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

[drummereef]

Very cool idea, Aquabucket! I've followed your tanks for a while and the 'controversy' around your skimmer-less systems. It just goes to show what the word "balance" means in reefkeeping. Great job and way to be an out-of-the-box thinker!

[Frick-n-Frags]

yes, this was one of the most progressive pieces of thinking that I have read about in a long time. I like it, a lot.

At first thought, it seems analogous to a freshwater dip: the little stuff(ich/micro) can't take the short term (hypo/darkness) like the larger animals can(fish/coral)

[Sepeku]

I'll be implementing the same here. I've recently cut the lights off to combat Cyano, and it seems to have been the "1-2 punch" that got rid of it

Litterally, it is half as prevalent as it was when I turned the lights back on and took a look around. And that was just after 1 night!

I really owe teh interwebs and reefcentral for everything thus far combating (or not) some nuissance stuff.

[2fishy]

This is still one of my favorite tanks! I had been battling diatoms since about October. I will definately have to try this. On a side note my 7 year old wants his own reef tank in his room and I keep thinking about this tank. I think it would be the perfect size for him (and his mom! lol!).

[dirtyreefer]

Interesting concept, and might be worth a try even if you don't have HA or cyano problems since you are simulating natual conditions. Thanks for the post

[ASH]

And if we all try this at the same time of the month, we'll likely knock out a few power stations.

Andy

[roader247]

I'm also going to give this a try it happened to my nano by accident and it did look good when I turned the lights back on. Thanks for the info

Mark

[GraviT]

I just started a battle against the onset of a dino infestation and cut my lights back to 4 hours a day. Maybe I'll just try a few days of darkness since it seems that it's not only non-harmful, but can be beneficial for other things. This will make life easier for a few days since one of my ballasts bit the dust and I'm waiting for Coralvue to send me a replacement. Thanks for the info!!

[Aquabucket]

Originally posted by ASH
And if we all try this at the same time of the month, we'll likely knock out a few power stations.

Andy

.... As the head of one of most well known lighting companies out there you could help organize a "national lights out day" 6 times a year to conserve energy and extend ballast life.

Seriously though I wonder what kind of impact an organized effort might have. Someone might want to crunch some numbers. Maybe we could place a sticky and get as many people on here as we can to try it? We could make a tally from participating posters to see how much total energy was saved. Some people might want to do it for a day and others may do up to 3 if they want.

On another note I decided to go with a 2 day period this time to see the results I might get. I also have a recovering bleached octopus frogspawn frag I just aquired in recovery and wanted to get it back on a light cycle sooner.

I just turned my actinics on a few minutes ago. The water column is amazingly clear and there are no visible bio-films or algae on the sand, glass, or my equipment. I did a quick basting and everything is starting to open up. I also take time to clean my light bulbs and reflector during each cycle. I run T5s with-out a shield so this is a good time to wipe them clean of the salt creep.

Pics are coming hopefully by tomorrow!

[Pico Keeper]

I leave my lights off for two days right after a water change. I also run my canister filter filled with floss, pads, and carbon for 3 days after I do water changes. The 3rd day after a WC when I turn everything else back on, my water is usually UBER clear!

[InLimbo87]

Very cool idea aquabucket. Would be really great to see what kind of impact that would really make.

[Aquabucket]

Sorry for the delay. I finally borrowed a camera from my friend. I am still learning how to use it and don't have a tripod though.

Here are a few shots I took tonight. I guess they are OK. I will try to take some more tomorrow.

Left side:


Actinics:


My latest addition a baby Heteractis malu (Sebae) anemone:


Just a few comments: This tank was started almost entirely with frags. Many frags were acquired through trading frags from my tank particularly from fast growers like the branching hammer, pipe organ and blastomussa.

I traded my Derasa clam (out-grew its place) for a plate coral but the new plate inflated to an unbelievable size and was in turn too large for the space I cleared for it. I then traded the plate a few days ago for the baby Heteractis malu. So far the malu appears to be a healthy specimen with little bleaching occurring from collection. I hope to do well with it.

[KRussell]

I think I will try this as well. Seems like a good idea.

[Tremolo]

I shut my lights off last night at regular lights out time thinking of this post. I will turn them back on Wednesday at normal lights on time and post a before and after pic to show what happened in my tank. Well i guess i will post my before pic now it is about a month old but still looks the same as now other then some red algae on the back glass.



Lets see what happens Wednesday... I hope it will get rid of the red algae on the back glass that you cant see in the pic and clear up my sand.

[Aquabucket]

Good luck guys and feel free to post pics if you want! It may take your corals until the second day of light to become fully open again.

If you think 3 days is too much you can always try a day and so on. Anyway here is another actinic shot I took a few nights ago. I still need to convert some more recent shots.

[sjm817]

I've done this before, but never thought to post about it. A couple of times we went away for a 3 day weekend and had no one to watch the tank. I left the lights off and no feeding for 3 days. Everything was fine and like you show, it actually was good for the tank.

NICE looking tank BTW!! What bulbs are you using?

[nethawk73]

Sounds like a good idea. I'm staining my canopy over the weekend so I'll take that oppurtunity to leave the lights out for a couple of days. Makes sense though, there is always some ambient light in the room. Just like really cloudy days.

[Aquabucket]

nethawk73 ~

Yep you should have little to worry about! As for lighting I am running 4 39W HO T5s overdriven to 64 Watts each. The hood is fan cooled and the ballasts are remote. Bulb config is: 1- GE daylight, 1- ATI aquablue special, 1 ATI blue plus and 1 UVL super actinic with ice-cap waterproof endcaps.

sjm817 ~

Cool! And now you you now there is nothing to worry about if you need to leave your lights off for a few days. Thanks for chiming in. I am surprised this thread is not getting a bit more feedback and I appreciate your comments.

[cgh38]

I've tried it for 2 days after reading this post, thanks to Aquabucket by the way, and the little cyano that I had has disappeared also some HA that I've been battling has receded a bit, I wonder if I do it once every month for 2 days would that affect the corals in any way?
Thanks.

[Aquabucket]

Your corals will be fine. Just make sure your first day of light is actinics only. This gives the corals a gradual ramp up to daylight again.

I am glad you saw some positive results!

[nethawk73]

lights are off until mon. I will post with some feedback ........thanks for the idea . I have some hair algae thats not going away fast enough.

[Aquabucket]

You will find that the HA will be in a weakened state. This would be a good time to tweeze and syphon. Good luck.

[nethawk73]

Yeah I agree...I siphoned some already ( whatever would dislodge) and I'll get the rest after a couple of days.

[Jerry W]

Good thread. I've been leaving lights off every other day for about two weeks now, also in an effort to get a HA problem in check. It is noticeably receding, and on my last water change I was able to get a fair amount out by scraping it loose with just the siphon tube. I run a FOWLR so no worries on corals. I also cut back feedings to every other day as well. Results thus far have been favorable.

[xtrstangx]

I'm going to give this a try instead of doing a dosage of Chemi-clean..