week long blackout

[beano]

in an attempt to combat my algae problem i have begun a week-long blackout. its only been a few days and my girlfriend is concerned that i am killing our corals. as this is my first blackout, i dont know what to expect. my plate coral is inflated larger than usual and my carnation coral is droopy. i figure they are just sad from no light. does it sound like they are in fact dying or just sad? any suggestions/advice will help. thankyou

 

[ccCapt]

I don't know about a week. Killing the lights won't cure any algae problem by itself. You must change your maintanence routine in order to improve the tanks water quality.

 

[d2mini]

I've never gone more than 3 days. I would be afraid that a week might be too long, but I couldn't tell you for sure.
I'm combating some hair algae and I can tell you that 3 days didn't do a darn thing.
Right now I'm doing water changes and dosing Marine S.A.T as well as Brightwell Bio Fuel, and making sure my water parameters are all tip-top. And yesterday I tossed in a filter bag of carbon and a filter bag of phosguard. And starting yesterday I'm also switching my fish from Rod's Food to New Life Spectrum - Marine Pellets.
Something's gotta help! lol

 

[yote]

Another thing you've got to do to get a head in the algae battle,is remove as much as possible by hand.

 

[dcantucson]

I would be concerned as your girlfriend is. I think you could possibly harm to your corals putting them through complete darkness. Are you covering the tank too, for a complete blackout?

 

[beano]

i could have sworn i read on this forum that it was ok to turn the lights off for more than a couple days.

i put the lights on this morning and everyone is looking happy. no droopiness and full polyp extension. i am going to a much shorter time cycle though. this problem started when i upgraded to t-5 so i could get some coral action. what are your thoughts on minimum daylengths? also, does algae respond differently to actinic vs. white light?

thanks for advice for the algae. i have been doing phosguard, pwc, carbon, and hand harvesting. ive got it to the point where it is not getting worse but its certainly not getting better. whats left is hard to reach or small and slimy.

maybe i will start a thread on the algae page.

 

[beano]

oh and it wasnt a complete blackout, there was enough natural sunlight for a small number of zooas to come out actually.

 

[Melosu58]

natural sunlight going through your tank glass is diffused sunlight and is a big cause of algea in a tank. You might have just found your cause.

 

[Rcpilot]

If you're doing a blackout, you need to be doing water changes as well.

The blackout will kill the algae and make it dissolve back into the water. You have to do big water changes to get rid of all that dissolved algae in the water column. I did a blackout and wasted 97% of the algae in there. :bounce:

I turned off the lights for a week and did water changes every other day. I ran carbon 24/7 in a small canister and changed it out every other day as well. I must have done 30 water changes on my 10g frag tank. Only 2g - 2.5g at a time, but it was every other day.

My frag tank is still nothing pretty, but it's a helluva lot better than it was a month ago. I can actually see the corals in there now, Biff. ;-)

 

[JAG107]

3 days is the longest I go with lights out, but that's to benefit my SPS, not to kill algae. Water changes (+1 everybody), and stopping import of phosphates (what feed are you using?) are going to help stop algae growth as well as heavy manual removal, like Yote said.
A week of darkness will hurt your corals more than the algae IMO.

 

[Rcpilot]

3 days is the longest I go with lights out, but that's to benefit my SPS, not to kill algae. Water changes (+1 everybody), and stopping import of phosphates (what feed are you using?) are going to help stop algae growth as well as heavy manual removal, like Yote said.
A week of darkness will hurt your corals more than the algae IMO.

Lights out will benefit the SPS corals? How so? Does the blackout help them rest and then trigger some kind of growth spurt?

I ask, not to be a smart ass......... but because I don't have any SPS corals and don't know a darn thing about them.

 

[kmart189]

I had hair algae and got rid of it through water changes and sucking it out I took a turkey a baster and tried to get as much off the rock that way then used gravel vac to get the free floating stuff out, then took the gravel vac off and used only the end of the hose and got a lot off that way eventually I got rid of it.

 

[beano]

i have been doing 15% water changes a week. i am pretty sure my water source is clean. but i might go to the lfs for a few weeks to see if that helps.

should i go to twice a week? or change more volume? like i said the growth has slowed but i cant get what is left to go away.

snails cant munch on thick stuff can they? doesnt it have to be short

also, i do rip some out with my hands every time i change water but its really bad on one rock that i cant get a good grip on. i feel like i want to use a toothbrush to scrub the crap off it but would that do more harm than good by spreading spores? of course i would do this and then do a water change.

 

[kmart189]

what kind of sump/skimmer, flow any powerheads, and are you using RO/DI water. You shouldn't have to go twice a week IMO

 

[Bifferwine]

Lights out will benefit the SPS corals? How so? Does the blackout help them rest and then trigger some kind of growth spurt?

I ask, not to be a smart ass......... but because I don't have any SPS corals and don't know a darn thing about them.

I think he means that he only blacks it out for three days at the most for the benefit of the SPS. Any longer could be detrimental.

 

[puttycat]

Hermit crabs and some snails may help, I didn't see it mentioned in your sig. They really help keep new algae growth to a minimum in my tank.

 

[Rcpilot]

what kind of sump/skimmer, flow any powerheads, and are you using RO/DI water. You shouldn't have to go twice a week IMO

If you are doing a blackout, you need to do FREQUENT water changes to get rid of the algae after it dies.

Doing a blackout to kill algae and then skipping the water changes just leads to another algae outbreak.

 

[yote]

Lights out will benefit the SPS corals? How so? Does the blackout help them rest and then trigger some kind of growth spurt?

I ask, not to be a smart ass......... but because I don't have any SPS corals and don't know a darn thing about them.

Rc,Think about a natural reef.They dont get a full 12 hours of sunlight 7 days a week 52 weeks a year.There'll be days that its cloudy,storming, and what not.Might even go a week or so at a time like that when the weathers bad enough.
I dont know that it'd actually be bad for the corals to get full every day in our tanks,but not natural.
Just my way of looking at it.

 

[project5k]

hmm, never thought about it like that, but it makes sence.

 

[sen5241b]

in an attempt to combat my algae problem i have begun a week-long blackout. its only been a few days and my girlfriend is concerned that i am killing our corals. as this is my first blackout, i dont know what to expect. my plate coral is inflated larger than usual and my carnation coral is droopy. i figure they are just sad from no light. does it sound like they are in fact dying or just sad? any suggestions/advice will help. thankyou

I've seen my plate coral puff up and they just do that. By itself it doesn't mean he is stressed.