No lights for 3 days

This is a thread I have been following over at Reef Central:

No lights for three days every couple of months works wonders

Had to make trip over to Idaho for couple of days, so I thought I would try this.

Also thought it might get warm while I was gone so this may have some other benefits.

As usual, I sweated bullets over my tank while gone (no lights/no food).

But returned to find all well - and corals literally exploded open when the lights went on. Perfectly clear water, active fish and beautiful coral expansion.

I am going to add this to my regular monthly maintenance tasks. 8)

 

Cool! I would be just like you...sweating bullets while gone with visions of corals being dead when I arrived home from the trip!
May have to experiment with it.
I would like to, IMO which would be more beneficial, set up something to represent cloud cover periodically through the course of the day and also rig something so that the lights would move across the length of my tank to represent the sun rising and setting, therefore, shedding light to more areas of my corals, than just available by having the lights remaining stationary all the time!

 

I personally wouldn't do this...the lighting part. The corals most likely burst to life from lack of light for a few days. It's like corals that are under low light, the stretch and look really nice but really they are trying to reach more light. I would say use a digital timer for lights rather than play havoc with your livestock.

 

I agree with nemo79 in that with respect to coral reefs, cloud cover is not evident for more than a few hours over a consistent span of time. May have more negative impact than good, especially with more delicate corals and Tridacna's!

 

the nicest nano tank i ever saw was owned by a woman on rc using a similar method.she turned only her actinics on for a day,then all the lights off a day,then actinics on a day,then back to all lights on every day as usual.she did that i think once a month.she had 2 t5 over a 40 breader tank filled with lps and a cpl softies.an aquaclear hob filter and hid some cheato behind the rock work.she said the lights off period prevented diatom and gave crystal clear water.i've heard of people doing that every cpl months.i've never tried it.

 

Ditto on the diatoms. Had a bit on sand before lights out. Not a sign of it anywhere now. Supposedly, according to above referenced thread, is also a good defense and cure against hair algae.

So far, have only seen positive results...am going with it till I see something negative. When I do, will let you know.

 

Thanks Omard let us know how you make out with your experiment!