Cloudy days
 

Just wondering if anyone is imitating cloudy days on their reef tank. Like leaving their lights off for a couple days to give your corals a break from so much sun light just like nature. We all know it's not sunny every day. Just would like some imput.

Interesting question, I am intriqued.

Does anyone have any experience or point of views for this question. I can honestly say that I don't account for cloudy days.

i haven't tried personally, but i know that the PFO solaris LED fixtures have a cloudy day setting,
and also you can hook up certain LED fixtures to profilux controllers and program a cloudy day.
im guessing that either it is beneficial or just another feature to make people want to buy more.

I was wondering if it might be a good thing to leave the lights off.

I programm two cloudy days a month with my profilux. No particular reason though.. Just cuz I can, but my corals do seem to be quite happy. Not really sure if it does anything though.

Unfortunately my Neptune cant do that automatically... so I've been manually doing two cloudy days each month for the past two years by shutting off one Metal Halide pendant one day and then the other the next day. Again, I dont know if it makes a difference or not, it just seems a little more natural.

I have the sun shine on my tank in the late afternoons sometimes and I realized that everyday is a cloudy day in my tank compared to natural sunlight...and my metal halides are pretty bright

I looked into i light rail to simulate clouds. There is a rail the has adjustable speed, all the others are way to fast. I was focused on this for quite a while and found quite a bit of " it won't do much". I looking for less power consumption for a added frag tank, it would be long with a light rail, one light running back and forth. I tried to say "simulated clouds" but the people just weren't buying it. Anyway you could try just a light diffuser panel with some mesh and every day move it over. Just a really slow moven clowd. Some of the info on this subject was in "The Reef Aquarium"

If I do a waterchange, add new carbon, or new corals I will turn the halides off for a day or two.

May I ask why for a day or two? Do you find that your tank overall doesn't stress as much? Just wondering.

Any others do what Myka does?