3 days of darkness questions

[Tylermacdonald15]

Ok so I'm going to try 3 days of darkness on my reef tank to battle some nuisance algae. I just have a few questions.

If my lights are off my corals won't be using calcium so I should turn off my dosing pumps right?

I have sps and Lps. Is there anything I should worry about or will everything be fine for 3 days of no light?
There is no fish in the tank so I don't need to worry about that.

If anyone can give me any more info on this I would appreciate it. The 3 days starts now so I hope it works!
I will put fresh GFO and carbon in to suck up all the phosphates and hope that the algae doesn't come back.


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[mike007]

Even though this might help get rid of the algae it will come back if you don't figure out why you are having this issue. Most of the time algae problems are caused by excess nutrients or high phosphate levels. I had a problem myself with liquid coral foods. I backed off and algae went away. Even rodi water needs to be tested for phosphates also. I do believe that overfeeding is the main reason for algae outbreaks.

 

[asmashling]

GFO and carbn and/or a good filtration to get rid of the nutrients will work better with the normal light. possibly you can reduce the amount of hours of lighting a bit. But put away the lights and do the filtration will cause a spike when the lights "coming" back - in my oppinion

 

[florida reef]

+1 on what the reefers said above. There is an underlying issue causing this outbreak. Turning off the lights will temporarily fix it, but it will likely come back. As they suggested, check your ro/di water, wherever you get it from, and if you havent already I would suggest at least running GFO.

 

[Tylermacdonald15]

My rodi water is coming out 0TDS. I haven't had fish in the tank for almost a month. I only have a few shrimp. I put a little bit of mysis shrimp in my tank every three days to feed them. I have never fed my corals. So I'm having a hard time figuring out where all this "excess nutrients" are coming from. I run a bulk reef supply dual GFO carbon reactor, have a refugium, skimmer...
So I might try turning the lights off for at least a day, maybe not all 3. Then after that run them for a less amount of time.
I have LEDs. The blues come on at 7:30 am and the main lights come on at 8:30am. The main lights turn off at 8m and the blues turn off at 9pm. Is this to long?


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[NanaReefer]

Even though your RO/DI is coming out .0TDS it's still possible for it to contain PO4, along with whatever foods your feeding. PO4 (phosphates) are big on the list of causing algae issues. So it could be more of a PO4 issue in your case.
As stated above, the use of a good phosphate remover will do wonders. The use of a good skimmer will do wonders in removing excess nutrients.

 

[steve99999]

You need a large and diverse group of algae cleaners at least 2 per gallon
total in experience.

 

[46gReef]

I have done 3 days lights out in the past & it worked great. To answer your question I would just tell you to monitor your levels over the lights out period to see what you should/shouldn't be dosing. I do agree that you should check your PO4 levels & a clean up crew will help keep the tank clean but nothing wrong IMO to do 3 days lights out to help get rid of what is already growing. Also do you have a sump/fuge where you keep macro algae?

 

[asmashling]

you can stress your corals more then it would help you getting rid of the algae. If you have not that much sps. okay.. but i would strongly suggest turning lights down by the minimum of 5 hours total a day..

PO4 could also be in deadrock/liverock/Livesand with not much flow.. and so on..

@46gReef: Glad it work out for you but i would not risk it and it always depends on the tank we are talking about

@Tylermcdonald: it is your decision - but i and i bet the other reefers here would be happy if you share the next three days - possibly also next weeks with us. Good Luck

 

[46gReef]

I disagree totally, does the sun always shine over the ocean? Are there not days that are overcast? Sometimes a week here & there? I know it isn't exactly the same but to say the negatives outweight the positives is IMO incorrect. Speaking as someone who has done it.....

 

[46gReef]

Hopefully some other people who have done a lights out cycle on their tank will weigh in

 

[asmashling]

I disagree totally, does the sun always shine over the ocean? Are there not days that are overcast? Sometimes a week here & there? I know it isn't exactly the same but to say the negatives outweight the positives is IMO incorrect. Speaking as someone who has done it.....

okay sorry but this is just not true. Even it is totally cloudy, rainy, stormy or what ever. You will never have a total Zero of Light out in the ocean. You could conter now that he will have "light" in the room also but the corals will not make use of it. The sun - even it is behind clouds behave a "bit" different as a shut off reef light/led/hqi.

 

[46gReef]

Like I said, I know it's not exactly the same but 3 days of darkness will not harm your corals...have you done it? Because I have, multiple times & I have a 46gallon full of corals, never lost 1 piece due to a 3 day black out....like i said I'm sure others will weigh in

 

[asmashling]

yeah you are right.. but i in fact have lost a coral when i have my led for 1,5 day at manufacturer to get newer panels. it was an sps which has started to bleach out before. after no light it was dead 5 days later.. don't know if this had something todo with light but yeah.. i would not recommend it from my perspective.

lets see what others say

 

[Nuocmam]

I've done 3 days no light. No issues. Agree with everybody above to get to the root of the problem and use the lights out as a tool along with it. After the 2nd day my corals started consuming less alk & calcium. If the tank isn't packed I wouldn't worry about it though.

 

[mike007]

If i am correct you are running your main lights 11 1/2 hours a day. Thats to much run them about 8 hours. The blues about one hour before and one after. You should get on saltwater corner .com and read Bob Goemens new book and you will learn more about algae problems. People just don't understand what causes this even though we try to explain. Nutrients, phosphates etc. are fertilizers that feed the algae. Please read his online book and learn.

 

[Tylermacdonald15]

It sounds like people are about half and half on this idea. I don't believe I have a ton of excess nutrients so I will try the 3 days with no light. I will put fresh GFO in now before the time starts and when I'm done I will do a water change and then fresh GFO again. I don't have a ton of sps, mostly Lps. Hopefully I don't Kill any coral but as far as I'm concerned the hair algae will eventually take over the tank and possibly kill coral by growing over it. So I might as well give this a shot and see if it works. Thanks for all the advise. I will report back how it goes


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[KSzegi]

For what it's worth - if I were you I would manually remove what hair algae you can before the lights out period and have some water made up for a good size water change when the lights come back on since any algae die off will be releasing the nutrients back into the water. And the first day you may want to just run your actinics or keep the light level lower or shorter at the very least. I've done it a couple times and have considered doing it every so often as just part of the maintenance - I know some people actually do it on a monthly to bi-monthly basis. I did not use it for hair algae, but as part of an overall plan to combat some cyano - I was amazed at how great the tank looked afterwards. I did not see any problems whatsoever with any of my corals in a mixed reef.

 

[Reefing Madness]

I would keep everything running in the tank while lights are out. this will pick up the excess nutrients in the tank as they die out. Make sure you watch your skimmer on the third day, and keep it cleaned out, this is where the nasties come out. If your RO is at 0 tds, watch what and how much your feeding. you'll be able to get a handle on it, your on the right track. I've had many people do the lights out method with success, not to worry.

 

[dwilliams87]

Everybody above is correct about finding the route of your issue. I noticed you said you run your lights from 7:30am to 9:00 pm. That is way too long. At most I would run it for 10 hours. I run mine for 8 hrs of total light. At your schedule now you are running your lights for 13.5 hours. I would definitely lower your light period

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