Any reason I shouldn't do a 3 day blackout for algae?

Just John

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I am having a mild algae problem. It is just in the early stage. I know a blackout should work because moving something to put an area in dark shade kills it within a day or two. But I have been seeing people say that only if an infestation is really bad you should do a blackout. Is there some reason I shouldn't just do one now? My tank is all soft corals and the parameters are fine.
 

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Blackouts dont work too well ime.
Manual removal with fingers and something like a mexican turbo or 4 can help immensely.
What kind of algae?
And whats your definition of fine parameters? Lol
 

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Has worked well for me with liquid vibrant and followed with clean up crew
 

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I am having a mild algae problem. It is just in the early stage. I know a blackout should work because moving something to put an area in dark shade kills it within a day or two. But I have been seeing people say that only if an infestation is really bad you should do a blackout. Is there some reason I shouldn't just do one now? My tank is all soft corals and the parameters are fine.

Take care of the problem. Blacking out only a temporary fix and once light is added it comes back if the problem that caused it is not fixed.
 

Jekyl

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How old is your tank? If just going through the uglies I would try using a toothbrush and siphon combo while doing water changes.
 
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Just John

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Blackouts dont work too well ime.
Manual removal with fingers and something like a mexican turbo or 4 can help immensely.
What kind of algae?
And whats your definition of fine parameters? Lol
Using Salifert kits
pH: 8.2
Nitrates: 0 (No fish, so not adding any food)
Phosphates: 0
Alkalinity: 10
Temp: 78

The algae is only patchy on the sand right now. I have removed the top layer of sand twice, but the algae is back the same day. It forms bubbles in it during the day. It appears to be dinoflagellates from what I can tell, but whatever it is, it dies whenever it is put in heavy shade, like if you move a frag over it. I have been doing some 50% water changes (it's a 13 gal AIO, so it's easy). I am pretty sure it came in on a frag I bought a couple of weeks ago.
 

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Using Salifert kits
pH: 8.2
Nitrates: 0
Phosphates: 0
Alkalinity: 10
Temp: 78

The algae is only patchy on the sand right now. I have removed the top layer of sand twice, but the algae is back the same day. It forms bubbles in it during the day. It appears to be dinoflagellates from what I can tell, but whatever it is, it dies whenever it is put in heavy shade, like if you move a frag over it.
You need to get some nutrients in that water to break the cycle. Maybe even silicates for diatom bloom.
 

Saltyreef

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Thats why its never good to dose anything in your tank to kill something as another more invasive and unwanted species is always lurking and waiting lol.

I overdosed nitrate on my beautiful established tank and it killed most of the bacterial diversity and it went through its stages all over again starting with dinos...It sucked. Im still going through GHA outbreaks all over again.
 

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It's a couple of months old. I already went through the whole diatom thing a while ago.
Omg you have a few more algae cycles to go through yet. Diatoms, green cyano and then red. My Reefer 250 took almost 5 months to go through its algae cycle. Now you can not find a spec of algae. Took almost 4 months for my 120 and about 3 months for my 40. It is just part of life with dead rock and dead sand.

Bad stuff colonizes first it is just the way it is. Garden once and if you have nothing in the ground weeds will colonize fast first. Patients is the key here. You can speed it up by removing some of the algae.

People should not panic over a little algae it is part of the biodiversity and helps fight against dinos.
 
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Just John

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Omg you have a few more algae cycles to go through yet. Diatoms, green cyano and then red. My Reefer 250 took almost 5 months to go through its algae cycle. Now you can not find a spec of algae. Took almost 4 months for my 120 and about 3 months for my 40. It is just part of life with dead rock and dead sand.

Bad stuff colonizes first it is just the way it is. Garden once and if you have nothing in the ground weeds will colonize fast first. Patients is the key here. You can speed it up by removing some of the algae.

People should not panic over a little algae it is part of the biodiversity and helps fight against dinos.
I hadn't been worrying about it much until I looked up what it might be. Based on info from some algae id sites, it looked like it is probably dinoflagellates and sites were saying they are really bad type of "algae", get it fixed asap, etc. Two sites said many people have had to tear down their tanks to get rid of it. So, I got concerned.
 

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I hadn't been worrying about it much until I looked up what it might be. Based on info from some algae id sites, it looked like it is probably dinoflagellates and sites were saying they are really bad type of "algae", get it fixed asap, etc. Two sites said many people have had to tear down their tanks to get rid of it. So, I got concerned.
I would be concerned. 1st step ID the strain
 

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I hadn't been worrying about it much until I looked up what it might be. Based on info from some algae id sites, it looked like it is probably dinoflagellates and sites were saying they are really bad type of "algae", get it fixed asap, etc. Two sites said many people have had to tear down their tanks to get rid of it. So, I got concerned.

Dinos also can be part of the cycle but diatoms and dinos look very similar and also both almost disappear at night.

Dinos are also not the end of the world like most think. I have had them several times and they may not be the easiest to get rid of they are really not to hard to get rid of either in my opinion. There was a time when I did though. They are mostly caused by these sterile tank we keep because everyone panics over a little algae and has to nuke it with some chemical. Every reef I have been diving on has algae. You just do not see it everywhere because of all the grazers but it is there. If wild reefs were algae free their would be no herbivores. Everything requires a balance.

The thing about everyone saying that raise your nutrients because low nutrient cause dino's is bull. Zeovit systems and other bacteria driven systems have very low nutrients and do not have problems with dino's and why is that?
It is all about balance and diversity.
 
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Just John

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Dinos also can be part of the cycle but diatoms and dinos look very similar and also both almost disappear at night.

Dinos are also not the end of the world like most think. I have had them several times and they may not be the easiest to get rid of they are really not to hard to get rid of either in my opinion. There was a time when I did though. They are mostly caused by these sterile tank we keep because everyone panics over a little algae and has to nuke it with some chemical. Every reef I have been diving on has algae. You just do not see it everywhere because of all the grazers but it is there. If wild reefs were algae free their would be no herbivores. Everything requires a balance.
I had thought it was diatoms until it started producing a lot of bubbles in it.
 

Saltyreef

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Dinos also can be part of the cycle but diatoms and dinos look very similar and also both almost disappear at night.

Dinos are also not the end of the world like most think. I have had them several times and they may not be the easiest to get rid of they are really not to hard to get rid of either in my opinion. There was a time when I did though. They are mostly caused by these sterile tank we keep because everyone panics over a little algae and has to nuke it with some chemical. Every reef I have been diving on has algae. You just do not see it everywhere because of all the grazers but it is there. If wild reefs were algae free their would be no herbivores. Everything requires a balance.

The thing about everyone saying that raise your nutrients because low nutrient cause dino's is bull. Zeovit systems and other bacteria driven systems have very low nutrients and do not have problems with dino's and why is that?
It is all about balance and diversity.
Hes not running zeovit. Likely suffering from lack of diversity already and the undetectable nutrients arent helping if he does infact have dinos.
Kinda like cancer, everyones situation is different too.
 

Brandon3152134

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It's a couple of months old. I already went through the whole diatom thing a while ago.
Couple of months isnt very old I'd manually remove it and just keep doing water changes. All these miracle chemicals are nonsense. Reef tanks are ecosystems constantly trying to find balance if you just do water changes and take out as much algea as u can things will right themselves. Plus 1 on the turbo snails btw. And if you can rent a sea hare they are literally lawn mowers.
 

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