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

[Teego]

The Amphipod Copepod theory.....

A lot of great observations !

But not a lot of theories being thrown out there.

MY theory is this;

Amphipods and copepods (and other critters that usually need to often hide) get to run about longer and eat and fornicate and reproduce. Corals that remain open get to feed extra! In the process, algaes are getting broken down via lack of light and from from critters eating.

I would be curious to see how some Gorgonians do in these tanks. (My theory implies that they will be extra happy)

The darkness cycle give them time to do their job............

[isistius]

nice theory. i would comment on it, but i don't have any gorgs.

[jba6511]

just a quick update. I am on day 2 and my cyano problem has been greatly reduced. The clowns do not seem to be affected at all and my cleaner shrimp has been out running all over the tank as opposed to just hiding like normal. Corals seem to be doing ok as well. Will report back after the full 3 days.

[Paliya]

I just turned my lights back on after 2 days of darkness and the tank looks great. I think I might start doing this 2 days every month.

An interesting side effect was this dark period allowed me to raise my Alk with supplements because the PH was lower than usual during the dark period. A fun experiment with positive results

Cheers to you Aquabucket, and all others who have contributed to this thread!

[Abynum1]

Ok,I think my corraline theory is correct.
I've been out of town since wed. with just the acentics only running on their normal schedule. The corraline has increased 10 times faster than when all lights were running. I don't think this is a coincidence anymore.
I'm doing a blue-light special one day a week from here out,and the 3 day blackout about every 6 weeks.

[isistius]

i am now starting day 2. pH is down to 8.0 from 8.3 with the lights off for 35 hours......i will keep you posted on the progress

[jacmyoung]

Originally posted by Teego
The Amphipod Copepod theory.....

A lot of great observations !

But not a lot of theories being thrown out there.

MY theory is this;

Amphipods and copepods (and other critters that usually need to often hide) get to run about longer and eat and fornicate and reproduce. Corals that remain open get to feed extra! In the process, algaes are getting broken down via lack of light and from from critters eating.

I would be curious to see how some Gorgonians do in these tanks. (My theory implies that they will be extra happy)

The darkness cycle give them time to do their job............

At least the fundamental behind this theory is solid. When one dominant organism's life cycle is disrupted, the next one in line takes over.

Cyano and other nuisance algae thrive on light to remove nutrient in the water, when their life cycle is cut short by the darkness, others get the chance to have at it with the left over nutrient, I suspect it is more likely bacteria in the sand and rock though.

[jba6511]

beginning of day 3 for me and the cyano has vastly improved. There are still a few spots here and there but 95% of it is gone. Will see how it looks after today. I am planning on doing a water change tomorrow. How much would you guys suggest I do? I normally do 10% but did not know if a larger water change would be more beneficial.

[Aquabucket]

Good news so far jba6511!

I would stick with what you normally take out unless you had a significant amount of algae dieing off. Good luck and keep us posted!

[Abynum1]

I just made another observation; I am in the process of pairing my maroon clowns and the female is not as aggressive when the main lights are out and not aggressive at all when all lights are out.
So, the 3 day blackout may be an ideal time to add any new livestock if you think you may have a bully problem.
I'm going to be adding either a Flame or Coral Beauty in the future and may time it to coincide w/the next blackout.
My female Maroon May not get along w/a Flame at 1st, so this should definitely help.
I'll do it when theres just enough ambient light left that the new addition can see,but it's dark enough that all the other fish are about to go to bed for the night.
I'll do it on day one of the 3 day period,that way by the time the lights come back on and the fish are back on high alert, they're already use to the new comer.

[jba6511]

well today ended the 3 day period and the results are impressive. The cyano was 95% gone, and what was left I siphoned out. The water looked amazing and all of my corals seem fine. The mushrooms, zoo and GSP seem unaffected, and my Kenya Tree is slowly coming around and will soon be fully extended. The sand is clean and white and the livestock are fine as well. (The cleaner shrimp molted as well, do not know if the two are related.) Before considering using chemi-clean or other chemicals for cyano, I suggest trying this first.

[isistius]

i finished my 3 day cycle as well. i didn't have most of the algae problems that everyone else is writing about but i did have some hair issues. my ph dropped to 8.0 (from 8.3), alk dropped to 9.3 (from 10.3) and ca remained above 500. all of the corals now seem very happy, and the hair is almost totally gone. the water is also much clearer. i am very pleased with the results, and i think i will continue doing this as a preventative measure every month, or even every other month. i'm glad i found this thread.......

[RobbyG]

Congrats on winning thread of the month, you deserve it.
I tried your 3 day blackout and had mostly good results.

The Really Good:

The ORP on my tank had been dropping over the last 7 months and I had no idea why. Now I know that the micro Biologics in the Tank had gotten way too high, The 3 days killed off almost all of them and now my ORP is back to between 320 - 400 steady.

Certain corals like my Acro and mushrooms seemed to be improve and look better than before.

The water is much clearer and the sand was bright white afterwards.

Copepod population was much more visible and had a 3 day break from my mandarin fish. That should have a beneficial effect in that they should be breeding more during that period which should increase numbers after a week or so.

The Not So Good:

The diatoms on the sand where gone but slowly arrive back over the following 7 days.

most fish are not eating as much and the Mandarin is not eating at all during this period. In hind sight, next time i will fatten them up for a few days before doing this.


The Bad:

Weakened corals might not make it through the dark period. I have a Bubble Coral that was recouping and it has since relapsed back into a near death state. My Zoa's did not look to good for the First 5 days, but have since mostly recovered.

Keeping pH up during the 3 days is not going to work for all people and may be a disaster for some. My regular 8.35 - 8.15 pH was hovering near 8.05 for the last 24 hours of darkness. For people who have low Alk or pH problems, they may experience an extended dip below 8.0 and that could be bad.

Overall:

My overall feeling is that this blackout is a good thing, it mimics the Bad days on the reef which is the natural way nature uses to keep certain biologics under control, which in turn leads to better oxygenated water and less competition. I will be using this every 2 months or so, but possibly only for 2 day periods

[Serioussnaps]

GFO

[RobbyG]

Originally posted by Serioussnaps
GFO

Whats the reason for saying that?

[RobbyG]

Double post sorry

[jay24k]

According to Randy's article, even a dip in ph to 7.8 is not bad so I don't see that causing an issue. I used to do this awhile ago but have gotten lazy. The corals really respond well and have insane extension directly after.

[jnarowe]

THis is very interesting as I have some cyano right now, but my chief concern is that when my lights go out, it's like there are no fish in the tank...won't that upset their cycles enough to cause stress?

I know they won't eat when it's dark either.

[Secondgen]

Just finished my 2 day lights out cycle with all good results. I am definitly going to implement this into my reef keeping strategies from now on. Thanks Aqua for sharing.

[zeusfc]

Well, I'd heard about this thread on a UK forum, but I'd never have stumbled on this thread were it not for the site going down last night and re-directing me to reefkeeping magazine!

My tank is presently a mess! I'd show a before picture but the clownfish are too embarrassed!

I have a 20G with about 30 hermits, about 40 snails, 4 urchins and 6 brittlestars, and 2" of rock NOT covered in algae!

My tank recieves about an hours worth of natural sunlight in the evenings, so I may pull the curtains too... I'm going for 3 days, I reckon the grazers will relish the extra hours of darkness to do their thing!

Has anyone tied this into lunar phases? if so, don't the hermits all hide away and moult? If not, this could be a good way to promote a "lights out period" in the hobby!

[becmow2]

very interesting! have some brown algae, think i'll give this a try.

Thanks!

[RobbyG]

Originally posted by jay24k
According to Randy's article, even a dip in ph to 7.8 is not bad so I don't see that causing an issue. I used to do this awhile ago but have gotten lazy. The corals really respond well and have insane extension directly after.

Yes the softies real do get huge. The odd thing is my Acropora seems to be growing more also.

pH below 8.0 may be ok but I would rather not go that low.

The fish feeding issue is a problem, they eat almost nothing during the Dark cycle. I tried my best but only a few of them would come out of hiding. The Solution is to feed the heck out of them for a few days before starting.

BTW I followed the advice on this thread and did a 20% water change on the second day.

[zeusfc]

Originally posted by RobbyG
The Solution is to feed the heck out of them for a few days before starting.

But isn't that going to feed the algae even more???

My solution is to let them starve for a couple of days... it's what happens in the wild if there's no food comes swimming by!

I'm one day into this now, and I so want to put the lights on to see how it's going!

Tomorrow, I'm going to do a big syphon-job, to see how much I can get out...

[Aquabucket]

Originally posted by RobbyG
The fish feeding issue is a problem, they eat almost nothing during the Dark cycle. I tried my best but only a few of them would come out of hiding. The Solution is to feed the heck out of them for a few days before starting.

This is going to depend on other factors as well. Mine all behave normally because of the amount of ambient sunlight the tank receives. The type of fish, amount of hiding places, and the practice of target feeding can also play a roll.

zeusfc ~ if your tank has a fair amount of ambient light you may find your fish behaving normally so feeding them is worth a try.

Good luck!

[Abynum1]

You're fish should be fine. Everything I read says fish can go a few days with little to no food.