Lights confuse fish?

[blackcloudmedia]

I have a question. Corals and many other marine life spawn based upon moon cycles. If our lights are simply on or off, how do the reef creatures in tanks react to the light? With the actinics on at night, is every night a full moon? If so this may be stressing the corals because they may want to be spawning every night. Just a thought.

 

[Anonymous]

Some people keep their moon lights on a more natual moon cycle, and they do get spawning.

Having critters spawning in your tank often creates problems, as skimmers get overloaded and the water fouls.

 

[blackcloudmedia]

Yea. Im not interested in making them spawn cause that would make the water nasty, I just want to make sure Im not confusing my corals. As of now I use my actinic and white bulbs during the day and leave the actinic on at night. Is this ok?

 

[Anonymous]

No, the actinics need to be turned off too. Your fish and corals need a period with little to no light. They have to rest as well.

 

[Anonymous]

You leave the actinics on all night? I agree with above, that's not good.

An hour before and after the whites are on is nice for a dawn/dusk effect, but critters need to have dark time to rest.

You can use a little LED moonlight, but it still should get pretty dark at night.

 

[Anonymous]

You leave the actinics on all night? I agree with above, that's not good.

Me too. Accepted wisdom is that any critter that photosynthesizes only does so for 14-16 hours in a day, after that all you are doing is wasting power and possibly stressing the coral.

 

[blackcloudmedia]

Hmm ok thanks. I thought they were supposed to stay on cause my local lfs leaves his on all night.

 

[Anonymous]

Hmm ok thanks. I thought they were supposed to stay on cause my local lfs leaves his on all night.

Actinics are just as bright to corals as the daylights. They're dim looking to humans but that's just because we don't see blue as well as we see yellow.