How important is light to fish (only) tank?

kingkapoor · Aug 23, 2019

I have a fish only 15 gallon with a clown fish and damsels, total run time about a month now . although everything was taken from an established tank which has been running for a while.

Theres a pretty icky brown algae bloom going on. Will turning off the lights for 2-3 days hurt my fish?

Katrina71 · Aug 23, 2019

Post a pic of your brown stuff.

Auquanut · Aug 23, 2019

A few days of blackout shouldn't bother the fish too much, but lets see what you're deeling with. Maybe we can help.

Tiger Brown · Aug 23, 2019

Absolutely not a problem. People black out tanks for this reason all the time, even with inverts that need light you can black a tank out for a short time.

kingkapoor · Aug 23, 2019

Auquanut said:
A few days of blackout shouldn't bother the fish too much, but lets see what you're deeling with. Maybe we can help.

Auquanut · Aug 23, 2019

Kinda hard to tell, but looks like diatomes. How long has the tank been running? What do you have for a CUC? I really like the pillar look.

Katrina71 · Aug 23, 2019

Love that!

lion king · Aug 23, 2019

You say the tank has been up a month, it's likely diatoms which is a natural progression of the ugly faze of a new tank. Cerith snails are a big help with diatoms. A blackout will only put on hold the eventual ugly stages that all tanks go through. If you were planning on some macro algae addition like a refuge, now would be a good time to add it, I have found maco algae to help along this stage of the maturing of a tank.

kingkapoor · Aug 23, 2019

Auquanut said:
Kinda hard to tell, but looks like diatomes. How long has the tank been running? What do you have for a CUC? I really like the pillar look.

Thanks! its been about a month'sih on a fresh setup alone standing, but like I said most of the rock and sand was taken from my 55 gallon tear down. I have two nassarius snails and 4-5 hermit crabs, and some random snail I got with the hermit crab by accident