Has anyone ever tried aluminum foil on their rocks???

Masaka

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I am pondering wrapping a few of my rocks in "aluminum foil" in order to deprive the Cyano and other algaes from light and flow.
Does anyone have an opinion of whether or not this will will negatively affect my water and balance in the tank.
I plan to leave it on for a week - 10 days.
Or does anyone have an alternative material I can use to cover the rocks?
Thanks for any and all suggestions.
 

T-J

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Uhm...don't use foil. You don't want to introduce metals into your tank.
Cyano isn't an algae, it's a bacteria.
You could remove the affected rocks and place in a trash can with a heater and pump and cover it. It still won't address the issue of what's causing your cyano and algae though.
 
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dvgyfresh

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If you want to blackout the tank , I would use cardboard around the tank but it’s also something I don’t recommend lol
 
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Billldg

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I would have to agree on not using aluminum foil. Saltwater has a bad habitat of breaking down anything very quickly.
 
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vetteguy53081

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For blackout - you simply turn off the lights and black any direct sunlight. The aquarium is shaded off against all light during several days. You should not only switch off the aquarium light but also prevent sidelight from entering the tank. Dark cardboard or pieces of cloth are a good means of shutting out all light. During the black-out it is very important to keep the tank well-aerated. Simple measures that help move the water surface more intensively are for example setting the filter outlet higher up or installing an airstone in addition.
The lack of light weakens all organisms that rely on photosynthesis such as cyano and dino
Foil and anything metallic is a huge NO-NO and will release harmful metals and even rust
 
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Hiroshii

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I wouldn't use aluminum foil in your tank. You can cover the tank for a few days or take out some rock and scrub them. What are your parameters? I would start there.
 
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kzenoni

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I am pondering wrapping a few of my rocks in "aluminum foil" in order to deprive the Cyano and other algaes from light and flow.
Does anyone have an opinion of whether or not this will will negatively affect my water and balance in the tank.
I plan to leave it on for a week - 10 days.
Or does anyone have an alternative material I can use to cover the rocks?
Thanks for any and all suggestions.
I don’t think putting any kind of metal in the tank is a good idea. Just my opinion
 
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MaxTremors

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I’ve heard of people using pieces of thick black trash bags to cover certain rocks or parts of rocks. But I wouldn’t use aluminum foil.
 
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ZoWhat

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To beat nuisance algae long term you must adjust the sweetspot of good nutrifying bacteria to outcompete, robbing nuisance algae of no3 po4 food sources.

But NOT moving no3 po4 to "0"

Should be Managed daily to be in range. I dose every single morning 7/365 to manage my tank's no3 po4 levels. I test 2x a week looking for trends

No3 - 10
Po4 - 0.2
...are my numbers I hang my hat on

I wish there was a online class for this bc newbies unknowingly don't know how to manage excess (or lack of) no3 po4 thru:

* some sort of carbon dosing
* the use of a refugium & chaeto
* some sort of pellets, reactors etc
* use of weekly WCs

Best to choose one of the above and become an expert master at it

Knowing these skills is a PILLAR cornerstone to good reef keeping
 
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Cell

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I'd use black poly over foil, but as others mentioned, a full blackout or other route like Chemiclean are more traditional ways to battle algae or cyano.
 
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ying yang

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I take my 9 carot gold rings off when hands in tank as something like 33% gold then rest is copper and zinc I believe so would never even dream of putting thin aluminium foil in a tank as saltwater is very corrosive and urchins or fish could easy break bits off and get in or under a rock never to be seen again ,all the while slowly corruding/ĺeaching metal into the water column would be my worry.if its to stop rocks getting light to try cut down on algae then like said above,it's best to get to source of why your algae is excessive,my opinion of algae is its free food for my tank and aslong as not smothering my corals and I keep adding appropiate cuc members to help me keep algae in check then not a problem,but I'm easy going tbh so would have to be worse ever for me to think a problem.some have few patches off algae and want break tank down or throw numerous chemicals at the tank but for me personally I'm not like that.maybe few pictures of tank to see if others think major problem and/or how to advise you how to keep in check?
 
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Masaka

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I’ve heard of people using pieces of thick black trash bags to cover certain rocks or parts of rocks. But I wouldn’t use aluminum foil.
Thanks. Best response yet.
I'm not trying to kill everything in my tank and freak out my fish by blacking out the entire tank, and I was looking for an alternative to Chemiclean. I have since rigged a bristled tube (for vacuuming keyboards) to my siphon hose and physically removed most of the problems. I'm Going to try your suggestion and lower my nutrients (stay on top of my water parameters). Thanks for the feedback.
 
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Masaka

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I’ve heard of people using pieces of thick black trash bags to cover certain rocks or parts of rocks. But I wouldn’t use aluminum foil.
Thanks. Best response yet.
I'm not trying to kill everything in my tank and freak out my fish by blacking out the entire tank, and I was looking for an alternative to Chemiclean. I have since rigged a bristled tube (for vacuuming keyboards) to my siphon hose and physically removed most of the problems. I'm Going to try your suggestion and lower my nutrients (stay on top of my water parameters). Thanks for the feedback.
 
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Masaka

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I’ve heard of people using pieces of thick black trash bags to cover certain rocks or parts of rocks. But I wouldn’t use aluminum foil.
Thanks. Best response yet.
I'm not trying to kill everything in my tank and freak out my fish by blacking out the entire tank, and I was looking for an alternative to Chemiclean. I have since rigged a bristled tube (for vacuuming keyboards) to my siphon hose and physically removed most of the problems. I'm Going to try your suggestion and lower my nutrients (stay on top of my water parameters). Thanks for the feedback.
 
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LiveFreeAndReef

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blow what you can off the rocks, increase flow if possible, and wait it out. I had a cyano "outbreak" that was a single patch that slowly moved around the aquarium. Seemed to die off as fast as it grew. Once it made a lap around the tank, 0 cyano left. Patience!
 
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