No Lights for 3 Days Every Couple of Months Works Wonders! - Page 7

Abynum1 · #1 04/21/2007, 09:45 AM

Well its day 4 and the actinics will come on at their normal time today but I won't turn the other lights on until tomm.
I just shined some light in the display tank and the sand looks great!
All cyano is gone and 90% of the hair algae.
From reading the thread I really expected to see more hair algae left behind, but it's gone.
My tank is only 2 months old so maybe the new tank H/A is weaker than the what you guys have?
I was planning on siphoning it out when I did the water change but theres not enough to fool with.
I'm actually worried that my LMB won't have enough to eat.
4 days ago there was long brown stringy h/a on all my man made LR (for some reason it wasn't growing on the real LR) and now theres just a few 1/4 " patches here and there.
I'm about to do a 20% water change and I can't wait to turn my lights on tomm!
Thanks Aquabucket for great idea!!!

uyenk · #2 04/21/2007, 10:43 AM

good thread, subscribed

Aquabucket · #3 04/21/2007, 11:28 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Leopard Man
Great IDEA!

Will try it with my SPS/LPS.

Aquabucket, I voted for your tank for Nano of the Month.

Guy's Aqua has a great tank and thinks innovatively. We should all support him, and vote.

Thanks!!! I don't know how I missed your comment and just saw it today. I appreciate you voting for me for nano tank of the month. Its going to be tough to beat out the beautiful tank with the acan collection ~ not to mention the other outstanding tanks nominated. My tank is a bit different than the others as I strive for a more natural looking reef with more open spaces which is tough to achieve in a small aquarium.

If anyone else wants to vote for NTOTM the link is here: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1099215

I am glad a lot of you are posting your results. The more feedback we can get on this the better. I still worry about SPS corals a bit since Marc had some trouble but he was also having a red bug problem and treating that at the same time so that may have a played a role with his SPS problems.

InvaderJim · #4 04/21/2007, 01:27 PM

I was planning on doing this with my 10g nano thats having a bad cyano outbreak, but I'm running a 96w quad bulb, so I can't turn the actinics back on before the regular daylights...would this hurt anything?

Abynum1 · #5 04/21/2007, 01:35 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by InvaderJim
I was planning on doing this with my 10g nano thats having a bad cyano outbreak, but I'm running a 96w quad bulb, so I can't turn the actinics back on before the regular daylights...would this hurt anything?

What if you take the whole light unit off,and when its time to start the lights back up, set it about a foot or so away from the display and angle it where the light is shining in?
Then you can just move it closer as you need to.
With a 10g,that shouldnt be a problem.
Or, just go buy a cheap blue bulb,switch them out, and run it for the 1st day.
Then you will always have it on standby whenever you need to do this again.
That bulb for a 10g can't cost too much, and when you see the results, you'll agree it's worth it!

Leopard Man · #6 04/21/2007, 01:40 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Aquabucket
Thanks!!! I don't know how I missed your comment and just saw it today. I appreciate you voting for me for nano tank of the month. Its going to be tough to beat out the beautiful tank with the acan collection ~ not to mention the other outstanding tanks nominated. My tank is a bit different than the others as I strive for a more natural looking reef with more open spaces which is tough to achieve in a small aquarium.

If anyone else wants to vote for NTOTM the link is here: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1099215

Guys, pls vote for Aqua. I think you deserve to win. Your tank is more established than the rest, and your's is skimmerless, mixed reef. That's tough to pull off, and you're doing great. You're tank also looks great and appropriately stocked.

Fingers crossed

Aquabucket · #7 04/21/2007, 01:42 PM

I don't think you will have any trouble Jimmy but you might want to try Abynum's idea. Check out cbeitel's post on the previous page ~ he went back to full lights after a 2 day black-out.

reefinmike · #8 04/21/2007, 01:44 PM

hmm... i didnt think i would ever do this but im going to on monday. ive had a little bit of ha in my tank that i cant seem to get rid of and it seems this may give me the edge i need.

Aquabucket · #9 04/21/2007, 01:47 PM

Thanks Leopard Man! It is bit of difficult preventing my LPS from stinging nearby corals their flow and placement has to be well planned and executed.

Abynum1 ~ When are your lights coming on? I look forward to hearing about your results.

InvaderJim · #10 04/21/2007, 01:52 PM

Good ideas. I'm going to try Abynum1's idea. Lights out starting tomorrow. Thanks!

Abynum1 · #11 04/21/2007, 02:37 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Aquabucket

Abynum1 ~ When are your lights coming on? I look forward to hearing about your results.

I gave an update in an earlier post today.
They're on actinics today as it is day 4.
I can tell there is no cyano whatsoever and 90% of the hair algae is gone!
Like I said in my earlier post, I don't know if it's because my tank is new or what, but this really did a job on all that nasty long brown algae!
Also the sand looks great as well.
I just finished a 20% water change and the other bulbs will be back on tomm.
This should definitely make thread of the month because it's a great, non-chemical way to make a positive impact in a very short period of time.

Abynum1 · #12 04/21/2007, 02:47 PM

I don't know how a thread gets nominated for thread of the month,but I just sent Melev a pm on it.

chris wright · #13 04/21/2007, 08:48 PM

your not wrong there. Yeah its good that this method has been brought up. I refer people to this thread all the time now.

Grunt · #14 04/21/2007, 09:13 PM

I may have missed this, but when you turn off your lights do you feed heavier/lighter or the same? I'm just curious if heavier phyto feedings might help the clam and other inverts through the three days. Or do you feed less in order to stop diatom/algae blooms from excesss nutrients?

Do you think the indirect sunlight helps the corals and not the algae that your trying to prevent?

Love your tank btw

Cheers

Aquabucket · #15 04/21/2007, 09:50 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Abynum1
I gave an update in an earlier post today.
They're on actinics today as it is day 4.
I can tell there is no cyano whatsoever and 90% of the hair algae is gone!
Like I said in my earlier post, I don't know if it's because my tank is new or what, but this really did a job on all that nasty long brown algae!
Also the sand looks great as well.
I just finished a 20% water change and the other bulbs will be back on tomm.
This should definitely make thread of the month because it's a great, non-chemical way to make a positive impact in a very short period of time.

OK. I misread your post. I thought you were still waiting for the actinics to come on. Its great that you have seen such good results so far. Thanks for nominating this thread and I appreciate the consideration. Sharing info on things like this is what this site is all about and why I am here just about every day.

Grunt ~ I feed as I would normally. The indirect sun-light is not nearly enough to sustain micro algae and diatoms in my tank but enough to trigger many of my corals to open up.

omni2226 · #16 04/21/2007, 10:31 PM

Well if there is any truth to the statement that actinic lights will promote coraline, but not hair algae, perhaps someone with a stony coral tank could try this with actinics only.
Or maybe just one bulb of actinic on.
Could cause less stress on the stonys and still acheive results.

cgh38 · #17 04/21/2007, 10:54 PM

I will try it next time with actinics on only for 3 days , I have a few stony corals and did not affect them at all and I had no other lights in the room, it's pitch dark when the tank lights go off.

cbeitel · #18 04/22/2007, 12:59 AM

Thread of the month! You got my vote.

Nice work Aqua!

just dave · #19 04/22/2007, 08:55 AM

Maybe you should call it the "Shawn Merriman Method."

Herpn · #20 04/22/2007, 10:54 AM

When I went on vacation one time in the summer I decided to just let my actinics kick on and off and not have my day lights go on. Big mistake! I turned off my AC in the house and the way my light is built the cooling fans were not set up to go on when just the actinics were on. So between my house heating up to very high temps and having my actinics on without any fans, my tank got cooked...

Here are some pics, take a look at the first 3..
http://www.imagestation.com/album/pi...?id=2103848148

Happy to say now that it has recovered and is just fine.

Pics here, http://www.imagestation.com/album/pi...?id=2093697826

My green striped mushrooms in the front of my tank do not open up full unless I starve them for light for a few days. After that they open up fine. When I see them not opening again I know it is time for some light deprivation... They are my canary..

InvaderJim · #21 04/22/2007, 11:55 AM

Today is my first of no lights. The only light the tank is receiving is sunlight coming in the window from across the room. So far it doesn't look to be hurting the cyano much though. But it's still day one.

evoracer · #22 04/22/2007, 12:06 PM

Actinics on yesterday, full lighting today. Water is crystal clear, corals out and VERY happy. Will do a water change today to clear out what died in the water (ie algae and other undesirables).

invincible569 · #23 04/22/2007, 05:24 PM

Great job Shawn. I've done this before for only a day and it helps. Looks like 3 days is the magic time.

InvaderJim · #24 04/24/2007, 07:05 PM

Went two days without lights and man it wiped the cyano almost completely out. I was a little skeptical at first but now I'm a believer.

FishHick · #25 04/24/2007, 07:27 PM

Glad I found this thread. I am battling what I believe to be a dino problem. I just turned the lights out, and will update in 3 days.

Thanks!!