How long can my reef go withotu lights?

My 660 Icecap went out 2 days ago and had to be shipped back to NJ (from CA) for warranty. My question is, how long can I go without lights before I have coral issues? I am on my second day without lights and although everything is somewhat closed up, it looks ok. Let me know your thougts.

 

i would say a week at the most then you would see die off or shrinkage. but it really depends the type of coral you have

 

aye - are they soft corals? hard? what ones do you have?

 

They are all soft corals no hard and a couple clams

 

i would target feed the clams if there open

 

How does one target feed a clam what do they eat ?

This is why I'd never use a Icecrap ballast we have about 4 around the shop dead out of the box, I had one given to me here and I wired the harness up plugged it in ran 2 mins and POP out it went.. I drilled the rivets and repaired it myself .JUNK and pricey JUNK at that.. way over rated and way under built. You best buy another spare ballast as they will **** you round for 2 weeks at least plus mailing even if you over night it its going to take 2 plus weeks unless they have changed things in the last year or so ?

Oh and this is the very reason I tell all I ever built a set of lights for is t never put all the lamps on one ballast use 1 ballast per 2 lamps .. Never rely on a single ballast.

 

tangster, thanks, but your rant about how bad icecap are doesn't help any. I already have an icecap that is being repaired under warranty so buying somethign else is not an option.

How long can my tank go without lights?

FYI, this will sound a little weird but I set up a mirror in the adjacent room to shine into the hallway where I sat with a another mirror that I proceeded to shine into the tank. Could only hit abotu a 6-7 inch circle at a time but just made my way around the tank and shined it on everything as best I coulf. I was actually able to get the polyps to open up a little. Did it for about 20 minutes or so.

 

they will eat phytoplankton use a syringe to spray it in the mantle

 

for those worried about icecap service. I sent out my ballast 2 days ago, and it was received at icecap today and is already repaired and will be shipped out tomorrow after an overnight test of some sort. Maybe I'm lucky but just had to give props where deserved since it was brought up in the thread.