lights out

[shyland83]

I plan on leaving my lights out for 2 or 3 days to try and kill off some of this hair algae. I want to leave my actinics on because the tank is in the basement and the fish might not come out during the day if it's totally dark. Will the actinics be enough light to keep the algae alive, should i kill the actinics too?

 

[billsreef]

Blue light works very well for photosynthesis

 

[teen]

shut it all off.

 

[pyro383]

you can always put a light in another part of the room.

 

[Reefist]

Actually, is there any kind of light that doesn't support photosythesis . I always won my battles with hair algae by doing big (RO)water changes and often. It takes a few weeks but you will see results.Once the algae dies, if it does, you will just rerelease the nutrients back into the water just wating for you to turn on the lights again.

 

[directional]

So.. in theory you should turn the lights out and let the algae die away and then do a hefty RO water change.. and rinse and repeat?

 

[shyland83]

i actually plan on doing a water change today and another early in the week. only problem is, a hefty water change in a system with 160g total volum isn't possible for me right now. I can only mix up about 20-25 gallons at a time. so i do weekly water changes.

I decided to shut the lights because i noticed a few days ago that my blue milli has some algae growing on it a a little, so i want to kill it off as quickly as possible. hopefully between water changes, skimming, and rowaphos i can get some of the nutrients out of the water before the lights go back on tuesday.

 

[keefsama2003]

i would also think of using phosban or rowaphos to help bring the algae issue down some.

 

[onegreenray]

i have a fox face that eats hair algae. try one of those, mine went through my tanks hair algae in two days.

 

[shyland83]

i'll look for a fox face, thanks ray. and i run Rowaphos in a tlf reactor, i actually replaced the rowaphose a week or 2 ago. i wanted to test my phosphate at the last meeting but i left my water sample in the car and forgot all about it.

 

[Spracklcat]

Foxface will help, a sea hare is amazing for that too--and no lights out required. Also, you might try upping your pH to ~8.6 with some kalk--helps the system skim more efficiently.

 

[yeahcheetah]

Check this out: http://images.google.com/imgres?img...algae&svnum=10&hl=en&rlz=1T4GGIH_enUS234US235
I think a sea hare is your best bet.

 

[JB NY]

Lights out work pretty good, it's got to be dark though, no actinics. I've always found it really hard to get the pH up to 8.6 so that might be a challange, if you have your alk closer to 7-8 dKH though, it might make the ph spike easier to do.

 

[onegreenray]

actually i am looking to sell mine. to big for my tank.