How long can I keep the lights off?

Anonymous · Apr 9, 2002

I'm doing this to try and finish off green hair algea. I've tried everything and I think I might be getting close. I just did a 25% WC using a toothbrush taped to my siphon hose. Pruned as much as possible. I took the smaller rocks out and scrubbed them clean.

I left the lights off once before for 24 hours. It seemed to knock the GHA back a little. It looked a little gray as opposed to dark green. I'm thinking of leaving the lights off for 2 or 3 days and then do another large WC with the toothbrush hose.

I have clams, stonys and softies.

My refugium lights will be left on for 24/7.

I know all about nutrient control, etc, etc.

Will this harm my corals and crocea's?

danmhippo · Apr 9, 2002

Light off may not be sufficient, try blanket the tank up so light does not penetrate (complete darkness) Do so for 36 hours and see the reaction. You can adjust the duration as you see fit.

What else in the tank that is photosynthetic?

Anonymous · Apr 9, 2002

damnhippo-So the ambient light alone is enough for the hair algea to photosynthesize (sp?). hmmm.

What besides corals and clams are are phootosynthetic? Well, I have some mushrooms. What else is photosynthetic? I do not have any anenomes.

Ok, I turned the lights off last night. Now I will through a blanket over the front and sides of the tank until I get home tomorrow night around 6:00PM est. The lights will have been off for almost 44 hours at that point.

Any problem with that?

Liem · Apr 9, 2002

Louey,

You will kill your corals and clams and the hair algea will still be there!
Try take care of the problem from several different directions at the same time:
a. Set up a complete food chain (fishes, snails, worms, small crustations, etc., and bacteria). Have more living things compete with the hair algea for food.
b. Increase water current in the tank. Hair algea does better in low current area.
c. Have tangs (yellow or brown tangs are good algea eater) and damsel fishes to eat the algea. Neon damsels are particularly good at keeping algea down. You will also need other animals to eat the droppings that the fishes produce.

Scrubbing and siphonning are too much work to be doing on a regular basis. These activities also disturb the aquarium environment to a large extent and thus can't be good for the inhabitants.

Liem.

Anonymous · Apr 10, 2002

Liem,

<blockquote>quote:<hr>You will kill your corals and clams and the hair algea will still be there!
<hr></blockquote>

Really? Are you sure about that statement? I don't beleive that 44 hours in the dark will kill all corals and clams.

<blockquote>quote:<hr> Set up a complete food chain (fishes, snails, worms, small crustations, etc., and bacteria). Have more living things compete with the hair algea for food.
<hr></blockquote>

I have all of these things.

<blockquote>quote:<hr> Increase water current in the tank. Hair algea does better in low current area.
<hr></blockquote>

I have a Cap 2200 running my return. This is a 75G reef. I have 3 MJ 1200 in the tank running 24/7. They used to be on a wavemaker strip, but I changed to 24/7 a couple of weeks ago.

<blockquote>quote:<hr> Have tangs (yellow or brown tangs are good algea eater) and damsel fishes to eat the algea. Neon damsels are particularly good at keeping algea down. You will also need other animals to eat the droppings that the fishes produce.
<hr></blockquote>

Ok tang police, come and get me!

I have had a purple tang for 1-1/2 years. 2 months ago I added a Sailfin hoping they could get along unitl I get a bigger tank. To my suprise after a couple of days they quit messing with each other. I will remove one or the other at any time if aggression resumes. I have brittle stars (3), many snails of many varieties (probably 75-100 total, or more), scarlet crabs (7), (1) sally lightfoot, and a white sand sifting star. So I beleive the droppings are being consumed.

Here's a list of my fish, purple tang, sailfin tang, (5) chromies, (1) false percula, (1) manderin, (1) pink spotted shrimp goby, and (2) firefish.

I have probably 20 total corals, clams, shrooms etc.

Water quality parameter always check perfect.

I use RO/DI and have since the tank was a few months old.

I added a refugium with a fauna and flora kit from Inland a couple of months ago.

Any other opinions on leaving the light. I am at work right now and plan to leave the tank covered and dark unil 6:00PM tonight. Is this a mistake.

Thanks!

Louey

Jawbone · Apr 10, 2002

what color blanket are you using ?

Anonymous · Apr 10, 2002

Ok. I got home today @4:45PM and uncovered the tank and everything looks ok. The GHA is still there and look unaffected by this (2 days without light including 1 day covered in blankets.

So should I leave it covered for another day?

A penny for your thoughts

Anonymous · Apr 10, 2002

My suspicion is that it would take tooo long without lights to impact the hair algae.

I have found this an effective way to get rid of that dinoflagellate crap, though. Didn't even take an entire day of darkness to stop the cycle of it forming each day and going away each night.

Anonymous · Apr 10, 2002

I may be wrong about this, but doesn't the sand sifting star (and maybe even the brittle stars) eat tiny creatures that might otherwise like to munch on the hair algae?

Anonymous · Apr 10, 2002

Super cow- hmmm. Well the GHA had already began when I got the sand star. It's definatly gotten worse since I got him but I'm not sure that he was a contributor. I had a skimmer that wasn't working properly that I believe lead to the outbreak. I got a new Lifereef skimmer a month or so ago and it works great. But I have to get the stuff out of the tank to get a handle on it.

Any other thoughts?

Any other opions about leaving the lights off? Not many people wanting to touch that one?

SPC · Apr 10, 2002

Posted by Liem:
b. Increase water current in the tank. Hair algea does better in low current area.

-This is not correct, hair algae likes strong water flow.

-Louey, did you ever say what size your tank is and how long it has been running?

-Super Cow is correct, the various stars are eating your sand critters.
Steve

robbinson · Apr 10, 2002

I posted a response to a similar question (hair algae on this board last week) so you can check out the full program for dealing with this problem (worked for me anyway). Re: lights - I'd reduce your halllides (or VHO, as applicable) to 3 hours per day - increasing 1/2 hour per week until you return to normal. GARF suggestion to me and it is working. The balance of the day my actnincs and 10000k NO stay on.

Anonymous · Apr 10, 2002

SPC- <blockquote>quote:<hr> b. Increase water current in the tank. Hair algea does better in low current area.
-This is not correct, hair algae likes strong water flow.

<hr></blockquote>

I have increased the flow in my tank to try and keep detritus suspended in the water column so that the skimmer can remove it, and the corals seem to like it (the increased flow.) I will go back to the wave timer once the hair algea is gone.

<blockquote>quote:<hr> Louey, did you ever say what size your tank is and how long it has been running?
<hr></blockquote>

75G, about 16 months. The hair algea started about 4 months ago. I added 50 lbs of dead LR about 6 months ago. Could this be a contributor? hmmm.

<blockquote>quote:<hr> Super Cow is correct, the various stars are eating your sand critters.
Steve <hr></blockquote>

I've had the brittle stars a long time. I bought the sand sifting star about 2 or 3 months ago, when my cuke croaked (disappeared). Should I get rid of all of them? And just go with snails, bugs, worms, etc?

SPC · Apr 10, 2002

Posted by Louey:
I have increased the flow in my tank to try and keep detritus suspended in the water column so that the skimmer can remove it, and the corals seem to like it (the increased flow.) I will go back to the wave timer once the hair algea is gone.

-According to Dr Ron, hair algae grows best in strong current, you may just want to keep it cleaned out with a turkey baster.

75G, about 16 months. The hair algea started about 4 months ago. I added 50 lbs of dead LR about 6 months ago. Could this be a contributor? hmmm.

-IMO you will not cure the algae as long as you have this many animals in this size tank.

I've had the brittle stars a long time. I bought the sand sifting star about 2 or 3 months ago, when my cuke croaked (disappeared). Should I get rid of all of them? And just go with snails, bugs, worms, etc?

-All of these stars are sifting the sand to find something to eat. What they are eating are the beneficial critters that help keep your sand bed functioning properly. Personally I use a cucumber and 3 conks in my 180 for the purpose of cleaning the top of the sand.
Steve

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Anonymous · Apr 10, 2002

SPC <blockquote>quote:<hr> IMO you will not cure the algae as long as you have this many animals in this size tank.
<hr></blockquote>

How many should I remove? Fish or corals or both?
I never really thought of my tanks is being heavily stocked, but this is my first reef and I have seen so many pictures of tanks with corals that look like they are stacked on top on one another from top to bottom and from side to side.

robbinson- <blockquote>quote

I'd reduce your halllides (or VHO, as applicable) to 3 hours per day

I have 2-175W 10K MH and 2-110W VHO actinics. Are you saying to have a 3 hour photoperiod with all of these lamps on and that it? Until algea is under control.

Thanks for the replies!
Louey

SPC · Apr 10, 2002

Posted by Louey:
Here's a list of my fish, purple tang, sailfin tang, (5) chromies, (1) false percula, (1) manderin, (1) pink spotted shrimp goby, and (2) firefish.

-Sorry Louey, I was talking about your fish load and stars. Now there is no question that there could be many people post saying "I have those fish in my 75", my point is that it is a fine line. With this type of bio load it dosen't take much to tip the scales in the algaes favor and once this happens it is very difficult to get the tank back in balance.
Steve

Anonymous · Apr 10, 2002

SPC- The 5 chromies were added about 5 or 6 months ago. They added nice color and movement to the tank. And they were cheap. But that kinda coincides with the GHA outbreak. So I think you might be on to something. The only fish that was added after the chromies was the sailfin tang. That fish was added specifically to eat the hair algea. But no amount of herbivore seems to be enough. (100 snails, maybe more?)

I am going to cut my photperiod to 3 hours a day as suggested by robbinson, continue to do 25% WC's as frequently as possible, and give serious consideration to loosing some fish and stars.

I know I should give up one of the tangs (or both, not

). But I'm keeping them both until the GHA is completely gone. How may fish should be my max keeping in mind that I'd just assume keep the WC's to a minimum. Say 5-10 % per month.

SPC · Apr 11, 2002

Posted by Louey:
How may fish should be my max

- The short answer to that is the # you can keep without having hair algae

. Each tank is different, a balance is what we all strive for.
Steve

Anonymous · Apr 13, 2002

Update-after leaving the lights off for 2 days, and then running them for only 3-hours per day, for 3 days, the green hair algea appears to be in-check. I scrubbed off as much GHA as possible during the last water change and what remains doesn't seem to be growing. I think when I do my next water change, I will try to scrub the remaing algea off. I think I'm starring to get on top of it.

FWIW, I have also cut my feeding in half for now. I look at the fishes bellies to make sure that they are ok!

Thanks for the input!

Louey

How long can I keep the lights off?

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