How fast does no/low light kill?

[jumbostink]

Just wondering how long it will take to kill off a coral if your forget to turn on a light?? Apparently one of the switches on my 6x54 watt fixture got switched last night. So when the timer turned the light on this morning only two of the actinics came on and the other four bulbs didn't turn on until I got home from work (Meaning my coral missed about 7 hours of light today. Most of my new corals still look ok, as does the clam. But I have a pink pocillipora that looked nice and fuzzy yesterday, but looks almost bare today. I don't know if this is from not enought light or the amount of food that I put in there (Even though phosephate, nitrites, and ammonia were all at 0) or maybe its something else.

As always thanks for your info.

 

[pgr11]

Lights out for that long is no worries. I have shut the lights out for a couple days when introducing new fish to the tank with no problems. Your coral will go with no light for a while when they get shipped so 7 hrs is nothing

 

[El Dude]

http://www.socalireefs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30912

Just don't go 4 days...7 hours is alright...

 

[pgr11]

http://www.socalireefs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30912

Just don't go 4 days...7 hours is alright...

Right!!!!!!

 

[Reef Bullet]

Just reread this post & I do believe it is the amount of food causing your pink pocci to be unhappy. You said all your tests read 0 but you didn't mention anything about testing for nitrates. The end result of too much food is nitrates & phosphates & sps are very intolerable to those. The only way to reduce them is to dilute them with water changes. I went into this more in my post in your other thread but I'm trying not to repeat myself... Also what kind of test kit are you using? Some are much easier to accurately read than others & some jump say from 0 to .5, leaving you oblivious to what might be in between when you think you're at 0.
Hope this helps you to think of possible causes & solutions.