3 day light off question

[gunther13mt]

So ive been fighting hair algea for the last few months now. I do a water change cycle. 10% first week, 20% second week, 10% third week and 50%forth week. I dont over feed the tank and all pramators are finally in check. Ammonia:0, Nitrate:0, Nitrite:0, ph 8.2 and calcium 480.

So my question is do i continue feeding the fish wail the lights are off or do i not feed the tank until the lights are back on. I started this last night and plan to turn the lights back on friday morning idmiatly followed by a water change,

Thanks in advance

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[MondoBongo]

i kept feeding mine with the lights off. i would turn on my actinics only for about hour or two a day, and feed the fish at this time.

 

[gunther13mt]

im running a LED Fluvale Sky not sure what Actinics are as this is my first tank but ive done a lot of research and know these are normal signs of a new tank. my tank is almost 8 months old.

 

[NS Mike D]

im running a LED Fluvale Sky not sure what Actinics are as this is my first tank but ive done a lot of research and know these are normal signs of a new tank. my tank is almost 8 months old.

You have fish only lights for saltwater. Actinic are the blue spectrum lights - the zooxenthelae (photosynthetic) bacteria of corals have some heavy lighting needs. They also bring out the florescent colors you see in many of the pictures.

 

[gunther13mt]

Im running blue lights on the tank its a multi spectrum light with blue red green and yello matched the output to the more expensive reef light only big difference was my k is adjustable where as the big one is not and is programmable

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[NS Mike D]

Im running blue lights on the tank its a multi spectrum light with blue red green and yello matched the output to the more expensive reef light only big difference was my k is adjustable where as the big one is not and is programmable

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I have the fluvial 2.0 marine LEDS.

While the SKY does have a mix of color LEDS, their own product description says the are manufactured for freshwater and fish only saltwater.


The Fluval 2.0 has a separate wifi module that lets you control the daylight and blues separately. I like that option since it enables me to ramp up and down extending the viewing day to match my schedule. The daylights are on when I get home then switching to a low moonlight before turning off at bed time. The day and blues are only full for a few hours mid day so that I don't burn out any corals.

Anyway, while our eyes can't perceive it, it's the actinic spectrum that has the most energy the corals need.

 

[LuizW13]

Would carbon and GFO media help with hair algae?

 

[Potatohead]

Would carbon and GFO media help with hair algae?

GFO helps remove phosphate which is the algae's main food source, so yes. However as the algae dies, it releases phosphate back into the water, so you will need to keep up on changing the GFO often until the algae is gone.

 

[Sk8r]

About once a month, new GFO medium, until you see the stuff really, really on its way out.

 

[gunther13mt]

I dont currently have a GFO filter any suggestions on what one to buy

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[Potatohead]

I dont currently have a GFO filter any suggestions on what one to buy

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Two Little Fishes 150 is great and quite cheap. Either plumb it off your return pump or get a little 100 GPH pump for it.

 

[gunther13mt]

So i dont have a sump but i was,mostly hoping to not kill,ky fish if i needed to feed them i plan to,move tank soon and change a lot equipment at the same time to better stuff

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[LuizW13]

If you're using one of those All-in-one tanks with the built in refugium, you could use one of the chambers for the GFO media. Or maybe you can squeeze GFO media in the HOB filter if you have that?

 

[gunther13mt]

I do have a HOB filter that is running carbon. Might have to try that

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[Darth_Tater]

I just did the 3 day dark-out on my tank last week. I left my moonlight LEDs on the whole time. I did feed the fish just like normal and I think they appreciated that since they were kind of freaking out about the lights not acting normal. Next time though I will leave the lights off since the 3 days of dark didn't do much for me.

 

[gunther13mt]

Thank you this is my first shot at it and the room is super dark the only time theres light is long enough to grab some clothes we havent moved to the bedroom yet

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[homer1475]

I just did this on my tank, and it helped immensely! I did not feed my fish for the entire time(figured less nutrients in the tank during this time).

My tank sits in my living room so it got plenty of ambient lighting, and my fish weren't freaked out at all. I did bring my lights up slowly though. Started out with just my moonlights for a day, then slowly ramped up my lights to what they were before over the course of 2 days.

 

[civics14]

do you have an RO/DI system? Just wondering what's feeding the algae since you seem to doing plenty of water changes and feeding lightly.

what does your clean up crew look like?

 

[gunther13mt]

do you have an RO/DI system? Just wondering what's feeding the algae since you seem to doing plenty of water changes and feeding lightly.

what does your clean up crew look like?

I use RO/DI for top off and water changes clean up crew is lacking I noticed yesterday as 3 of my snails have died. but I still have 3 cleaner shrimp, 4 emerald crabs a sand shifting sea star as well. plan to buy a liveaquariqa cleaner pack tomorrow come pay day.

I believe the algae may be from the phosphate leaking from the rock as I can not detect them with a test.