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

[Trigeek]

Update:

no lights yesterday, so the tank is on about 36 hours with no light. The bryopsis is about 95% gone. My zoas are free of it and so is the sand. A few tiny strands remain on some of the liverock. The lights will remain off today and I'll start with the blues and a shorter full photoperiod tomorrow. It'll be interesting to see if this stuff grows back.

In my original post I wrote that I had a cyano outbreak. It's bryopsis. Sorry for the misinfo., I've had a large outbreak of hairalgae lately in my brain.

[stevedola]

turned on the lights today with about 95% of the cyno gone. I didnt siphon out in the beginning (couldnt really get to it w/o ripping apart the rocks). Ive done 2 - 5g water changes and the water is crystal clear. I did lose 1 acro that I was given to try help rescue back to health but other than that...everything is very good.

[Trigeek]

60+ hours without supplemental lighting. The tank gets a small amount of light from outside through the sliding glass doors it sits near. No signs of the bryopsis at all when I first turned the lights on (a few minutes ago). It was growing some of my zoas, the tops of the liverock, the green porites and in the sand bed. The only ill effects I see are on the tip of one of the green porite branches. The tip is white, almot looks like some salt mix was sprinkled onto it. I tried to get a pic of it, but it didn't come out too well.

Here's an FTS:



Here's a pic of the white tip on the porite (the tip on the right)



I'll monitor things and update.

[Aquabucket]

Good news guys. Thanks for sharing your results.

Trigeek ~ Your tank looks pretty clean. I hope it stays that way for you!

[reefkoi]

Originally posted by Aquabucket
Its really unfortunate that RTN is occurring on some SPS corals. I think its very important to monitor alk, and PH closely during the black-outs if you have a lot of stony corals. I feel pretty bad that people encountered these problems and lost livestock. I really did not expect that to happen.

I wouldn't take it personally. If they are having issues with the tank and need to do the lights off for some reason then it's likely something else is causing the RTN.
I don't doubt that your method "works" for getting rid of algae problems in the tank. The fact that people are having issues and can't resolve them any other way than going dark bothers me a little bit.
I hope people don't all jump on this as a "cure", they need to really examine the tank as a whole and figure out why they are having difficulty controlling the algae.

I went through the whole brown sand and brown rock issue a year ago, I fought the temptation to use chemicals or going dark.
I'm glad I did, I upgraded the RO unit, skimmer, flow in the tank, and added more snails/crabs.
Knock on wood I don't have a spot of any algae but coralline.

Chris

ps: sorry if this seems negative, I don't want to start any problems, it's just how I feel about "crutches" as I like to call them.

[Aquabucket]

reefkoi ~ You bring up some very valid points and I appreciate your input.

Sure there are members here trying the black-outs as a quick fix for nuisance algae, cyano, diatoms, dino, etc... and there are other members like myself that are doing the black-outs as part of their regular husbandry practices even though their tanks are very healthy and pest free for the most part. Only each individual can decide if and why one is going to try a black-out period. This thread is quite large now and many valid points have been discussed already. I would encourage any-one debating whether to do the black-outs to read as much of this thread as possible.

[Aquabucket]

As promised here is the latest tally.

davocean ~ *did it in the past to help rid hair algae.
Ritten ~ *did it in the past but now regularly does 2 days.
sjm817 ~ *does it when going on 3 day vacations.
triggerfreak ~ *reported that algae was gone.
cristhiam ~ *reported that HA was in a weakened state.
melev ~*cyano bacteria in refugium is gone, brown stuff on the tips of the corals is virtually gone, the glass is clean and doesn't need wiping, clam is out and happy and the corals are starting to perk up, several acros RTN'd but that may have been a result of chronic low salinity.
Icefire ~ *severe phyto problem diminished by 30%, xenia colony shrinked by 75% and looks to be near dead.
tomasga ~ *did a week of darkness with 95% of algae reported gone.
PupChow ~ *small patchs of cyano remained and bryopsis growth slowed.
SaltwaterDaddy ~ *part of regular routine and has done it many times with excellent results.
sjediets ~ *went 6 days once during hurricane with no losses.
rickh ~ *bryopsis unaffected.
chris wright ~*tank was a lot cleaner than expected and cyano was 99% gone.
MO Will ~*micro algae diminished with no apparent deleterious impact on the SPS, LPS, anenomes and fish.
Herpn ~*keeps lights off when away for long weekends.
mg426 ~*algae on sand is diminished.
Abynum1 ~*no cyano whatsoever and 90% of the hair algae is gone.
evoracer ~*water is crystal clear, corals out and VERY happy, snail eggs on glass.
jhuggins ~ *water was very crystal clear and most of the corals looked great, an acro looks lost but it was nearly dead when acquired.
lemonsx4 ~*cyano that began to take hold is all gone.
coraladdict ~*all cyano gone.
BigDaddy ~ *removed dinos.
kenny77 ~ *has done it in the past with cyano being eradicated.
tcottle ~ *all cyano gone.
dustin323 ~*all cyano gone.
FishHick ~ *reported a little bleaching in his zoos but dinos were gone.
steve9k ~ *one small spot of cyano remained and some corals never looked happier.
Rick2203 ~ *does it regularly to successfully combat HA.
clekchau ~ *reported that all cyano was gone.
jba6511~ *cyano was 95% gone, water looked amazing and all corals seem fine.
isistius ~ *all of the corals seem very happy, hair algae is almost totally gone, water is also much clearer.
RobbyG ~ *ORP now up to 320-400 and steady, acros and mushrooms seemed to be improve and look better than before, water is much clearer and the sand was bright white, copepod population was much more visible, diatoms on the sand where gone but slowly came back after 7 days, fish not eating as much, bubble coral that was recovering relapsed back into a near death state, PH dropped to 8.05.
tfp ~ *cyano/diatoms gone but returning after a few months.
bluetmax ~ *new clarity to the water, SPS and other corals look superb.
vol_reefer ~ *the vast bulk of cyano (which was substantial) is gone, small proportion of xenia near death when the lights came back on, SPS and LPS look very happy, few smaller frags that were single branches look like they started forming new axial coralites, small a. turaki frag RTN'd a day after.
neotekz ~ *dinos on sand unaffected.
Bloke ~ *cyano eradicated.
dtaylor123 ~ *already part of regular routine.
zeusfc ~ *wire algae unaffected.
invincible569 ~ *tank remained clear of cyano/algae for 2 weeks but is now returning, RTN on an acro appeared after 1 week but is now recovering.
bfg ~ diatoms on sand decreased 60-70%, small blenny has cloudy eyes.
RBU1 ~ Had a BAD cyano outbreak. The rock is now clear of cyano and so is the glass. More than happy with the results.
waveform ~ "Sometimes pictures are better than words."
TOYTEK ~ What was left of HA is still there, but no longer green, maybe its dead?, water very clear (clearer than usually is after a 25 % water change), sand is cleaner, snails, hermits, and emerald crab much more active while lights out, green/brown "new tank" algae on rocks almost all gone.
TBAquascapes ~ All the dino died off, as well as the cyano at the back of the tank, cyano actually grew more as it appeared in new areas in the front of the tank during the dark period. On the good side, all corals and clams seem fine, and the water is definitely sparkling. [/B]
hambone77 ~ Said it worked for him but his Elegance coral is slow to recover.
oct2274 ~ Reported no effect on hair algae & less build up on glass.
hootie51 ~ The sand was cleaner (diatoms) and the corals opened up to their full extent. Everything looks good and I think it might be helpful to add a 2-3 day blackout to monthly maintenance routines.
AJtheReefer ~ Was able to remove a few left over patches of HA, skimmer pulled significantly more on 2nd night, Nitrates were higher, .1 (they are always 0), great water clarity and polyp extension, a bit more of RTNing on a SPS frag (Was already RTNing, not sure if the lights out contributed more).
chris4869 ~ Dino died back by about 5-10%, Mushrooms expanded in size during the 3 day light-out and had agreenish-gold sheen a week afterward, Maxima clam, Birdnest, Acropora, Montipora, and anemonies were unaffected, Water clarity unchanged. It's really clear to begin, PH dropped slightly, Coraline algae unaffected.
Caleb Kruse ~ Turned the lights off for 3 days, and then only actinics for the day after and all my cyano died.
jwinn ~ Rocks cleared up great doing this.
TriniStylez ~ I have just finished trying this out and it worked great! I have no more Cyano and a bunch of happy corals, which opened right up as soon as the regular lighting period began again. I wouldn't say they look better but certainly no worse. The tank as a whole looks WAY better!
Coderabit2 ~ "Tried this out and had good results like I've read in the thread", fungia coral became bloated during dark period.
pledosophy ~ Has been doing this on his tanks for years, cyano died after three days of no light, algae problems especially hair algae and bryopsis were also reduced, skimmer pulls out more during the dark period, refugium remains lit during the process to help with pH and macro growth. [/B]
John Kelly ~ Tank unchanged, no losses to SPS corals, etc.., 22 out of the 23 Goniopora did not extend fully until 1 to 2 days later, some remained in that condition for several days or more.
Criminal#58369 ~ Cleared up algae problem.
arts007 ~ Bryopsis plumosa on the back of the glass 40% gone with the rest easily scraped away, water clarity is much better, coralline started to grow on the overflow, all corals opened up 1 hr. after lights on and look healthy.
RichConley ~ Result's were real bad, All monti caps are bleached out/dead, and my acros are all showing severe tip burn.
Sk8r ~ Cyano is almost gone, film is non-existent, caulerpa grew tendrils, clam was unhappy at first, LPS and aiptasia are ecstatic, GSP is happy, sand is white, ALK remained unchanged.
rbursek ~ Was getting some Cyano, tried the no lights thing, it worked and all fish and corals look okay.
Aaarrrggg ~ Tried it & love it, all cyano gone and LR and corals super clean, six-line wrasse disappeared.
dan934 ~ Crystal clear water, corals looked good, tiny small patch of slime on one base rock but the rest gone, was able to remove 95% of the hair algae with ease on the last day (previously almost impossible), aiptasia growing in new areas.
plc001 ~ All cyano gone, sand is bright white (pictures included).
Sen ~ A lot of micro-algae disappeared and the water was crystal clear, everything survived and is doing well, various macro algae in main tank is also doing well.
zuzecawi ~ Clarity of water is incredible, was impressed with the black-out and no longer skeptical.

So far a total of 66 members have tried a 3 day black-out and posted their results in this thread. Several members have now done 2 - 3 day blackouts with favorable results.

I still have to tally all the 2 day black-outs and will post those as soon as I can.

[drstupid]

i'm very glad to have discovered this thread.

i had a dino problem over the winter, and phosban got rid of it. i recently changed my closed loop so it has two 1" penductors slamming into the back of the rocks, the turnover is great but it's really bringing up a lot of stuff that was trapped in the interior of the rockwork. dinos all over again, just in time for a friend to give me a pile of corals to hold for him while he moves/changes tanks.

i've tried repeated changes, fresh phosban, a magnum 350 full of hydrocarbon, upped the fuge light cycle, aggressive skimming, fresh prefilters on the RO/DI unit.... the dinos just keep getting worse, and the new corals are definitely suffering. so, i'm trying an extended lights-out period under the theory it may kill a few of the stressed ones, but the dinos definitely will if i can't get this bloom under control.

is 48 hours sufficient? or should i go for 72? i'm tempted to just keep it going until i break the back of the dinos.

i put a fresh bucket of kalk topoff in place, so even with adjusting the calcium reactor to the increased load, it should keep the PH up (just under 8 now after 16 hours with no lights).

it's also time for a MH bulb change, but i'm going to wait a couple more weeks on that.

i agree this is a crutch move, and the ideal would be to identify and correct the underlying nutrient problem, but i feel a need to take corrective action now.

[Aquabucket]

Try 2 days first and see how it goes. Good luck!

[waveform]

update: bad news this time.

The second 3 days of black out produce pour noticeable effects.
Cyanobacteria removal was less effective than the first time (but the first time the tank was infested).
I sow agglomeration of bacteria in form of air bubbles and brown algae somewhere in the tank over the rocks and there are no way to remove them except physically through aspiration. I'm getting nervous as there are several months now that I'm facing this problem.
I'm trying with zeovit coral snow + Zeoback everyday but without special results.
Any other way to remove them?

[drstupid]

so for me it was lights out friday->lights on monday with everything dark, 60 hours total. it made a big difference in the dinos, mabe 20% of what they were friday. my skimmer produced about a gallon of seriously nasty stuff during that time. the SPS did fine, i noticed one acro i've had for a long time with a couple of white tips, and one new specimen in poor health died. there's a tort that probably won't make it either, i've had historic difficulties with this species for some reason. i ran just actintics today, we'll see how things look after a full light cycle comes back into effect. i'm very hopeful this broke their back though, and the bloom is over.

i did a 5 gallon change, so about 3%, and i think i'm going to try to do this every day this week, this salt batch was mixed last week with new filters in the RO/DI unit. the bad thing about applying so many corrective measures at once is you don't really know which one made the biggest difference, but i'm more concerned with keeping things alive right now.

it looks like many of folks trying this technique for the first time are dealing with some sort of algae/diatom/cyano bloom that has them at their wits end, so it's probably not a bad thing to post what other measures i'm taking.

[Musho3210]

I have a question, would having a tank dark for a few days and lowering the SG be even better? Since in the wild they go dark normally from storm clouds and all that fresh rain water may lower the SG a bit in the ocean, not a big one like 1.025 to 1.020, but maybe 1.025 to 1.024 over the course of 3 days and then back to 1.025?

[drstupid]

i'm not really sure even a hurricane could lower the SG measurably, even for a short while at the top layer of water. you're talking billions of gallons of water, in motion.

[Zoom]

^

[XSiVE]

I just turned the lights off for the weekend... wow, what a difference. I will be doing this every month from now on.

[chris wright]

You don't need to do it every month mate Just do it every few months if your happy with the results.

Cheers

Chris

[Fantor]

Ok here I go. LIGHTS OUT!!!!!

Tank: 30 gallon.
Age: 4 Months
Setup: Live rock/sand, std cleaning crew, 2 maxi 1200 power heads, heater, Bak-Pak 2R+ protein skimmer, 1 30head brown/yellow zoo No Fish.
Lighting: 4x 96watt fixture, 2 blue, 2 dual daylight 6700k/10000k.
2hr blue, 6hr blue/white, 2hr blue, 10hr total light.
Water: LFS RO/DI saltwater 1.025. A,N,N:0,0,0. Ph:8.2, Cal:420.

Problem: Red slime on rocks and glass, Brown slime/algea in sand.

Lights went out 6:00 P.M. 08/11/07.

I'll report back 08/15/07 when I turn my lights back on for there normal schedule.


Fantor

[Fantor]

Ok here I go. LIGHTS OUT!!!!!

Tank: 30 gallon.
Age: 4 Months
Setup: Live rock/sand, std cleaning crew, 2 maxi 1200 power heads, heater, Bak-Pak 2R+ protein skimmer, 1 30head brown/yellow zoo No Fish.
Lighting: 4x 96watt fixture, 2 blue, 2 dual daylight 6700k/10000k.
2hr blue, 6hr blue/white, 2hr blue, 10hr total light.
Water: LFS RO/DI saltwater 1.025. A,N,N:0,0,0. Ph:8.2, Cal:420.

Problem: Red slime on rocks and glass, Brown slime/algea in sand.

Lights went out 6:00 P.M. 08/11/07.

I'll report back 08/15/07 when I turn my lights back on for there normal schedule.


Fantor

[Fantor]

Ok here I go. LIGHTS OUT!!!!!

Tank: 30 gallon.
Age: 4 Months
Setup: Live rock/sand, std cleaning crew, 2 maxi 1200 power heads, heater, Bak-Pak 2R+ protein skimmer, 1 30head brown/yellow zoo No Fish.
Lighting: 4x 96watt fixture, 2 blue, 2 dual daylight 6700k/10000k.
2hr blue, 6hr blue/white, 2hr blue, 10hr total light.
Water: LFS RO/DI saltwater 1.025. A,N,N:0,0,0. Ph:8.2, Cal:420.

Problem: Red slime on rocks and glass, Brown slime/algea in sand.

Lights went out 6:00 P.M. 08/11/07.

I'll report back 08/15/07 when I turn my lights back on for there normal schedule.


Fantor

[Fantor]

Ok here I go. LIGHTS OUT!!!!!

Tank: 30 gallon.
Age: 4 Months
Setup: Live rock/sand, std cleaning crew, 2 maxi 1200 power heads, heater, Bak-Pak 2R+ protein skimmer, 1 30head brown/yellow zoo No Fish.
Lighting: 4x 96watt fixture, 2 blue, 2 dual daylight 6700k/10000k.
2hr blue, 6hr blue/white, 2hr blue, 10hr total light.
Water: LFS RO/DI saltwater 1.025. A,N,N:0,0,0. Ph:8.2, Cal:420.

Problem: Red slime on rocks and glass, Brown slime/algea in sand.

Lights went out 6:00 P.M. 08/11/07.

I'll report back 08/15/07 when I turn my lights back on for there normal schedule.


Fantor

[Fantor]

Sorry for the two reposts. Computer problems

Fantor

[brian430]

i've had a cyano problem now for a few months now, can't figure it out gonna give it a try, will let you know how it goes

btw aquabucket thanks for the great thread, seems to be valid

[brian430]

well it's been one day, don't see a change yet, but too soon to tell, we'll see tomorrow.

[Fantor]

Ok here's my report.

End of day 1: No change.

End of day 2: No change.

End of day 3: Blue lights on and the magic happens, "well sort of". Red and Brown Slime gone. Green and Brown algea on live sand bed gone, "looks like new sand again". Hard Green and Brown algea on glass weakend but still on glass. No effect to my Zoo coral.

Cleaned glass and did 20% water change. Water test result 1.025. A,N,N:0,0,0. Ph:8.0, Cal:440.

Day 4 Normal lights on.

End of day 4: Red slime regrowing on my live rock and glass," NOT GOOD".

Day 5 Today: Blue lights only another 20% water change. Water readings 1.023. A,N,N:0,0,0. Ph:8.0, Cal:440.


I'll post another update in a few days with further reslaults. I plan to go back to full lights tomorrow and see how things look over the weekend.

Fantor

[Sk8r]

I would add, for people doing this with acroporas, test frequently during the dark period. When the algae dies, IMHO it's going to release its mineral content back into the water, because I can't think where else it could go, and depending on the size of the problem, that can be a lot. I'd advise the skimmer should be in good trim and it might not be a bad thing to run phosphate uptake media, plus polypad to take up anything else I'm not sure of...

I do have a potent refugium, 40% of my tank size, with a lot of cheato and live rock and sand, and it keeps its regular light cycle while the tank is in darkness.

Note: I was having rainford goby troubles, because my tank was TOO clean, so I started trying to provoke some cyano, which they will eat, along with hair algae, by putting in phosphate and exposing the tank to indirect sunlight. Couldn't do it, and to my great regret, I lost the fish, which will not eat anything else. The only thing I can raise now is film algae and green plating algae. So now I'm about to do the dark treatment again to get the tank to release what I pumped into it. The sand is already white and the caulerpa has already died out except in the refugium, where a little came in with the cheato.

Clearly this set-up is going to be too clean for the little gobies, but the acropora is doing all right.