Black out question

[rburch203]

Ok so I cheated. It's been 2 days I removed the trash bags blocking the side of the tank for about 10 minutes and turned on the light to feed the fish. I've been battling what I think is a mix of dino and hair algae. It's mainly gone. The week or so leading up to the blackout I did two waterchanges, added a gfo reactor, blew off the Rocks daily with a filter sock I took out and cleaned everynight. The second water change I stared up the top sand bed a little to get it moving and hopefully caught in the filter sock.

Now that you've heard my story with the little bit that's left do you think tomorrow would be safe to allow

 

[rburch203]

Sorry hit post before I was finished...

Would it be safe to end the black out now while my corals are still alive and the algae is mostly gone? Or should I continue it another 24 hours and see if that finishes it off? I'd like to keep my corals but if they die it's not a huge deal... it's only 3 cheap frags.

 

[reefgeezer]

I wouldn't. The corals will be fine. IME, another 72 hours of total blackout would be best. Follow that buy slowly ramping the lights back to full duration. AND... if at anytime during the ramping period Dinos start to appear, turn the lights off until the next day.

 

[WilRams]

I have battled Dino's once before. I think I got lucky but I went with the easiest. 72 hour black out. The tank was completely blacked out not even a peep for what ended up being 84 hours by the time I could uncover it. I was conpletly shocked when it was all gone! I was still skeptic so I slowly ramped up my photoperiod over the next few days. All gone and feeling like I dodged a bullet compared to the stories I have read.

Point is don't be scared of a 72 hour blackout. Corals will be fine fish will be fine. It's the easiest and cheapest option fighting Dino's. If that doesn't work then you can start looking into other options.