Lights Out..

[Hairytank]

Well, I came back from a 3 day business trip to find the lights on my mixed reef tank had not come on for the entire time I was gone...malfunction of the timer/user.:eek:
Everything appears to be doing OK, but the corals were not abundantly happy for obvious reasons. I have fed them Coral Snow and Reef Plus Vitamins and Amino Acids.
Is there anything else I should do to try and “make up” for this..other than turning on the lights of course.

[tlo]

They should recover without any problems. Once the lights come back on tomorrow, they will probably puff up like normal. You probably even killed off some algae with this malfunction.

[Slick Fork]

a 3 day lights out period is actually advocated by many. You'll probably find your sand bed a little cleaner and the water a littler clearer tomorrow. I wouldn't sweat it

[MikeP]

I've wondered about doing a 3 day lights out and have read about the benifits. How would the fish and inverts react to this?

[Slick Fork]

I've done it infrequently and never had a problem with the non-photosynthetic stuff. If you want to try it I would recommend starting out with a 2 day lights off only. See how everything reacts and then if you're comfortable go for that extra day.

Lots of people do it once a month

[Parker]

I do a three day lights out once a month. Like others have mentioned it seems to be beneficial.

[Hairytank]

Thanks for the replies everyone!
I must say, the polyp extension has increased greatly today and the LPS appear to be puffing up a lot more now. I had not heard of temporarily turning the lights off before, I will have to check it out some more. Thanks for the information.

BTW: There was only one casualty from my time away and it is not really related to the lights..one of my Yuma's has dissapeared completly, small attached rock and all. A little odd. :confused: