Tank Blackouts To Combat Algae: Have you been successful?

[revhtree]

Hey let's talk about "blacking out" your reef aquarium to combat algae how about it! Just recently I started to get some different type of green film on my sand and rock and I don't want to wait until it's too late and taking over but I want to take action now. Of course you have to address the root of the issue, handle that and then you can conquer the algae issues.....until the next time at least!

Blacking out your tank is not turning on your lights or allowing any light to penetrate the water column for a period of time. (my definition)

For me I have ordered a new clean up crew, algae eating fish and sand stirring fish. I am also making sure my top off water is up to par and changing out some water. But I am going to implement a 3 day black out to kick start the fight!

So let me ask you a few things.


1. How many of you have had success with tank blackouts and was it short or long lived?

2. Do you feed your fish during a tank blackout and if so what does that look like?

3. Do you think a regularly scheduled black out is good for an aquarium?


image via @mello87

 

[Ron Reefman]

And after doing a couple of 'black outs' I decided to try just running blue leds. The corals all polyped out and opened up like normal. But the algae slowly faded away. I ran the tank this way for 2 weeks.

 

[Thunderrap]

Following, I've been fighting what I believe is some GHA and I am trying to do everything I can before using chemicals. Right now it's about a 25% water change weekly with manual removal of algae. It works for a while but when it's time to do the next water change it's back. I've tested my water and everything seems good but I know that with algae in the tank the numbers can be wrong. The latest numbers recorded on 12/28 before my water change today. I will admit that I do not have a TDS meter for my RODI water and that is something I'm looking at picking up as soon as I can:

Salinity: 1.025
pH: 8.3
Nitrate: 5
Phosphate: .03
alk: 9
calc: 439:
Mag: 1400

 

[Miller535]

Well, that depends on your expectations of the blackout. If you expect to black out for 3 or so days and to have a huge algae problem magically go away, then no it is not going to work. But if you have realistic expectations like to knock the algae back a bit so that after you turn on the lights you start using another or more approaches (which is what I did), then yes it was very successful. I even put cardboard on the glass. I did turn my lights on for about 15 mins a day so the fish could eat. They would not eat in the dark.

I do not know if a regularly scheduled black out is good or not, but I think it is pretty unnecessary unless you are having specific algae issues. Black out will have NO affect of some kinds of algae. And if you are not having an algae issue why would you black out? And if you are having regular algae issues then you have things that need worked out in your system/husbandry.

 

[AnotherReefHobbyist]

I picked other, I did combat algae, it worked great. however I also managed to kill most of the macroalgae that was in the DT, not sure how I can even manage to kill macro, I guess I just have that special touch!

 

[Willylumplump]

my nitrates had always read 0 and always had algae My fish wouldn’t eat. Put an oversized clean up crew. Rocks completely bare. Started dosing nitrates, still bare. Continue to have algae growth in refugium and overflow, but not a hint of it in main tank. My tangs now grazing on star polyps because I can’t feed them enough.

 

[revhtree]

Keep it coming!

 

[Quietman]

Moderate but critical! It wasn't a solution by itself to my dino issue (or any algae/diatom issue) but it did help. So that's a moderate to me.

Critical in that when there is a breakout - it's invaluable as the lights out will 'knock them back' enough to allow my treatment which now is now increasing UV flow primarily - and of course on-going nutrient control. Maybe some Lanthanum Chloride if I ignore PO4 testing and have a nasty surprise >.2 when I check after noticing some green or stringy stuff - not that anyone ever blows off PO4 testing.

I feed regularly during black-outs. I do not cover everything with paper (although I have in the past - now I just keep blinds shut). I turn up the UV flow and any PO4/Nutrient treatment I think is appropriate as noted above (or maybe turn off skimmer if 0 - that doesn't happen since stopped carbon dosing though).

Without the 'lights out' for a day or three - everything is that much harder. So it's absolutely one of my key tools in the algae fighting kit.

 

[ZoWhat]

BLACKOUTS ARE A WASTE OF TIME that only stresses the ecosystem. Fish and copepods depend on a sched of light

if you truly want to beat nuisance algae, you basically have 3 options:

1) lots and lots of waterchanges to starve the nuisance algae

2) dose some sort of live bacteria or carbon so the nutrifying bacteria will build up to starve out the nuisance algae. Talking vodka, nopox, vibrant and others

3) dose tetraselmis phytoplankton that will outcompete nuisance algae and starves it out



.

 

[Bfragale]

Hello fellow reefers- I have done 3 day black out as a small part of a Dino’s battle. It did help reduce it a bit, but was not the silver bullet I imagined lol. But it did help some.

one other Cool thing I tried regarding black out-

I have a scopus tang and a coral
Beauty (among other fish) I added a yellow eye kole tang and the scopus and coral beauty had him pinned in a corner and were beating the crap out of him. It was impossible to catch at that point and unbearable to watch. In a moment of desperation - I decided to completely cover tank- complete 3 day black out. With the hopes the fish would leave the kole tang alone.

to my surprise- upon uncovering tank- everyone was getting along and my clowns started to be a guest of my LTA that they have ignored for the last year or so.

so other then algae reasons- I’ve had a few useful results from black outs.

take care fellow reefers and HAPPY REEFING!

 

[PBar]

I think it can be a great tool in some situations:
a) win some extra time during an outbreak, while you can correct/search for the REAL issues of the tank.

b) as final extra tool to eliminate (faster) a problem that is about to be solved.

In my case, I had an issue with Diatoms due to RO water. As such, I first killed the silicate source and then I did a 2 day blackout just to get rid of them faster.

 

[Marc2952]

Only thing i successfully killed in a blackout was some corals lol the algae didnt mind it.

 

[Salt_Creep]

About 4-6 months into a new tank I had a bad outbreak of red cyano and stringy brown diatoms. I did a three day black full blackout. After day three all diatom was gone and cyano was almost gone except a few snails still had some burgundy fuzz on them as well as a couple of small spots on some rock, otherwise my rock was spotless. About 2 months later, the cyano started to break out again. I did another three day blackout and then it was completely gone. Six months later, it has not come back.

I was dosing vibrant during these periods. Not sure if it help or not with the blackout, but didn not seem to be doing much with the lights on.

 

[srt4eric]

I've done two blackouts. The first one was to combat dinos in a 16 biocube. That was a 3 day total blackout with the tank wrapped in a black garbage bag. 3 months later still dino free. I had a pretty bad cyano breakout a month ago in a different tank. For this black out I just shut the lights off for 3 days. I've never seen the tank so clean when I turned the lights back on. Still cyano free.

 

[Fish man]

Several years ago I had GHA getting pretty bad. Did a 3 day blackout only removing the cover for about 10 minutes a day to feed. Completely irradiated the GHA and has never come back. I'm also smarter now about water chemistry.

 

[Radicalrob1982]

Following, I've been fighting what I believe is some GHA and I am trying to do everything I can before using chemicals. Right now it's about a 25% water change weekly with manual removal of algae. It works for a while but when it's time to do the next water change it's back. I've tested my water and everything seems good but I know that with algae in the tank the numbers can be wrong. The latest numbers recorded on 12/28 before my water change today. I will admit that I do not have a TDS meter for my RODI water and that is something I'm looking at picking up as soon as I can:

Salinity: 1.025
pH: 8.3
Nitrate: 5
Phosphate: .03
alk: 9
calc: 439:
Mag: 1400

It sounds like your phosphates are locked up in the algae hence why the reading is so low. I find running gfo works wonders at helping keep algae at bay. I'm sure you know this as well but it may be worth running. I suffered a bout of red turf algae. Which is my opinion is the worst thing ever lol. I tried everything as well. That stuff is from hell. The only thing that worked for me was to buy two not bad sized turbo snails. They destroyed it and my Reef looked normal again. If you choose to go that route you will either need to return them or feed them once the algae is gone or they'll starve to death. But sometimes they don't work. Some people even use peroxide and spot treat it as well. The snails worked for me though. They were amazing.

 

[Diver4242]

I did a three-day blackout in my nano (13.5 gal) tank because of dinoflagellates, then did the Dr. Tim's Waste-Away regime (he said not to use Refresh due to my snails, crabs, etc). It beat the dinos back pretty well but if I left the lights on more than a couple of hours, I could see the substrate darkening again and the tell-tale bubbles appearing on everything. That was a few weeks ago.

So I decided to black out and try it again, I'll remove the wrap tomorrow morning and see what I've got. Dinos suck. If this doesn't work, maybe I'll have to try Dino-X. I did read the dino threads, so very long and confusing with so many conflicting opinions, sigh.

 

[SkinnyMcGinny]

Dinos laugh at tank black outs. I tried complete tank blackouts for dinos, 5 and 7 days. You take the drapes off, and the tank looks good, but It works for a minute (literally, like 60-90 minutes), then with the lights on the dino's say "Hold 'ma beer" and are back with a vengeance. Never worked against dinos for me.

 

[DeniseAndy]

I tried one once. Did full on black out as my tank was fishless due to a going fallow time. Corals did fine and clams were all in qt too.
Not sure what it did, but maybe helped stop the crazy dinos I was having? Cannot say it hurt, may have helped a bit. Certainly not some miracle cure for me.
I did full black out. Entire tank and top too. No lights at all.

 

[ebeez]

I had Dinos twice and the blackouts plus UVS seemed to work for me. I did 3 days off, 2 days on then 3 days off again.