dumb question of the day.

[NJ_ychung1]

hi. i have a question about corals sleeping at night.

what would happen if you leave the lights on all night. i understand that it's unnatural b/c in the ocean they have day time and night time just like everything that inhabits this planet but....

how is it bad or what actually happens to corals if the lights are on all-the-time?

does anyone know? i am just curious. i'm not going to experiment but am curious if anyone knows the answer to this. for instance, i have left lights on all time time for a period of time in my freshwater fish tank. it doesn't seem to harm the fish but it's possible they got stressed and got very tired from not sleeping. anyway, i'm just curious.

thx

jay

 

[mott768]

some things that happen,

1, cut your bulbs life in half
2, promotes (bad) algae growth
3, corals do most of their feeding at night
4, plankton and other night critters will not become active

that's just a few

 

[ds4x4]

When the Lights are on for Photosynthetic corals and plants, they are getting food and storing it while they are "awake". Night time, (lights out) is said to be there growth mode where they will take the energy that was gathered during the day and use it to grow.A Coral or plant is alot like a human in that they are awake during the light hours acquiring food and storing it and then while it's dark they sleep and release the stored energy to grow. Most plants/corals do better with a 8-12 hour Dark period jsut as we do better with the same amount of sleep.

If you have corals that filter feed then most of them use the nighttime hours to extend the polyps and gather food. I have A chili coral for example that does not extend unless it is dark in the tank. Theres lots of threads out there about this just take a look in the previous pages sometime..

You may not see an adverse effect per-say but you probably aren't getting the full potential out of the corals/plants to really grow and show their beauty. But, for corals that feed at night and aren't photosynthetic you might see them trying to feed in the light and withering away so that would be an adverse effect on that type of coral



And the only dumb question is a question not asked.

 

[Bryan]

now how about a couple of led lights for night effect?

 

[ds4x4]

now how about a couple of led lights for night effect?

i haven't seen any ill effects posted on any forums really. but who could tell any other way? you can't see whats going on in the tank at night really. I don't think that the Par/Lumen how ever you want to measure it is great enough in a single unfocused led or group of leds. Leds that they are putting on the market for night lights aren't really the higher end ones that really put out the light for say a Solaris Setup or Even the new Emergency Lights, which we also happen to have a solaris LED

 

[calaxa]

What brandon said is correct. You're preventing the Calvin cycle (dark reaction from occurring). If you think about to some elementary scool/JHS science fair experiments, kids are always testing optimal light/dark reactions. Some creatures only require a very brief period of each (say 1 minute of either). Obviously that is not ideal. I imagine some corals actually have an optimum of something other than 12 hr each but that is the environment they live in.

Brandon,

I have a chili as well. Only got it recently so don't know how to guage its health. Polyps extend every night but it's always slumped over. Does it ever right itself up and stand straight up? My carnation doesn't extend every night and some days it looks like it's almost dead and then suddenly it springs up like crazy. But my chili is always slumped (though it looks like it is growing).

 

[NJ_ychung1]

thank you everyone for chiming in. i def agree and now begin to see the light. i wasn't going to change the timer or anything but was just curious what the side effects might be and now am more or less understanding the possible side effects.

thx guys.

Jay

 

[ds4x4]

Brandon,

I have a chili as well. Only got it recently so don't know how to guage its health. Polyps extend every night but it's always slumped over. Does it ever right itself up and stand straight up? My carnation doesn't extend every night and some days it looks like it's almost dead and then suddenly it springs up like crazy. But my chili is always slumped (though it looks like it is growing).

it sounds healthy. the Chili coral is a nocturnal feeder and prefers to hang upside down. sometimes mine does that as well. I currently have had it for a couple months and he is branching out. the best place would be under a dark shelf. most people say that if you just ignore them they will grow instead of trying to spot feed them all the time maybe once in a blue moon would be fine(i havent spot fed since i got him). There is actually a couple large threads on the chili coral on RC.

 

[calaxa]

Well, I actually never spot fed him till last night and he looked awful afterwards. I think I won't do that again. He was blossoming at night before then. He's back to normal now as he's extending during my "dusk" hours so he knows he'll be getting N. occulata and cyclop-eeze tonight.

 

[ds4x4]

theres conflicting information on wetwebmedia about this coral but it seems that it should be kept with under a shelf away from light and have good flow but not direct flow. i think what you are doing is just fine if i do say so..