mimic tides

[salty joe]

I have been told that the water motion on a reef is calmer at night-I have a hard time buying that but just don't know for sure.

My tank in planning will have a surge at each end of the tank & the plan is to fire one for 3 hours, then switch to the other for 3 hours for non stop surging. This will be the majority of water movement.

If the fish can find a hideout to rest, does anyone see any problems with this setup?

 

[RockyHeap]

Follow the KISS theory with your reef, more equipment and going high tech isn't always the answer.

It also depends on the type of reef and corals you're keeping. Shallow lagoon corals can be still water or used to frothing surf waves......same with fringing reefs where the off shore waves crash into the deeper reef wall.........learn and read up where your corals live in nature........thats the best bet.......but there are no one "golden rules"

 

[morgan]

in my opion if u can simulate a wave action it would be the best current for any coral

and if u want to get technical on tides dose anyone give their acros a low tide where tempretuers can reach 40c in the hot hot sun i doubt it
go the surge tanks for sure lets see what they look like i have been waiting to make one for ages

 

[RockyHeap]

So ask yourself, what is the use of current in a tank.

To provide food to polyps/filter feeders and strip waste from corals.

The rest is just the extent or power of the current......


Now if you DO want to get technical, tides can and do induce spawning via moons gravity and season of the year, not all fully understood by biologist at this time but is predictable........I've always wanted to do a scuba dive during a spawn.

Surge tanks DO have their place, especially to simulate a tide pool tank where water is dead still one minute, then a crashing boil of bubbles the next.

 

[DonW]

I'm not a diver but have always loved the pics in my coffee table books of all the sps fields out of the water at low tide. Ive always wondered if this was natures way of making the corals thicker skinned or maybe causing pest like flat worms or red bugs to leave the coral.
As far as night flow go's Krish has touched on this many times and has some first hand experience with just how rough it is at night. I dont think we need to make any adjusment for night and day.

Don

 

[dnjan]

If the fish can find a hideout to rest, does anyone see any problems with this setup?

I wonder if the "quieter at night" is just a compromise for our small, captive reefs. After all, if we do truly achieve high flow throughout the tank to prevent detritus from settling, it probably would be difficult for the fish at night.

 

[RockyHeap]

Okay Don, just because you asked.........he heh.



This photo was taken by me coming back from a morning dive south coast of Fiji, must of been around Noon with high mid day sun, 85-90F degrees outside easily. Total Tidal exchange in this area was most likely 5-7 foot max. Some of the huge plating corals are literally only 2-3 feet under the surface, so when the moon is in the right location and they get a minus tide, yup all those acros are exposed to the HOT mid day sun for an easy hour or two.

That low tide picture of mine is one of my favorite dive shots of all time, and I must have shot 10-15,000 dive photos in my time.

For scale, all those underwater shots, each plate is at least 2 foot across, I've dove with them 6-7 and even 8 foot across, but the bigger ones are deeper.

The local fijian even walk out and stand on these corals to do hand line fishing, and they eat the trigger fish or reef fish (all 2-3 bites per side) that we'd pay $80 for the fish, and are standing on Acro colonies that would fetch hundreds or thousands of dollars in a local fish store........heh heh,

 

[DonW]

Just beautiful, that exactly the type of photo I'm talking about. Makes me wonder if its harming the coral or doing some unknown (to me) good.

Don

 

[dnjan]

What are the deep red corals mingled in with the tables in the last picture?