Thoughts on occasional lights out?

[build_wall]

A few months ago I kept my lights off for a day in an effort to encourage my RBTA to move. It had gotten quite comfortable in an area of the tank that I didn't want it. (doesn't this always happen?). Anyway, it didn't work and so I made a few more changes to hopefully convince it to relocate. This didn't work. So a week or so later I tried lights out again. Here's the weird thing, it seemed like all my sps grew more than I'd expect in 2 days, when lights came back on. I understand we generally look at our tanks every day and so any change will seem very gradual and not exactly abrupt, but I mean it, when the lights are off for a day and come on the next, the corals look just great and seem to have grown more than on their regular schedule.
Do any other reefers have a "lights out" day they throw in the mix? Certainly in the ocean during storms and extreme cloud coverage the suns light is far less intense. While stability is key in this hobby, I believe that there is a place for some variety and not everything should be perfectly structured. Vary feeding times and diet, vary the flow in the tank, and here I'm beginning to swear by occasional "no light" days.

 

[elysics]

Could be a nice experiment, take photos with the camera against the glass of the same corals trying to line them up the same with gridlines, maybe a couple weeks apart then measure how much they grew in the pictures, then do the blackout and take more pictures and measure again

Who knows, maybe you are actually photoinhibiting some of your corals with too much light

 

[Gup]

I currently have two current orbit lights mounted to my lid. And one multi Spectrum tube light Karma call in a 55-gallon I. I like the current lights because of the blue light and I can also create rolling clouds and lightning storms. I don't know how good it is for the fish, but I know all of us enjoy looking

 

[Gtinnel]

Wait, how much do your sps normally grow in 2 days?

Either you grow sps faster than anyone I've ever seen or I am doing something very wrong with my sps.

 

[Gtinnel]

Could be a nice experiment, take photos with the camera against the glass of the same corals trying to line them up the same with gridlines, maybe a couple weeks apart then measure how much they grew in the pictures, then do the blackout and take more pictures and measure again

I don't know that is a fair test. With most of my corals as they get bigger they grow quicker (or at least it seems that way). So I'd think the second part of the test would show more growth either way.

I do agree that there is some logic that the corals in nature go through some varying light intensities that we don't usually mimic in the hobby. It would be interesting to test I just think there would have to be some other method. Maybe 2 of the same frag beside each other and just periodically place something over one of them to shade them from light?

 

[elysics]

I don't know that is a fair test. With most of my corals as they get bigger they grow quicker (or at least it seems that way). So I'd think the second part of the test would show more growth either way.

I do agree that there is some logic that the corals in nature go through some varying light intensities that we don't usually mimic in the hobby. It would be interesting to test I just think there would have to be some other method. Maybe 2 of the same frag beside each other and just periodically place something over one of them to shade them from light?

Depends, are we talking about a small frag finally deciding to start to grow, a growth tip getting closer and closer to the light, or a growth tip of a middling colony growing sideways? The last one should be relatively indicative of environmental conditions

A double test is better of course, was just proposing a low effort test op could do as a first foray