Lights Out Period

[stooops718]

I've been reading a lot regarding a 3 day lights out period. I am trying to stop a GHA outbreak from happening. I've read all positive things about it. But does anyone know if it's ok for my fish and should I feed during this time?

Has anyone on here done it?

 

[jcs11236]

i heard people doing it and it working. only problem is that this is only a temp fix. the gha will come back

 

[rebelson]

I have done it twice and both times it worked for me. You need to perform a large water change after the 3 day period. But yes, it is a temporary fix. Also don't feed your fish or corals for 3 days, they'll be alright.

Sent from my DROIDX using Reefs

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

Hair algae is commonly fueled by high phosphate. Test your water before you do anything and see what needs to be corrected. I would cut back on feeding and do several small water changes.

 

[stooops718]

i heard people doing it and it working. only problem is that this is only a temp fix. the gha will come back

Yea, it was a lazy move on my part. I had a few frags that had some on it and just expected my CUC to take care of and now I'm seeing small patches everywhere. With the tank I have I can't really pull out all the rocks that have it and scrub manually without messing up my whole scape. I'm gonna try the lights out tonight until Sunday when I do my weekly water change. I'll update with the results.

 

[jedimaster1138]

I've been fighting Cyano, different from GHA, but as you can see from this thread - from another site *duck* - lights out is an effective means of fighting things, and not harmful.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2095174

I just did one and fed during, though less than normal (once a day) and I didn't notice much movement when i did it. I also had my tank sorta covered and couldn't really see. But yeah, lights out doesn't hurt anything, just don't do it more than 3 days a month-ish.

I plan on doing it every month or so going forward.

Interesting read about Cyano BTW. I was sorta fascinated, but I'm a nerd.

 

[stooops718]

Thanks for the input everyone.

Hair algae is commonly fueled by high phosphate. Test your water before you do anything and see what needs to be corrected. I would cut back on feeding and do several small water changes.

I need to get a phosphate test kit. I know silicon causes an increase in phosphates. Could you tell me some other causes. All my other parameters are good.

pH 8.0-8.2
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5-10
Temp 78-80
SG 1.025

 

[44santababy]

i just did 3.5 days due to cyano and it worked for me. It killed off the bacteria and i skimmed, fed once a day, used carbon and gfo and when the lights came back on a 30 gallon water change. About 2 weeks now and the Cyano is gone, i think the corals benefited from the lights off, the fish just slept a lot BUT were skeptical when up. I'm doing this once a month for two days to mimic a storm....pleased with the results

 

[44santababy]

my water WAS nutrient rich due to heavy feeding, i cut back to help balance the tank...