Night mode - yay or nay?

[FishyFishy!]

Who turns their powerheads down at night?

I have always left my jebao's night mode on. However i recently made an equipment box that houses all my electrical doodads. Now that the wavemaker (RW20) controller is in this box...its too shaded for the night mode to work. It stays off until i shine a light on it. So now I just turned it off.

Before Jebao's I never did anything at night with my powerheads and everything was fine. So who uses night mode? Any known benefits?

Only downside is that this an RW20, so it does push crazy amount of water. I dont want to stress my fishy friends.

[mrhasan]

Yay to night mode. No scientific evidence to whether or not it makes any difference but I guess my fishes sleep better since they don't have to keep on swimming to stay still. Was having the same issue that you are having; my controllers were located inside the cabinet so night mode wasn't the option. Aquatronica controls them now.

During night time, ocean is much calmer so I guess night mode might be beneficial.

[FishyFishy!]

I was thinking of adding a little LED light in there timed with my lights.

I think it would be a little easier on the fish too.

[iamfrontosa]

I use night mode as a way to cool down my powerheads. Also, oceans seem to be calmer at night time, so I think fish and corals prefer it that way.

[gregzz4]

For what it's worth, I programmed my MP10s through their online stuff - ReefLink.
At night I run them 25-50% of their daytime settings with varying speeds.
I feel it's good for the fishies/corals to have a break from the daytime chaos.
As Raied mentioned, they need rest just as we do.
With this in mind I also only run the moonlights for an hour after lights out 'cause I'm too tired to look in there at night anymore ...

[e46er]

this is a good question I will be following along.
I recently hooked up my 4-RW8s to my apex and they run 60-100% during the day and run 30-40% during the night ( numbers are ballpark but pretty close i cant remember exactly)
with my new 250G DD i ordered 2 RW15s i figure ill keep them both on the same side on a wave mode and have my other 4 RW8 along the back wall maybe 12" off the sand as I have my snapper return with 4 outlets spaced evenly along the back near the surface.

I havent noticed a difference either way in my corals, slowing them down at night but its only been a couple months running off the apex.
I may run the rw15s off the apex and run the 4 rw8s on their stock controllers on random mode as it seems to be alot more random than what the apex can do ( or what the operator can set it to do) i cant seem to get a full random mode going just 2 different %s.

[Ram3500]

Let your kids sleep turn your wave makers off. Corals will be fine if any thing it will give them a chance to feed don't over think the flow nature needs time to chillaxe

[ComfortablyNumb]

The waves may calm down at night...but the current/tides dont care if its dark. Current and tidal flows don't really drop very much at night in nature.

[spedly]

I turn them down a little. During the day my powerheads pulse from 0-100% with some timed "storm modes" to stir up debris. At night I change the pulse to 0-90% and disable the storm modes. When I was in Mexico in February I noticed that the waves/current seemed to slow down a little at night. But like ComfortablyNumb said, not very much.

[FishyFishy!]

Its been ages since i have had an ecotec. Do the MP's have a night mode too? Or is that more controlled through a controller?

I think I will end up putting a little LED strip in there to aid the night mode. I guess i'd want my rest at night too.

[brisco]

I program my gyre with my apex to ramp down at night and then work at a reduced flow. No science behind this that I know of, but changing flow patterns seem to keep SPS happy.

[shiftline]

I drop mine down to 20% at night

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160422/9554400e4cfc04b6f673cf448b441a91.jpg

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

You can turn down (as many members on here do), just don't turn off. Its the current and wave action at the surface that aerate your water. I have a high bioload but lots of hiding places and areas of lower flow so I leave my wavemakers on all the time. The fish don't seem to mind and neither do the corals.

[rsisvixen]

I use the jebao apex module to program my powerheads and have them set at minimum for the night, before that I had a led light strip in my cabinet on a timer and the pumps would be set to night mode.
I leave my return pump at the same lvl so the circulation stays the same, just the powerheads are reduced.

[Piscez]

I use night mode on my Jebao RW-15, my electronics are in a closed cabinet so I have a small LED light on a timer, works well my return flow stays constant.

[gregzz4]

Do the MP's have a night mode too? Or is that more controlled through a controller?.
Yes they have a programmable night mode built into the factory controller.
4 speed settings to choose from, and 6, 8, 10, 12 or 14 hours.

[FishyFishy!]

Yes they have a programmable night mode built into the factory controller.
4 speed settings to choose from, and 6, 8, 10, 12 or 14 hours.

Do they have a photocell?

[gregzz4]

No photocell
Program your speed and duration, then press some buttons at your desired start time.

[brisco]

A controller will give you many more options then the pumps built in mode, but it all costs $$

[mike31154]

There are no options a controller can provide that my VorTechs don't already include. Sometimes it's worthwhile to spend the extra $$s on a well designed water moving device. And yes, I use the night mode, not because of any possible relationship to what happens in the ocean, but more because it saves power, wear/tear on the pumps & things are a tad more quiet in the dining room over night..... but no, I don't sleep in the dining room.... usually.

[Myka]

I use night mode on my Tunzes, and wish my Gyre had night mode. The SPS extend their feeder polyps at night, and I find if I turn down the flow with the night mode the feeder are polyps are extended even bigger. I feed them in the evening after lights out and add the Aquaforest additives too. The bigger the feeder polyps are the better they are for catching food so I like the night mode.

[Delphinus]

I noticed that for me aggression among fish tankmates went way down when they no longer had to fight for the best hidey spots in the rocks. So I always tune my flow down now.

[Ryanerickson]

Ocean doesn't shut off at night big no for me