Three Day Lights Out

[mullerjd]

Fighting Cyano and trying the 3 day lights out before resorting to using ChemiClean.

Question on the 3 day lights out. Does this mean the room needs to be totally dark or can rooms lights be on. My tank is in my office in the basement and there are no windows but I do use the office during the day so I have the lights and computer on.

Will this cause me any problems?

 

[Ron Reefman]

I have done the 3 day lights out (my reef room happens to be very dark) and it worked OK. I doubt that the light in the room will be enough to grow anything as the PAR will be very, very low. You could consider putting something over the tank during the time you use the office. I used a sheet of plywood over the tank and a canvas drop cloth draped over the plywood to cover the front and sides.

But more recently I've done 10 days of bright blue leds and no white channel. My issue was algae rather than cyano, but in a week it was gone and the corals looked just a good as ever!

 

[jduck]

Wrap in trash bags. Also turn up skimmer

 

[lespaul339]

I was having a MAJOR cyano issue. Wasn't flow or nutrient related since my tank has lots of flow and good parameters. Ended up adjusting my LED lighting and it seemed to help a lot. If you run LED's it could be because of your lighting spectrum.

 

[mcgyvr]

In general the less light the better as this is a photosynthetic bacteria we are trying to starve here..

The concern with total black is that some inhabitants may be eaten/attacked because they are sleeping.. ??

The 2 times I've had a bad cyano outbreak I do total black and wrap it as much as possible.. And I combine that with the red slime remover yellow powder.. Worked great.. Hasn't come back since..

 

[mullerjd]

I was having a MAJOR cyano issue. Wasn't flow or nutrient related since my tank has lots of flow and good parameters. Ended up adjusting my LED lighting and it seemed to help a lot. If you run LED's it could be because of your lighting spectrum.

Thanks I thought it might have been my T5 bulbs so I replaced them all and it is growing faster than ever.

 

[mullerjd]

In general the less light the better as this is a photosynthetic bacteria we are trying to starve here..

The concern with total black is that some inhabitants may be eaten/attacked because they are sleeping.. ??

The 2 times I've had a bad cyano outbreak I do total black and wrap it as much as possible.. And I combine that with the red slime remover yellow powder.. Worked great.. Hasn't come back since..

I was trying to avoid the use of Red Slime Remover or ChemiClean if possible but if the blackout doesn't fix it I may need to go this route as well.

 

[CStrickland]

Here's directions for cyano blackout http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2279039 you don't want to be wrapping the tank of you can avoid it, sometimes it's necessary for really bad dinoflagellates though

Sometimes you have to repeat this process a few times, to beat the cyano all the way back

 

[thelawnwrangler]

I was trying to avoid the use of Red Slime Remover or ChemiClean if possible but if the blackout doesn't fix it I may need to go this route as well.

in my experience the black out didn't kill the cyano completely but let me get in front of it.

What do you think is causing it?

I am still battling, but haven't used chemicals

 

[SloppyWhenWet]

Have to go blackout, the bacteria based algae will go floating in water supply looking for light. If you can borrow a high powered UV, this will destroy them floating in water supply.

 

[mullerjd]

in my experience the black out didn't kill the cyano completely but let me get in front of it.

What do you think is causing it?

I am still battling, but haven't used chemicals

I think I had multiple issues. I was not checking my rodi and I needed to change the filters. That combined with old bulbs and poor practices over the past 3 months have added up.

 

[mullerjd]

Well lights came back on and the cyano was better but still have a few spots. I am going to suck out what I can with the next water change and see where that gets me before resorting to Chemiclean.