I have a lot of live rock in my 90 reef and most of it is covered on every inch with very short algae. I have it under control such that it's not growing, but I'd like to get rid of it. I just (finally) have a skimmer on board and working and a carbon/gfo reactor, so I'm confident in controlling nutrients going forward. Someone suggested to me that I should turn the lights off for two days, kill the algae, blow the rocks clean, turn lights back on. The idea appears sound; what say you??
I say it takes much longer than a couple days, light out, to stop algea from growing- even with your nutrient export system under control. It can put a small dent in the algea, but it will come back.
How long has the rock been covered in algea? How long has it been in the system? There are ways to make algea covered, and nutrient packed rock good again, but takes time.
Looking forward to helping out! Sounds like you are already on the right track. Would like to see your tank algea free eventually. Lets hear more on the system, and go from there.
My rocks were covered with algae for a while and I tryed the three day blackout. I even wrapped my tank with paper to make sure that no light reached the tank. All it did was stunt the growth of the algae for about three days. Then I bought a urchin and started using algafix. After about three weeks my aglae is about 95% gone and much more enjoyable.
I got some rock from a freind of mine, a while back. Rock was 10 years old, in a higher nutrient tank. Rock was pretty loaded with nutrients by the time I got it, and was growing all kinds of algea......
Heres a thread that covers alot of what I did, but not all. I will update the thread soon. I will give ya some time to absorb all that is in it, and then post the outcome.
Sounds like cooking the rock, or selling it off and replacing it, are your best bet- depending on what you are able to do easiest. Just follow the direction perfectly, unlike I did...if you plan on cooking it.
I'm not sure I'm up for cooking it, which requires takin apart the tank not to mention several coral are growing on he rock. I'm definitely not buying new. It's not that bad to go to extreme measures IMO. I'd rather manually scrub the rock, at least at this point.
When I had my hair algae outbreak in the beginning I noticed that if I took some rocks put them into the sump for a week or so, once they were brought back into the main tank they didn't grow hair algae again.
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Lights off to kill algae?
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