Anyone doing a mid-day lights out??

chrisguy · #1 12/21/2007, 01:47 PM

I had read an article that speculated that simple algae used more energy to begin the photosynthesis process and that by breaking up the photo period it would negatively affect their growth.

To this means, about 2 weeks ago I changed my photo period to the following:

** Start of Cycle **
10:00am - VHO Actinic on
10:20am - VHO 50/50 on
10:40am - Single center MH on
11:00am - Left & Right MH on

** Time for mid-day break **
2:00pm - Left & Right MH off
2:10pm - Center MH off
2:20pm - VHO 50/50 off
2:30pm - VHO Actinic off

** On a sunny day, indirect natural light will hit the tank **

** End of mid-day break **
3:30pm - VHO Actinic on
3:40pm - VHO 50/50 on
3:50pm - Single center MH on
4:00pm - Left & Right MH on

** End of cycle **
9:00pm - Left & Right MH off
9:20pm - Center MH off
9:40pm - VHO 50/50 off
10:00pm - VHO Actinic off

Prior to this I had been having a lot of cyno on the sand and algae on the glass. Since implementing this change, both have become minimal to non-existent. None of the corals appear to be suffering and colors are still good. Additionally since 5 of the 7 days I'm not home mid-day, I don't really mind the tank being dark for a little while.

I am considering lowering the mid-day dark period from 1 hour to 30 minutes.

ElDiabloPollo · #2 12/21/2007, 01:54 PM

Very interesting Chris. I might try this, let us know if this contimues to keep the cyano and algae in check.

fatrip · #3 12/21/2007, 02:04 PM

very interesting ill have to try it out. how long before you had noticed the algea recceeding??

NirvanaFan · #4 12/21/2007, 02:13 PM

wow, those are some pretty good results.

chrisguy · #5 12/21/2007, 02:22 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by fatrip
very interesting ill have to try it out. how long before you had noticed the algea recceeding??

I think it was around the 1 week mark when I noticed that the cyno patches were not growing bigger and seemed to be getting a little smaller. For the last couple days I have not seen any cyno on the sand.

tmz · #6 12/21/2007, 02:45 PM

Thanks for sharing that tip. I never read that nuisance algae have a slower start up than zooxanthelae.

Gary Majchrzak · #7 12/21/2007, 04:05 PM

hey Chris- can you please post a link to the article?

chrisguy · #8 12/21/2007, 04:56 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Gary Majchrzak
hey Chris- can you please post a link to the article?

Would love to, but sadly I can't find it. I'll keep looking.

chrisqueenz · #9 12/21/2007, 05:03 PM

That sounds interesting

Gary Majchrzak · #10 12/21/2007, 09:29 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by chrisguy
Would love to, but sadly I can't find it. I'll keep looking.

was the article online or in a trade magazine or somewhere else?

Conesus_Kid · #11 12/28/2007, 09:34 PM

Are you still seeing good results with this?

My cyano seems to have reared its ugly head again. The tank gets one pinch of pellets once per day and nori every other day. I've cut back on feeding frozen foods to once every four days. My makeup water is <6 TDS. I'm running a fuge w/ chaeto 24/7, a Phosban reactor (new media one week old), and carbon.

I decided to try lights out for a couple of days, and WOW-It kicked the cyano butt! We'll see what long term results are, but I'm optimistic. I was getting frustrated b/c I've been doing "all the right things" to reduce problem algae, but the cyano just was hanging on.

I may try the mid-day lights out as well.

Keep us posted with your results!

chrisguy · #12 12/28/2007, 09:48 PM

I changed back to full day lighting and am starting to see some small patches of cyno in some places. I am letting things go to see if they grow or not. Will keep you posted.

LFS_worker · #13 12/28/2007, 09:50 PM

I was doing something very similar and getting 2x the growth out of my tank when I was growing my SPS. except I divided the day into 4 equal parts. so here is what I did. I deffiantely would not do this to control algae.

6am VHO's on
630 MH's on
1130 MH off
1200 VHO OFF
1800 VHO ON
1830 MH's ON
2330 MH OFF
2359 VHO OFF

I was getting the best growth in my tank that I ever did ... I was bringing in to CF one to two 1" frags of my A. Tort every month. Things like my green milli were just crazy.

The idea was corals lay calcite layers at night knowing that "Bricks and mortar will come with the lights."

There were some drawbacks that I experienced but there isnt enough evidence to support my theory. I currently have 1 tank using a similar lighting scheme that experiences a similar "problem".

just thought I'd chip in!
Brian

03Mach · #14 12/29/2007, 08:40 AM

Very interesting! I have been keeping my lighting time down to about 6 hours to help fight a few algae outbreaks. This has been helping, but I never got to see my tank with the lights on! I'm going to set my timers with a mid-day break and see what happens.

Gary Majchrzak · #15 12/29/2007, 10:36 AM

just a suggestion:
if you're decreasing photoperiod or light intensity in order to fight the proliferation of nuisance algae why not go after the nitrates, phosphates and DOC's that fuel nuisance algae growth?

tmz · #16 12/29/2007, 02:37 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Gary Majchrzak
just a suggestion:
if you're decreasing photoperiod or light intensity in order to fight the proliferation of nuisance algae why not go after the nitrates, phosphates and DOC's that fuel nuisance algae growth?

I agree. Less photo period may temporarily fix the problem but it is likely to stress other invertebrates such as corals. Particularly if it is a regular occurence.

Conesus_Kid · #17 12/29/2007, 06:24 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Gary Majchrzak
just a suggestion:
if you're decreasing photoperiod or light intensity in order to fight the proliferation of nuisance algae why not go after the nitrates, phosphates and DOC's that fuel nuisance algae growth?

I completely agree, however, I don't know where they're coming from! I'm not getting any other types of nuisance algae, other than patches of cyano.

I have been running my fuge 24/7 for a couple of weeks, and it does seem as though the cyano was better when I was running a reverse photoperiod.

I don't have a good phosphate test (colorimeter), so that is the one parameter I'm unable to test.

My skimmer cup is filled and emptied every other day with "stinky coffee".

I'm at a loss.

tmz · #18 12/29/2007, 11:20 PM

Excess CO2 is often the cause. Increased air exchange,more flow at the surface,open water and fresh air in the room if it is seasonally high in CO2. Fresh air to the skimmer often works. Puffing off the rock and substrate every few days to put the detrius in suspension helps.If all esle fails I would probably try an oxidizer like chemi clean before I did too much lights out. The other nuisance algae need nutrients while clyano will use the CO2 from nutrients it doesn't need them to thrive. It needs only CO2 light and water and can produce nutrients from free nitorgen.

Conesus_Kid · #19 12/30/2007, 04:28 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by LFS_worker
I was doing something very similar and getting 2x the growth out of my tank when I was growing my SPS. except I divided the day into 4 equal parts. so here is what I did. I deffiantely would not do this to control algae.

6am VHO's on
630 MH's on
1130 MH off
1200 VHO OFF
1800 VHO ON
1830 MH's ON
2330 MH OFF
2359 VHO OFF

I was getting the best growth in my tank that I ever did ... I was bringing in to CF one to two 1" frags of my A. Tort every month. Things like my green milli were just crazy.

The idea was corals lay calcite layers at night knowing that "Bricks and mortar will come with the lights."

There were some drawbacks that I experienced but there isnt enough evidence to support my theory. I currently have 1 tank using a similar lighting scheme that experiences a similar "problem".

just thought I'd chip in!
Brian

Brian,

What drawbacks were you seeing? What fish did you have in the aquarium.

I've noticed a lot of growth in a short amount of time from a few of my corals when I cut back on lighting. My Pectinia has grown more in the past week than I can remember!

Thanks!