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

[impur]

Brining this back up! I've tried everything to rid my tank of dinos/cyano the last 3 months. Everything!!! Nothing touched it, my tank is over 3 years old and it all started when i switched salts from Oceanic to IO in hope to get a more consistant pH. Man was that a mistake! Nitrates in the salt at the bottom of the bucket are off the chart!

So after 3 months of weekly 30-40% WCs with Oceanic, weekly syphoning and daily basting, i went with the blackout.

Lights have been off since Tuesday night, I plan to flip on the actinics when i get home in a few minutes. We'll see how it goes! I'll report back and get a pic.

[chris wright]

I found that IO is the worst salt to use in relation to cyano
I stopped using it 3-4 months ago, and have not had a problem

The blackouts will help with the cyano problem, but I'd change salts to avoid future problems.

cheers

Chris

[impur]

Well lights on all weekend and everything looks so much better! Syphoned out a few patches that were left and did a large WC minus any IO salt. Corals look good too, some zoas are opening that hadn't in a month.









SPS unaffected

[Herpn]

impur, are you using RO DI water?

[impur]

Yes, tested each time with TDS meter.

[Herpn]

What kind of skimmer are you using?

[thecichlidpleco]

I do not have sump, do not use RO/DI and have huge problems in the past two months with cyano. My tank was setup for about six months before I really had any problems with this. I have tried to cut back feeding, and have done the blackout twice in a month, did work, but came back within two days. I am going to get an RO unit and see if that helps, so fingers crossed, and maybe I will try this method again one more time and see what happens. I mix IO and RC 50/50, and it tests 0 for phosphates and nitrates, but my tap is like 1 for phosphates and 20 for nitrates, so I think lights out are not a miracle cure for crappy city water.

[Herpn]

There are some people who can get by with tap water BUT it is really hard to be in this hobby and not use RO DI water. This is huge. I have used tap water in my current tank during emergencies and I generally get a brown algae bloom. I had a Reef tank for over a year that I just used tap water in and most of my stuff was melting away. All I started doing differently was using RO DI water and it made all the difference in the world. You can do all the water changes you want but if you are putting Phosphates (and who knows what else) into your tank it will never get to where you want it to be.

Good Luck.

[Mavrk]

Originally posted by impur
Brining this back up! I've tried everything to rid my tank of dinos/cyano the last 3 months. Everything!!! Nothing touched it, my tank is over 3 years old and it all started when i switched salts from Oceanic to IO in hope to get a more consistant pH. Man was that a mistake! Nitrates in the salt at the bottom of the bucket are off the chart!

So after 3 months of weekly 30-40% WCs with Oceanic, weekly syphoning and daily basting, i went with the blackout.

Lights have been off since Tuesday night, I plan to flip on the actinics when i get home in a few minutes. We'll see how it goes! I'll report back and get a pic.

I have heard of several people having issues when they change salt no matter what brand they are switching from or to. It is possible that you got a bad batch, but IO is used by many very successful tanks.

[Herpn]

I use IO and have had no problems..

[ghstrider]

Started a 2 day blackout tonite to help get rid of some diatoms on my sand. ill post some results thursday....

[chercm]

will the sps be affected ?

[Mavrk]

I have had great success using this to get rid of cyano.

It is my understanding that SPS should be fine. Just remember on the fourth day to use actinics only so you don't shock them.

[bristle]

Hi,

I read this thread a long time ago, and made my light schedule accordingly. I never thought how simple it was and how much sense it made:

M 11 30 - 10 - long sunny day
T 1 - 9 -Uh oh, getting a little cloudier
W off - cloudy day (rainy too if I do a water change)
T - 1 - 9 30 - clouds clearing up
F 12 30 - 9 30 - cleared up
S, S 11 30 - 10 long sunny day

So far no poor results from the coral. The day of darkness in a cycle of 7 has done nothing but reduce algae growth and have a complete day off the power grid. The other days with reduced light cycles also help. I keep it on 'long sunny day' for the days I am at home most to be able to watch them then. Wednesdays I hardly set foot back inside from 8 30am - 10pm, so it was a good choice to choose that day to have a cloudy day.

I might put another day into cloudy, rainy day if I can stand having a blackened tank.

[CruzinKim]

Great idea! Will try it, too bad my controller can't automatically leave the lights off the first 3 days of each month.

[impur]

Originally posted by Herpn
What kind of skimmer are you using?

Reef Octopus DNW200 modded with meshwheel, bored out elbow and refabbed venturi pulling roughly 23-25scfm.


I understand you might be trying to get to the root of the problems in my tank, but the truth is it all started a few months ago when i had a pH dip due to putting my CA reactor online and switching to IO salt. I've tried every single "cure" on this entire website for cyano/dinos with the exception of the 3days no lights. Coupled with going back to Oceanic salt, the outcome of that has been spectacular.

[jeffreylam1132]

Very good to know. Excellent idea!

[johara]

This worked great for me as a way to get rid of the final bits of cyano after making the necessary changes to decrease nutrients. Even once Phosphates were down to less than .03 and flow markedly increased (vortechs) the cyano still popped up in its previous places despite siphoning. I had a chiller pump failure, so decided to use that as a reason to leave lights off for the two days it took to replace it. Heat wasn't an issue that way. Lights all off for two days, actinics on the third, and I never saw another bit of cyano - that was about a month ago.

No problems with sps, lps, clam, softies or fish. Actually my leopard wrasse stayed in the sand an extra day and thought I might have lost him, but he popped up fat and happy on the second day of lights resuming none the worse for wear.

[adtravels]

I notice a few of you have this problem in your sump, (please forgive if this has been said before) surley the lights off thing works for cyno in the sump/fuge.

Also I am on the third day of my cycle all the cyno/dino was gone yesterday,hooray and it has given time for my three urchins to really smah through the dreaded hair algae,

I did do a water change before the thre day cycle where i siphoned out most of the cyno and pulled alot of the HA, will have a day of actinics tomorrow and water change on the first full day of lights on, cant wait.

[Mavrk]

Originally posted by adtravels
I notice a few of you have this problem in your sump, (please forgive if this has been said before) surley the lights off thing works for cyno in the sump/fuge.

Also I am on the third day of my cycle all the cyno/dino was gone yesterday,hooray and it has given time for my three urchins to really smah through the dreaded hair algae,

I did do a water change before the thre day cycle where i siphoned out most of the cyno and pulled alot of the HA, will have a day of actinics tomorrow and water change on the first full day of lights on, cant wait.

Yes, it definately works in the sump as well. Once it was gone in my sump, it wasn't able to take hold again. Only did the lights out once and that was enough to give my tank a chance to start winning the battle. I then did the sump, and the battle was won. Now I have no cyano and am starting to get rid of the hair algae that started showing up. Might have to do another 3 day cycle to get the last of it.

[snaza]

at the end of my second day and cyano on my sand bed hasnt changed. still a fair bit. should i syphon it out? this is my first lights out so i only wanted to do 2 days but i still have cyano so i guess i have to keep going.

do i have to do a water change after the third day? they guy i get my NSW is away for 2 weeks for christmas

[Aquabucket]

You should be fine without a water change. Definitely syphon out as much as you can. You will get better results.

Good luck!

[snaza]

Originally posted by Aquabucket
You should be fine without a water change. Definitely syphon out as much as you can. You will get better results.

Good luck!

thanks for that. is it normal to still have cyano on the sand after 2 days? i:m getting a fair bit of daylight during the day

[adtravels]

Originally posted by adtravels
I notice a few of you have this problem in your sump, (please forgive if this has been said before) surley the lights off thing works for cyno in the sump/fuge.

Also I am on the third day of my cycle all the cyno/dino was gone yesterday,hooray and it has given time for my three urchins to really smah through the dreaded hair algae,

I did do a water change before the thre day cycle where i siphoned out most of the cyno and pulled alot of the HA, will have a day of actinics tomorrow and water change on the first full day of lights on, cant wait.

all claer two days after the lights are back on

[Aquabucket]

Originally posted by snaza
thanks for that. is it normal to still have cyano on the sand after 2 days? i:m getting a fair bit of daylight during the day

If you have a pretty thick mat of it. My tank gets a lot of daylight as well.