Lowering flow at night?

jkcoral

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arent there usually 2 high tides a day and 2 low tides?

Yes, coastal areas will experience 2 of each every day (it’s closer to 25 hours vs a standard 24 hour day).

And high water movement is usually found during the hour before and after a tide. This is also the best time to go fishing :)
 

MrGisonni

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Some areas experience diurnal tide which is one big high and one big low a day, others have what are called mixed semi-diurnal tides which is one big high and big low followed by two smaller tidal movements.
 
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MrGisonni

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Wave action due to wind chop will decrease at night. A swell would keep pumping day and night, no difference. This is due to the uneven heating and cooling of air over top of the water and the land respectively, onshore wind tends to pick up significantly during the afternoon hours adding to turbulence.
 

MrGisonni

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So back to the question, sure it does make sense. if you have a power head or Wave Maker that can go into a nighttime phase why not. I do.
 

BrunoL

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I do as well. Half flow during lights out. I like to think it helps macrofauna do their thing at night and gives fish a break so they can relax a bit.

I also run a 30 min high flow period, during which I really crank it up with a 10 sec on / 20 sec off pattern, around 16h. It kicks up all the remaining gunk and left over food so it can get sucked in to the filter.
 

dr_vinnie_boombatz

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I keep mine the same; verse turning it up/down and messing with the torch. My torch stays half extended at night. I have no fish though, could see turning it down if I had fish.
 

CKW

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I slow mine down at night. I vacationed on the beach the waves seemed to be calmer at night. Thats the reason I do it. I doubt that it really makes a difference either way.
Waves at night are usually lower due to wind diminished activity. I live on the Atlantic Ocean and experience this almost daily.
 

areefer01

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As an aside if anyone is bored do a search on underwater reef cams. There are a couple that are able to get some night time visuals instead of just day. Pretty interesting.

I say this with the caveat of course that we can only do so much in our displays that makes sense. Not that this is the way to run a display.
 

Pete Witteried

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I’ve lived on the beach for my whole life, and currently live on oceanfront property. The ocean gets much much calmer at night. The waves turn to gentle rollers and the waves and currents by the surface are a lot slower. The wind dies down and they drives most wave and surface action we see on our oceans.

Tides don’t really though. The tides are always going to be roaring though depending on their directions and things etc..

All that said though, I turn my pumps lower at night to a gentle lagoon mode. Also gives some fish less turbulence if they don’t burrow in a cave or something at night
And why not save a few cents on electrical costs.
 

vetteguy53081

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I keep my flow steady throughout the day and night. I've read where some people lower the flow at night. Does anyone do this? What would the benefit be?
Min is dropped by a low percentage and on a semi pulse mode and resumes at 7am
 

LARedstickreefer

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I’ve lived on the beach for my whole life, and currently live on oceanfront property. The ocean gets much much calmer at night. The waves turn to gentle rollers and the waves and currents by the surface are a lot slower. The wind dies down and they drives most wave and surface action we see on our oceans.

Tides don’t really though. The tides are always going to be roaring though depending on their directions and things etc..

All that said though, I turn my pumps lower at night to a gentle lagoon mode. Also gives some fish less turbulence if they don’t burrow in a cave or something at night
I also run lagoon mode at night. A few fish like to lounge around the rocks and they seem to be more at rest like this.
 

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