

Anyone who makes a living on the ocean knows the worst seas always come at night. But that is in open water. On a nice beach close to land in tropical paradise by a reef it always seems calmer at night. This is due to the heating and cooling of the land. Thats why you get a sea breeze in the afternoon and seems calmer at night

 

[AaronFReef]

I don’t turn my pumps down but oddly enough have a reminder in my phone to reprogram my gyres to do so to give my fish in my new tank a test at night as they like to sleep on the barebottom instead of in my rockwork for a good subset of them. For coral I would not think it’s necessary or helpful but for fish, I’m sure they’d love to expend less energy at night.

 

[thewedge]

I speed mine up for a bit at night time to help clean up the bed from waste- since most of the lps and softies are closed.

I do the same, for the same reason. No idea if it's the right approach, but it seemed to make sense in order meet the flow requirements of both my sps and lps.

 

[IamChrismWard]

As a scuba diver with over 4000 hours underwater, Close to 25% of those at night, I can honestly tell you I never noticed any measurable difference of conditions at night.

 

[jhuntstl]

I have mainly SPS, but I go highest flow at night. Someone on here posted that fish are generally tucked into their sleeping crevices at night. So why not blast it to stir up detritus? Made sense to me!

 

[chk4tix]

I programed my powerheads to less flow at night. There was always talk about having things calm down during the night hours and since the fish were sleeping, I figured why not save a little energy and just keep the flow low.

 

[rsumner]

Sounds like we need an Oceanographer to chime in here. This thread, along with a few beers, has left me laughing all evening

 

[Wayne63]

WOAH, slow your flow there partner!

There is the idea that ocean currents are more calm and night and so lower flow at night in our reef tanks better simulates the natural habit of corals. Does it matter for all of our corals and livestock or just the shallow water corals? Are you buying it?

Do you think you should lower the flow in your reef aquarium at night time?

High tide and low tide twice a day. Look at any tide chart.