Should I keep lights out when fallow?

[greetl01]

I’m going fallow to clear tank of ich. I’d rather keep them on bc I’m hoping to grow coraline while my fish are quarantined but I read some free swimmers can get energy from light. Do I need to be covering my tank up?

 

[Teen reefer]

No don’t cover your tank just leave the light on and everything should be fine.

 

[JonoB]

From everything I read, things like ich need FISH to survive, not light. If you have coral in the tank, 76 days of fallow would be a long time without light. I think leaving the light on is fine.

 

[pecan2phat]

If you have no corals in there why keep the lights on. It'll just fuel film algae growth.
Possibly just adjust for the blues to come on and that will grow coralline.

 

[greetl01]

No don’t cover your tank just leave the light on and everything should be fine.

From everything I read, things like ich need FISH to survive, not light. If you have coral in the tank, 76 days of fallow would be a long time without light. I think leaving the light on is fine.

If you have no corals in there why keep the lights on. It'll just fuel film algae growth.
Possibly just adjust for the blues to come on and that will grow coralline.

Thanks

 

[davidcalgary29]

I started three builds at roughly the same time. I kept the lights on in the Evo (because of my macro), and kept it off in the IM40. Both suffered from a bit of nuisance algae, but it's still much more of a problem in the IM40, and the IM40 has a cyano outbreak, too. The IM40 has a minimal bioload of two skunks, a striped blenny, and a pretty good CUC. The Evo has a diamond goby, purple firefish, and an orchid dottyback, and a few snails. I used live rock in both. The CUC ate the macro in my Evo (except the halimeda), so that's not a factor.

The point of all of this: I think lighting is a factor in the growth of nuisance algae, but probably not the most important one to consider. And every tank is a new experience.