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impact of 'clouds on' on corals?


burtbollinger

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burtbollinger

So, I've recently been messing with 'clouds on' again...I like the aesthetic of it as it makes the tank feel more alive.

 

(Still wish the fan didn't rev up and down)

 

What is your opinion of the overall impact of the cloud mode?  do you think the corals suffer in any way due to less light or you think over the long haul the impact is negligble.

 

Have it set to Fiji...

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my quad is set at peak midday setting of 95% violet, 90% for RB, blue/cyan, 81% mint, and 9% white.  I have mostly SPS. I turned on the cloud mode to give corals "a break" from continuous high intensity - whether this is valid thought or not, idk.  

As far as its effect on the long-term health of corals?  I have my quad for almost a year, running cloud pretty much the entire time, my corals had never looked better, imho. For those who can't see signature, my tank journal is here https://www.nano-reef.com/forums/topic/374445-micoasts-im30l-iphone-close-up-shots-12118/

 

 

For your fan ramping up/down, that can be turned off by doing the following in your bluefish app:

  • go to the gear symbol
  • select "System" 
  • Look at "Fans" - when you turn it on, the cloud effect shouldn't impact your fan speed. 
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I've been running the cloud feature on a Storm controller at it's least frequent setting for around 2 years now. 

I like it, corals are fine, all good.

 

 

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I think of the cloud cover as respiration cycles for the corals. It gives them a break from a constant, high rate photosynthesis. David Saxby runs something similar to clouds on his AIs. He believes that these help prevent coral bleaching from too much light my-20ai-jpg.1180962

I also run something similar with my lights given that I am getting so much light from my fixture (4 T5s and 4 NBR Arrays). I'm still getting great growth from my corals without any signs of bleaching. Here's 14 days worth of growth

Day 1:

lu08m25.jpg

Day 14:

EsYsckw.jpg

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1 hour ago, xiaoxiy said:

I think of the cloud cover as respiration cycles for the corals. It gives them a break from a constant, high rate photosynthesis. David Saxby runs something similar to clouds on his AIs. He believes that these help prevent coral bleaching from too much light

THAT sounds a lot more science-y than what I could come up with last night, with a nice reference to boot. I've seen that AI program before somewhere. :D Thanks for sharing. 

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I believe 'Giving the corals a break' is what most think of when using the cloud setting.

 

For those interested, Dana Riddle adds some additional info to the mix showing that the duration of the cloud simulation period (aka 'Break Period') can be important in this similarly themed thread:

 

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/lighting-break-mode-during-day-time-benefit-fluval-marine-and-reef-2-0.353016/

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I think that one thing to keep in mind of is that there aren’t any publications documenting the benfits of simulating clouds and respiration cycles. Like most things in this hobby, it’s speculative. What seems to be true , however, is that clouds don’t seem to adversely affect corals.

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SpencerShepard
On 22/01/2018 at 5:45 PM, burtbollinger said:

So, I've recently been messing with 'clouds on' again...I like the aesthetic of it as it makes the tank feel more alive.

 

(Still wish the fan didn't rev up and down)

 

What is your opinion of the overall impact of the cloud mode?  do you think the corals suffer in any way due to less light or you think over the long haul the impact is negligble.

 

Have it set to Fiji...

Settings > System > Fan Channel (On)

 

That will prevent channel 6 from responding to clouds.

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