Powerhead flow

[jhutto]

Guys,
We all know that the old Koralias and some Tunzes (6060) are not made for wavemakers and just cannot be turned off and on for a short periods of time.

However, what is the prevailing thought to turn them off at night and start back up in the morning to give some of the SPS a break? I have a Tunze stirring things up pretty dramatically even though its not point directly at anything in my 90 gallon. Some say let it rip 7 x 24 and others say not. I am talking about going into a night mode each night. What effect will that have on the long term life of the Tunzes or any other non wavemaker powerhead.

Is the night mode really benefical to be calm like the oceans at night? I have the regular sump pump running along with a smaller Koralia to make sure things flow some but not just wide open like I do with the Tunze pumping. I am beginning to build some SPS in the tank. Any thoughts?

Joe

 

[mojo]

I did that with my 6060's in my frag tank for a while - I did an on/off cycle every 6 hours, with no long term problems that I could see.

Whether or not it's beneficial for the corals to turn off the pumps at night is up for debate. I'd argue that, in nature, there are less currents, but this is also the time that corals feed, so you might as well keep the water movement up when they're feeding...