No Lights for 3 Days Every Couple of Months Works Wonders!

[drummereef]

Here's my review of the "No Lights For 3 Days..." treatment.

Some background on the tank:
My 40g mixed reef tank is a little over 10 years old. I use RO/DI water with 0 TDS only. I maintain my alk/ca/mag with Randy's 2-part homemade recipe #1. Current levels are 1.026 salinity, 8.2-8.4 pH, 10dkh alk, 425ppm ca, 1300ppm mag, 0 nh3, 0 no2, 2.5 no3, 0 po4, temp 80-81 controlled by Aquacontroller Jr. Lighting and other equipment listed below. Currently I only keep a skunk cleaner shrimp and various snails. Corals are listed below. I do not have any issues with diatoms, cyano, hair algae, etc... I would consider my tank to be stable.


Review:
Seeing that my lighting is moderate for some of my corals, I decided that the first round would be 2 full days instead of the full 3 day treatment. The lights were off a total of 60 hours from Wednesday evening to Saturday morning.

Wednesday night at 9pm the lights went out. The tank is located in a part of the house that gets relatively low amounts of ambient light. It was also overcast during the treatment so not much light was getting to the tank. There were times that the house lights were on so there was some ambient light. Definitely not direct, bright light.

Thursday I scraped the glass using a mag float as there was some buildup on the glass from earlier that week. This was the only maintenance I performed during the treatment other than dosing Randy's 2-part, which I do daily.

Friday I just monitored the tank. I used a flashlight periodically to view the corals during the treatment. Everything appeared to look normal. I also was logging my pH during the treatment. It remained stable ranging from 8.5-8.25.

Saturday morning I did an 7 gallon water change. It's a bit more than I usually do but thought it was a good idea. I then turned on only the actinic lighting and waited... Almost immediately the polyps on my GSP were opening. I also noticed my Frogspawn and Hammer opening. The colors of the corals were vibrant. The only coral that didn't open within the fist hour was my Toadstool. It was shedding mucus a bit but was aware this might happen. I left for a couple hours and returned to see everything coming along nicely.

Sunday was the first day all the lights came on, actinic and daylights. I was astounded by the clarity of the water. Looking lengthwise through the tank, it was as clear as glass. The substrate was bright white and there was no algae on the glass. I attribute part of this to the maintenance I did Thursday. My Orange Monti Cap looked as bright as always with good polyp extension. All the corals now had full polyp extension and looked fantastic. The pumps still had a bit of algae on them but I did notice that it had subsided somewhat. Coralline was still purple/pink.

Conclusion:
I am now going to implement this treatment, but for the full 3 days, every few months. It is a good general "elixir" for the inhabitants and the tank itself from my experience. I do believe that my results are partially due to the fact that my tank had no real issues to start with. It really seems to supercharge the corals and polishes the water. I don't think this treatment is a miracle drug however. I think without proper water chemistry it will be a struggle either way.

I give this

[bodeba]

Do u guys use total blackout or just turn off the lights??

Will it make desapear all the green algae that grows on the back of my display ??

Thanks

[RichConley]

My results, after 48 hours:

Bad, real bad.


It seems that corals dont uptake very much ALK when theyre not photosynthesizing, and I run a Ca Rx. All my caps are bleached out/dead, and my acros are all showing severe tip burn.

[jay24k]

I guess some might get decent results but I know when the hurricanes were here, 2 days without lights did not do wonders for me. I had a generator keeping everything going except for lights. I've done this before but I always just do it for 24 hours personally.

[Krazy]

I did this as well and here's what I did :

Day 1 : Actintics only (2x96) No Metal Halides, Refugium light on 24/7

Day 2 : Moon Light LED's only, dosed red slime remover, tinked skimmer down for a few hrs until it calmed down, Refugium light still on 24/7

Day 3: Actintics only, refugium 24/7

Day 4: I'm back to normal, refugium opposite of daylights...


Red-Slime gone, still have some hair algae though...

Lost my orange bam-bam zoo's and my radioactive dragon eye frag, everything else looks good, water is CRYSTAL CLEAR too..

I'd say this works well

How often can we do this ?

[drummereef]

Originally posted by RichConley
My results, after 48 hours:

Bad, real bad.


It seems that corals dont uptake very much ALK when theyre not photosynthesizing, and I run a Ca Rx. All my caps are bleached out/dead, and my acros are all showing severe tip burn.

Did you not think to test for alkalinity and calcium throughout the black-out? I tested daily and only noticed a slight decrease of alk consumption. Calcium consumption was normal. I just adjusted my 2-part suppliment accordingly.

[zeusfc]

Originally posted by RichConley


It seems that corals dont uptake very much ALK when theyre not photosynthesizing, and I run a Ca Rx. All my caps are bleached out/dead, and my acros are all showing severe tip burn.

wow, that's really bad news rich...

I don't dose anything other than PH buffer and general trace elements, as my system is only softies; back in december, I had an unfortunate incident, where a sales assistant had added copper med to their tanks... i lost leathers, an anemone... most of my cleaners, and it bleached all the sinularia dura to almost pure white!

my latest blackout, last week has restored the colour to the duras to the point where they were, back in november. I'm still sceptical of what is actually going on, where the nutrients are alledgedly going; but on a reef, although the water is nutrient poor, there are literally tons of nitates and phosphates locked into zooxanthellae (sp?)... maybe that's why some of us have had such good results; we had somewhere for the nutrients to go, without causing problems?
It seems that the better the condition of your tank to start with, the more risky this is.. what were you attempting to deal with by doing this?

[Sk8r]

Report: after 3 days with no light in the main tank, 18 hrs light in the refugium, we're on actinic today. The main pests that I wanted to scotch, the bit of cyano and the caulerpa---well, the cyano is almost gone; film is non-existent; but the caulerpa grew. It did, however, grow tendrils rather than grapes, which may say its feeling the want of something. I sure hope so.
The battered acropora aculeus is still alive, but weak; the mille survived; the clam wasn't happy, but is looking much more cheerful now; and the lps and the aiptasia are ecstatic: that's frog, hammer, fox, brain. Gps is happy. Sand is white.

Interesting about the alk observation [and my sympathies] I run a kalk reactor, and tested during the lights-out, finding no problems, but I have a very light coral load, too.

[RobbyG]

Rich I am sorry too hear about your caps and acro's. I wonder what the lights out did, I am sure it was not just photostarvation, must have been some sort of water parameter change. If I was to take bets I would guess your pH went too low.

[djultra]

I'm on my first day with no lights and everything looks good so far. My fish came out to eat and all corals look good.
I also did a 10 gallon water change and cleaned the skimmer and filter sock. I will do the same again tomorrow. I also kept my UV going 24/7. I plan on changing out the media in my Phosban and carbon reactors tomorrow also.

[drummereef]

Mr. Bucket, where are you?

[DLCanuck]

Here my setup on my 210gl lightings, they all have there own timer.

Actinic 1 and the fan come on Tuesday to Sunday 11am to 10:30 pm
Actinic 2 come on Wednesday to Sunday 11:30 am to 11pm (w/Actinic 1)
Left MH 400W 20K come on Friday to Sunday 12pm to 8:30pm (w/Actinic 1&2)
Center MH 400W 20K come on Thursday, Saturday & Sunday 12:30pm to 9pm (w/Actinic 1&2)
Right MH 400W 20K come on Friday to Sunday 1pm to 9:30pm (w/Actinic 1 & 2)

Started on this program on May 21 and I am trying it for 30 days. I have been doing some research on the lighting. The funny thing is that I remember been in the service (Navy) that sunlight was not always bright, it usually light cloudy to heavy cloudy days and some days not much of it but will be blue sky.

Only one day a week that the lights are off, then two days of actinic lights only and then actinic lights and one center MH are on (I figure not to over bright at once) then last three days is just regular lights on.

So far, it looks great.

[TOYTEK]

Originally posted by Sk8r
...the aiptasia are ecstatic:...

That's something I noticed too, but didn't think to mention. I had 3 or 4 aiptasia pop up during the lights out.

[djultra]

Day two everything looks good, fish are active and eating but I haven't seen much of the green algae on the glass disappearing. Sand bed looks as if the cyno is fading away.

[Sk8r]

Back on full lighting today: lps are more expanded than at any time since the March house-move. The cyano that had asserted itself is gone. Still no polyp extension on the mille and aculeus, but sensitive acros that get dumped into a just-cycled tank are, well, on thin ice anyway...had no choice, alas. At least they're not dead. The clam [crocea] is pale purple, [it is supposed to be blue] but it will recover that, I have great faith: it's a healthy clam which has suffered somewhat in the move. The montipora digitata is wildly happy, to judge by its polyps; the gsp is way extended, and the maze brain is just, well, itself. I've seen it extend more, but it hasn't since the move, so I think it's a tank-age question. [The tank cycled on me after the move, with rock that had been badly done by, dripping with dead organisms when I got it out of the buckets, so it's a wonder anything lived...that wasn't supposed to happen. But I'd boarded-out my corals and had no choice but take them back as soon as I was cycled: my longsuffering lfs had given them space at the expense of their own sales, and I couldn't ask more of them.---so I was both trepidatious and anxious to try this lights-out thing to see if I could ditch the cyano that showed up, doubtless a lingering part of the die-off.. So far so good.] Happy corals: fox, frogspawn, candycane, hammer, montiporas, gsp, and aiptasia. So-so: aculeus, mille, maze brain. Fish are all fine, clam is ok, and the sand is white.

[newman330]

Great thread, but long thread so I dont know if this has been asked. I am starting to get green slime in my fuge on the sand bed. The flow in here is almost zero. Would a 3 day lights out period have a significant impact on my macro algae in the fuge? Was thinking about vacuuming out the slime and then doing the 3day thing.

Thoughts?

[chris wright]

Increase your flow to stop the settlement of nutrients that are feeding the slim. Macro algae will do well in a current, I am always pulling different macro's out of my tank.

The lights out may help, but fix the problem first and wait to see what happens. You don't want a nutient spike if the lights out does kill of the algae, as this will cause problems else where.

Cheers

Chris.

[newman330]

Thanks Chris... Adding some current might also help move some of the pods out of my fuge and into the main tank. The fuge is absolutely crawling with them.

[chris wright]

Go for it mate. The pods will do your tank the world of good as a food source. Let us know how you go with the slime.

Cheers

Chris

[djultra]

Third day, actinics only, 10% water change and not much has change in the tank except some of the cyno is gone. I believe I would have came to the same results on the cyno by doing the water changes and keep the lights on. Not sure if I'll jump on the 3 day lights off monthly bandwagon just yet but that's just me. I'm glad though that other have had good results.

[zeusfc]

Originally posted by newman330
Great thread, but long thread so I dont know if this has been asked. I am starting to get green slime in my fuge on the sand bed. The flow in here is almost zero. Would a 3 day lights out period have a significant impact on my macro algae in the fuge? Was thinking about vacuuming out the slime and then doing the 3day thing.

Thoughts?

don't do a lights out on the 'fuge!
the whole point of this blackout is to make your display tank look better! if you do a blackout on the fuge, you could end up with a bloom in the tank!

I get the feeling that part of the success story of this method, is due to the fact that trying this, merely increases the owners awareness of algae problems, for instance, one attempts to pull out as much algae as possible before the blackout, to export nutrients...

certainly in the last month, I reckon I've addressed more tank problems than I had in the three months prior to that... If that was all this thread had achieved, then it's still worth reading the whole thing!

[Aquabucket]

Sorry I have been away for awhile. Been enjoying my tank after some long hours at work. I also added a couple of corals (Oulophyllia bebbettae & a Symphyllia) and moved a few others around.

Since the beginning of this thread I did a 2 day black-out, a 3 day black-out, and a 1 day black-out. My tank is looking better than ever and overall coral growth has been exceptional. Corals that have shown the most growth are my fox, hammers, lobo, hydnophora, challace and pipe organ. I'll be posting some updated pics soon.

drummereef ~ Glad you had favorable results! Thanks for participating and posting your observations.

DLCanuck ~ Very interesting light schedule. You are really mixing things up. Thanks for sharing your info!

RichConley ~ That's a bummer! I feel pretty bad for you and never thought something like that would happen. I hope everything recovers for you!

djultra ~ Sorry you did not get the results you wanted. Thanks for posting your observations.

Sk8r ~ I'm very surprised you had some troubles with the zoo frags. Its nice to hear you had good results otherwise. Thanks for sharing your observations.

I am feeling pretty tired right now and will post some more comments next time I get the chance.

[drummereef]

You're welcome.

[DLCanuck]

Hey Aquabucket

You are welcome, what you mean, “You are really mixing things up. “ anyway, I notice that 400W 20K seem too much blue for the tank. So I switch last night to 10K, I know it only been two week trail and notice thing are doing great, next two weeks I’m going to observe to see if any deferent notice with 10K.

[Aquabucket]

Originally posted by DLCanuck
Hey Aquabucket

You are welcome, what you mean, “You are really mixing things up. “

Just referring to your light schedule and how your corals get a varied amount of light ~ its quite different than most. Good luck with the 10Ks!