Jump to content

Tank Blackout


Jesse
 Share

Recommended Posts

23 minutes ago, Jesse said:

Have any of you ever did a tank blackout to combat Algae? The saying goes that you leave the lights out and sometimes put a sheet over the tank for 72 hours. This time period won't hurt the coral, but will help kill off unwanted algae.

Thoughts?

I did it once.  Do yourself a favor and remove your light fixture because without the light fixture running it will get damp!  I don't think it helped my hair algae situation a couple years ago at all.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, Muttley000 said:

I did it once.  Do yourself a favor and remove your light fixture because without the light fixture running it will get damp!  I don't think it helped my hair algae situation a couple years ago at all.

I've done it a few times trough the years. I might do it soon to get rid of cyano.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 minutes ago, Muttley000 said:

I think a lot of people miss the huge water changes needed to get the nutrients from the die off out of the tank. Even though it didn’t help me it has worked for a lot of people

Yeah this is my battle right now. I'm trying to do everything I can to not use Chemiclean. Just did a 40 gallon water change on a 90 gallon tank which would be the second one in four weeks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ok reef people. I've been missing in action for a while. Partly because I fished all summer and partly,mostly because of an algae nightmare.here it goes. I want some science involved with this. I have 2 4foot by 2 foot tanks. 10 inches deep. Both share the same sump,filtration, etc. I frag corals and place them in both tanks. Everything is the same. Lighting is on 10 hours. T5s come on for 1.5 hours then less. I ramp down the same way. 1 tank is pristine, the other,covered in heavy hair algae.i run 2 sumps.  A 50 gallon with live rock, and a 30 gallon with refugium and chaeto.the rock sump had major algae growing in it. I have since removed that sump from the system. I run a large octopus skimmer wet and a roller mat system . Any ideas. I've torn the problem tank down,steralized everything and placed it back in line just to have the algae go crazy again in this tank only. So here are my parameters.

Salinity 33.5

Magnesium 1560

Calcium 593 adjusted the dosing down a hair

Dkh 10.3 adjusted a hair also

Nitrite 0 ph ultra low hanna tester

Phosphates 4 ppb ultra low hanna tester

Temp 78

Par 78 ramping up to 180 then back down

Manual removal every day of what I can get off the coral. All the sps are growing well and great .color. Softies dont like the algae .looking sad

Any ideas fellow reefers? 

Oh,did the blackout thing. Made things better for a couple days then right back to the nasty stuff again.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes,both exactly the same. Lol it is really messin with me Muttley. How can the algae grow with no nutrients ? I have a pair of clowns, feed every other day, hand feed 4 nems twice a week. Total volume is about 100 gallons. I am removing algae daily in Hope's that if the algae just cycles off on it's own nutrients. Maybe would explain why I have no readings on nitrate and phosphates.  I do have one window that's shaded are drawn. I have blacked out the window thinking maybe natural sunlight could be playing a role. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...