3 day blackout - how much time between doing it again?

[Ryan8696]

Hey guys - did a bit of searching on the forum but couldn't find an answer to this.

I've done a 3-day blackout and noticed a big difference, but there's still a bit of algae left. I'd like to do another 3 day blackout but how long do I have to wait before doing it again?

I had to move my tank and stored my coral/fish while I was cycling the new tank at my local fish store - he got a big order, had no space for it so I had to put 7 fish and 15 corals into the tank simultaneously...hence the algae problem...

 

[Ron Reefman]

IMHO, fish hardly care at all as long as they get food. Corals can deal with no light for 3 days easy. How long between black outs... hard to say, but I wouldn't worry about doing it.

If you have leds, you could try just running the blue channel. Most algae doesn't do well with just blue spectrum and the corals will still open up and be happy.

 

[Ryan8696]

Thanks Ron, I've been running blue but it didn't seem to make a huge difference - so I thought i'd try something a bit more drastic. I have a tank at home (the other one is at the office), I've been adding one coral/fish every other week and I've had not issues. I think it was just putting so much into the tank at once that caused the issue.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Do a 5 day rather than 3.
Liquid vibrant would help as would addition of turbo and astrea snails to start with

 

[Ryan8696]

Thanks - 5 days it is!

 

[Ron Reefman]

Keep us in the loop.

 

[William Mumford]

Thanks Ron, I've been running blue but it didn't seem to make a huge difference - so I thought i'd try something a bit more drastic. I have a tank at home (the other one is at the office), I've been adding one coral/fish every other week and I've had not issues. I think it was just putting so much into the tank at once that caused the issue.

Do you have any clean up crew