No Lights for 3 Days Every Couple of Months Works Wonders! - Page 34

Aquabucket · #**826** 09/13/2007, 07:30 PM

It came back with me too but the gaps between became longer until it never came back again. It took about 4 black-outs over a 6 month period for me and I only had small patches of the stuf. I also used Maracyn during the first 2 black-outs.

purebullet417 · #**827** 09/13/2007, 08:03 PM

i just started mine today

seastar12 · #**828** 09/13/2007, 08:43 PM

I've heard mixed opinions about doing this. Do you still go onn with your regular schedule while light are off?[fedding, maintenance, dosing, etc.]

Lightsluvr · #**829** 09/13/2007, 09:56 PM

I started the blackout on my tank this afternoon. I get a fair amount of ambient light from a skylight in our living room. At the present time, we just have LPS coral, snails and hermit crabs. If the algae really dies off, I may be selling a bunch of Margarite snails back to the LFS. (One can dream). My main desire is to get rid of the diatoms on my sand bed.

My light hood has MH, Actinic and moon glow lights. I thought I would turn the moonglow on morning of day 3. Then the actinics on for afternoon of day 3. Finally, I would bring back the MH for 4-1/2 hours on day four and following. Sound like a plan?

Thanks for the tip, Aqua.

LL

Justin James · #**830** 09/15/2007, 09:41 AM

I finnished my 3 day lights out the other day. The tank looks great! I have a little flesh missing from a couple SPS but for the most part everything faired out well. I'll have to wait a week or two and then i'll do it again to make sure the dinofltuents stay away.

mrabolli · #**831** 09/15/2007, 09:54 AM

i was running lights out for 3 hours every day for heat issues with no negative effects. I dont have any algea blooms or problems ever even with my high nitrates. Since my reef is outside it usually gets nailed with intense morning sunlight for about 1/2 hour everyday with the gap in my awning. Even this hasnt caused any problems.

uhuru · #**832** 09/15/2007, 12:54 PM

I'm joining the club. Started lights out today. I have predominantly sps and 1 clam in my 16g and noticed cyano starting to grow. I'm doing 2 days instead of 3.

Lightsluvr · #**833** 09/15/2007, 08:23 PM

We turned the actinics back on this afternoon. Rusty brown Diatoms are definitely reduced on the sandbed. I won't have a handle on the green algae until the MH lights come back on tommorow. I will do a water change and siphon the LR before the MH come on. We shall see.

The only concern I had was the Spaghetti leather coral looked a little saggy. It has perked up a little under the actinics. All of the other coral are looking very good.

LL

leeweber85 · #**834** 09/20/2007, 09:06 PM

I didn't have as good of luck.

My sps lost a lot of color and some are VERY light now. Especially the rose millis. It did help a little with the hair algae.
Hopefully they will all recover.

zeusfc · #**835** 09/20/2007, 11:38 PM

aquabucket, could you give us some up-to-date results please?
especially what percentage of SPS owners are reporting bad things happening?

Zoom · #**836** 09/21/2007, 12:48 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by leeweber85
I didn't have as good of luck.

My sps lost a lot of color and some are VERY light now. Especially the rose millis. It did help a little with the hair algae.
Hopefully they will all recover.

I was telling everyone here light out is good if you have nothing much in the reef tank .
I have many corals mostly SPS they really don't like the MH out to long maybe out for one day Max.
Like you i have many SPS lost there color, and some are very light color now because i turn the lights out for three days .

leeweber85 · #**837** 09/23/2007, 01:23 AM

I'm sure mine will recover in a few weeks. The light ones are at least a little darker now (brown) I assume this is because they are producing zooxanthellae. It's a bit of a bummer because our tank tour is this afternoon.

bluetmax · #**838** 09/25/2007, 04:26 PM

These are two of my six croceas. I just bought a new camera and am trying to get used to it. I will try to post the other four if I can ever get decent photos. The first has a lawn mower blenny in it also:

bluetmax · #**839** 09/25/2007, 04:28 PM

Mods, please delete this, and my prior post. I meant to post those clam pics in another thread and had the wrong one open...Sorry!

rynon · #**840** 09/25/2007, 05:37 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by uhuru
I'm joining the club. Started lights out today. I have predominantly sps and 1 clam in my 16g and noticed cyano starting to grow. I'm doing 2 days instead of 3.

To late for a reply to this.........BUT.....we have had the lights out on one of our store tanks for about 3 weeks.....cyano is strong as ever.

skippy2 · #**841** 09/25/2007, 06:48 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by rynon
To late for a reply to this.........BUT.....we have had the lights out on one of our store tanks for about 3 weeks.....cyano is strong as ever.

.....but you still have plenty of ambient light hitting that tank pretty strongly. Plus, I still think cyano has a lot to do with humidity which, you have to admit, is pretty prevalent at Eco Reef.

rynon · #**842** 09/25/2007, 06:53 PM

I have completely given up on this. Humidity??????????????? We evaporate 35 gallons a day from one system, obviously the air can't be too humid.........they added a air dryer to the entire building, and that's a north facing window with NO tank lights hitting it, trust me, I've looked. Store lighting is only on 4 days a week.............talk to Nick, he agrees with me. After reading the last few replies I think my point has been made without me.

leeweber85 · #**843** 10/02/2007, 10:20 PM

For those of you with SPS I would strongly encourage you not to try this. I should have read more in depth.

gary faulkner · #**844** 10/03/2007, 08:01 PM

leeweber85
How long were your lights out?

thecichlidpleco · #**845** 10/03/2007, 08:16 PM

I did this originally for only two days because everything seemed cleaned. Well, all the cyano came back. I did it again the following weekend and it went away, but only for a day. I am running some phosphate reducer to see if that helps. But I do not want to try this again for a while.

leeweber85 · #**846** 10/14/2007, 03:43 PM

I think it was only 2 days.

drstupid · #**847** 10/14/2007, 08:06 PM

on the topic of "slightly drastic measures to control nuisance algae", has anyone experience with boyd's chemi-clean?

melev · #**848** 10/15/2007, 12:19 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by drstupid
on the topic of "slightly drastic measures to control nuisance algae", has anyone experience with boyd's chemi-clean?

I've used it many times, and it kills cyano bacteria. I've recommended it to many people over the years. This thread was an option that doesn't medicate your tank, which many tend to prefer.

drstupid · #**849** 10/15/2007, 06:16 PM

yes, i agree completely, avoiding chemicals is good living.

mnestroy · #**850** 10/15/2007, 06:48 PM

What about a tank with a LTA?

Seems anytime I change lights or flow the thing picks up and moves... causes chaos in my tank till it settles down again.