Turning lights out!

[dwall174]

How long can you leave the lights off of a tank with just LR & LS while still keeping all the little critters & coralline alive? Being that I only have several soft corals & a couple of fish in my tank I can easily remove them & place them in my fuge for a while. I’m going to try one last time to scrub all the hair algae from several large pieces of LR that have some hair algae that’s growing back on them. This time I plan to leave the main tank’s lights off to help make sure that it doesn’t grow back this time!

[Casey]

If you leave the lights off long enough to kill the hair algae off it will kill the corraline off to,A seperate container is needed it takes
a long time to kill off that killer weed.

[cath]

UGH!! I swear that HA problem is rampant around here.

[dwall174]

I think I found the fuel sorce! My RO/DI was connected straight to a float valve in my sump for water top-off. This caused excess TDS to leak through the membrane because of the numerous starting & stopping cycles of the RO/DI unit. I added a separate 20gal holding tank that I fill manually now, This tank is plumbed to the float valve in the sump & I also added a membrane flush & a DI by pass.

Originally posted by Casey
A seperate container is needed it takes
a long time to kill off that killer weed.

Yea you got that right! I have tried three times now! It gets less & less each time but still returns. Is there a way to treat/kill this dreaded weed without killing everything else by using a seperate container? Being that I'm going to remove the LR to scrub it I could also place it in a seperate container if needed?

Is there a minimum lighting period that I could run, (maybe just my Actinics) to be able to just maintain the coralline, LR, & LS, but make sure the hair algae does not return?

[Casey]

Doug sorry but my opinion is no.

[dwall174]

Well maybe we need to create a big demand or a good use for it! If you were able to make money off of it, or people desired it, then it would never show up!

[Casey]

I know to bad there is absolutly no demand for it

[dwall174]

I have used Marine S.A.T. before & it seemed to work! However I didn't reduce the lighting period! I could treat the LR again using the Marine S.A.T. this time in a seperate container with out no lights! But getting back to my original question! how long can the LR remain alive without any light?

[dwall174]

Back side of instructions;

[Casey]

Doug the bacteria in the live rock doesnt need light they actually grow better in the dark,The corraline will die before the hair does.

[Buzz_Hog]

I wouldn't worry about the coraline... Treat the hair algae and the coraline will be back in notime...

All in all, The end result desired is a reef where you see no rock, just amazing corals covering every square inch...

[dwall174]

Originally posted by Buzz_Hog
I wouldn't worry about the coraline... Treat the hair algae and the coraline will be back in notime...

What's you talking about Willis
It took me a year to get from base rock to this! And now you want me to kill it!

[dwall174]

And this

[Casey]

and a year to grow hair algae!

[dwall174]

Originally posted by Buzz_Hog
All in all, The end result desired is a reef where you see no rock, just amazing corals covering every square inch...

Yea that would be nice! But untill I get there! There's got to be a better way?

This is what I was thinking of? Treating with the SAT! then no lights for 3~5days, then only actinics for 4~6 hours a day for three weeks?