Lights off to kill algae?

[Rook]

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??

[Sir Patrick]

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.

[Rook]

All of the rock is at least 5'years old, much will be 10+ years. Algae has been dense for the last 2 years.

[marc49127]

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.

[Sir Patrick]

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.


Whats that smell?- Cooking live rock

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.

[Rook]

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.

[jimsflies]

What have you done since a couple weeks ago to get things under control?

[skuttduck]

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.

[spartyblaze]

My experience isn't all that vast but putting live rock in the oven scares the crap out of me.

I've scrubbed a few pieces to pretty good success - Hate disturbing the tank, but it always seems to go back together one place or another.

[jolson10450]

get some emerald crabs they should nom nom it all!