[georgelc86]

I have read that during the first 3-4 hours of natural daylight on a reef provides the coral with enough energy for the remainder of the day. Which pretty much means 6am to about 10am. By the noon time the corals become over saturated with light and therefor do not continue their photosynthetic process. Test on xenia and montipora have shown closure of all polyps during the noon hours. Depending on the how much energy the coral expends it will recontinue its photosynthetic process until it once again reaches its saturation. Yes the color remains because the zoo algae are acclimated to your lighting intensity, but some functions of the organism itself somewhat shutdown. During the night time cycle the corals continue on with their processes depending more heavily on cellular O2/CO2 exchange. The nocturnal time as well as temperature and other factors bring about feeding for most corals. Are you going to kill the corals, I dont think so. But for the overall health of the tank I would say continue a night cycle. Thats unless you dont care to much about the fish in the tank or smaller guys like bristle worms then Times Square it is. Keep us posted as to what your findings are.