Something Interesting........over on RC

H

HELIREEFER

Check this thread out!!
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1078532


Marc the pres. Knows about it also, and has tried it.
If you read this marc, i would like to know how the mille sp. did

A lot of people are reporting positive results with a 2-3 day lighting blackout to rid, or significantly reduce cyano, Hair algea, and other nuisance algea's. Also they are reporting very (crystal) clear water and great polyp extension when lighting resumes!!!


CHeck it out :!:
 
to save some us the time of reading the entire post, anyone willing to give a summary of what the turn out's were?

What deaths occurred if any? SPS? Inverts/Nems?

Very valuable thread! May try it out if SPS will be fine to get rid of my brown algae!
 
I've read the entire thread. It's hard to summarize everyone's results because there have already been sooo many people trying it. here goes:

run fuge lights normally or even increse to 24/7 to aid in PH stability

then run 2-3 days total darkness, some have a window in the same room and tank gets a small amount of indirect sunlight, not enough to change results

bring lights back up run actinics only the first day

use a filter sock during the entire process to trap the releasing hair algea and other gunk.
run skimmer for normal 02 injection
start carbon before turning lights out

The only corals that i have read about being stressed or affected are one persons xenia shrank up, and marc's mille sp. stn in small places. Out of all his sps this is the only coral showing this though, according to thread.
no nems or inverts affected as reported so far.

there are probably 20 people now at least on the thread reporting that they have done it with no ill effects to livestock whatsoever and tank is looking better than ever.


i am going to try it also and will post my results, i have a mild case of cyano in display and a lot in fuge and Hair algea on overflow wall, Also get some diatoms in sand bed every once in a while
 
The thread on rc is really worth reading and up for thread of the month.

The interesting part is that the thread is really more than just a one time fix to many people, I think this is going to be incorporated into many people's normal husbandry. a 2-3 lights out period every 1-2 months is actually probably a more natural thing than we tend to think about as not every day in the ocean is sunny, many cloudy and stormy days.

Lots of good info in the thread, refer there for more specifics and details
 
@hooterhead wrote:
any info about the effects said:
I've done this twice now in a month in an attempt to rid my tank of dinoflagellates (unsuccessfully I might add). I lost 3 ricordia and my Blastomussa Merletti didn't seem very thrilled, but do seem to be recovering. Everything else, including my 2 clams, are fine.
Click to expand...
 
The milli took it really hard. The main colony is almost completely gone, with a twig here or there that is still alive. I fragged it heavily and of those frags, many survived. I gave a couple of larger pieces to Steve, and they've been holding on somewhat. And I gave another piece to Khoa, but don't know how it did in his tank. It wasn't a total loss, but it was a huge piece I'd had for years and rather heartbreaking to lose. That end of my tank looks like crap now, to me.
 
Other than that, the rest of the tank did very well.
 
Marc didn't you state in you ReefCast that that coral already had stn/rtn prior to your lights out test? Do you think the lights out could have caused the further destruction or would it have happened either way?

Like several others I am also interested in this and in fact started this weekend with the first LO period. I have A little GHA around my overflows and returns and hope to help kill it off. Granted GHA in the tank also means something else needs to be corrected. But if it helps.
 
today is day one of lights out. I think i'm only going to do a 2 day this time. Will post results on monday when actinincs come on.

i dosed my 2 part normally this morning and my fuge light is always on 24/7 already, running carbon also.
 
@slallen wrote:
Marc didn't you state in you ReefCast that that coral already had stn/rtn prior to your lights out test? Do you think the lights out could have caused the further destruction or would it have happened either way? Like several others I am also interested in this and in fact started this weekend with the first LO period. I have A little GHA around my overflows and returns and hope to help kill it off. Granted GHA in the tank also means something else needs to be corrected. But if it helps. said:
The Milli wasn't in any distress prior to the lights out that I could see. However, it might have been teetering due to the salinity issue I recently discovered.
Click to expand...
 
i have completed my lights out period, i went with 3 days after all. and on the 4th day ran actinincs only. today is first day of full lighting.
my cyano seems completely gone and sand is the whitest it has been in a long time, water clarity is really good. The hair algea is weakened and
using only a turkey baster and blowing on it dislodges it. the only livestock issue is a lost head on a small hammer frag, but it was acting funny before the LO period. sliming

my sps all look good, i only have a few though, they are green monti plate, pink birdsnest and green slimer, hydno phora
 
Make sure you clean out your skimmer now. A water change would be good to, since algae die-off will add up.
 
i cleaned skimmer before the LO period and i planned on cleaning tonight, it has pulled out slightly more stuff than usual. Water change in 1 day, will mix tonight.

thanks for looking out for me and my little reef. I hope that you get over this latest hump with your system and are happy to look at it again.

happy reefing , russell
 
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