Lights Out Algae Killer?

Pat-O · 10-08-2011, 07:03 PM

Im still fed up with the algae,went to get my skimmer today hoping that will help with the algae and ofcourse better my tanks water anyways, and he was sold out again till next week. While I wait i decided to run a purigen bag on one of the ten hob filters I had left over from my african cichlid habit but I was told that this would help chemically skim my water until next week. Anyways I have read that a lot of people do the lights out technique to kill off a lot of the algae. I have read that some do it for twenty four hours and even some do it for three days. All I have in my tank is some GSP that came on some LR I bought and some xenia I bought from keys. Theres a couple fish and a cleaning crew in there aswell but I wouldn't think the light would effect them. I was would like to hear anybodies opinion on this technique and info on it like how long is recommended and if I should clean out the dead algae or leave it for food after.

Pat-O · 10-08-2011, 07:28 PM

Also what do you guys recommend for dead rock. Is all rock you see at an LFS dead rock that can turn into live rock or is it limited to certain kinds.

kane720 · 10-08-2011, 07:44 PM

eh. the lights out thing works to an extent, but really it's finding the main cause of the algae. otherwise it's going to keep coming back. what kind water are you using? whats your parms? water flow? the age of your bulbs? how old is the tank. etc. IME water changes and a good clean up crew can do wonders for algae. do a search, on this other forums you will find all kinds of info, just gotta find whats right for your situation.

Pat-O · 10-08-2011, 08:04 PM

Yea Ive been doing a lot of research on it. The tanks almost two months old. The last test i did came up with phosphates at 0-.25 the colors were not to clear to read. None of my other readings were bad at all. I have two circulation pumps running one blowing the length of the tank behind my LR and one on the back of the tank blowing straight forward. I plan to buy another one to blow the length of the tank from the opposite direction. I started out with tap water I know bad idea but I have been using store bought salt water since i noticed the algae problem and I am looking into Ro Di units. As for a clean up crew I have about 15 snails and 15 hermits, also an emerald crab,a cleaner shrimp, a red knobby star and a orange diamond watchman goby sifting through the crushed coral.

jstan · 10-09-2011, 07:07 AM

You said you were using store bought saltwater, were do you get your freshwater for top offs in between water changes? Also like Kane asked how old are your bulbs in your fixture. If there old, that alone could be causing 90% of your problem. You can also grab a container of chem pure carbon, stuff works wonders. When I was battling cyano in my tank for a little over a year I did everything, but change my bulbs. Then I remembered it was time for a bulb change one day( and quite a few months short) and within a week it all went away, have had no cyanobacteria for years now. BTW no skimmer, sump, fuge, or sand bed on/in my tank. Just HOB with some chempure elite and some rubble rock. And that'd be it.

If you have the room, I'd build a algea scrubber. There easy cheap and effective.

Jason's phone

Pat-O · 10-09-2011, 06:34 PM

I think he bulbs are about four months old I believe and for top offs recently ive been buying store bought ro water. Still figuring out where I want to get my ro and what one I want to get. Im not exactly sure how the algae scrubber works ive looked up a couple videos still not exactly sure. I would like to learn more.

As for the lights out technique it worked killed all the algae off from what I could see when I scrubbed it all of with the toothbrush it mostly turned into dust.

MizTanks · 10-09-2011, 10:37 PM

Pat at one time I too was buying ro water from Wally world and I had horrible algae issues. From my own experience I urge you to get an ro/di unit a.s.a.p. But until then try running some Chemipure Elite in one of your HOB filters.

Pat-O · 10-10-2011, 05:13 AM

I bought some a couple weeks ago not knowing it was a one time unit. The issue was I am running a Fluval G3 and that bag would not fit in the basket. So I decided to add a couple spoon fulls into my basket along with some basic carbon and an ammonia mixture. I could however probably fit the bag in the hob Im using to run purigen.I am planning on getting a Ro Di unit soon im still no sure where to get one, should I trust a store bought one or strictly offline.

Pat-O · 10-10-2011, 07:26 PM

Does bubbles sticking everywhere mean the chemipure elite is getting to work because I did light out it killed all the algae the same day I added my chemipure elite I was saving and now my tank has bubbles sticking all over, my water is super clear and stuff seems to be looking better except for my xenia which looks stressed.

Pat-O · 10-13-2011, 12:59 PM

Everything seems to be doing better still but today i noticed a lot of green clear slimmy algae covering some of my rock and now covering some of my gsp. Anyone have any ideas I got the gsp as a hitchhiker on some LR but i dont want this stuff to keep covering it. I am scrapping it off but it seems to come back daily like I said before. I did a good sized water changed with ro di salt water from Kees which i figured would help. The only thing that everyone said that I havent improved is my lightbulbs but im pretty sure they are only about five months old. The skimmer comes in Saturday hopefully that will help too but any extra info/help is greatly appreciated.

Lots of bubbles hanging out aroung the tank too not only on the slime stuff on rocks some on glass all over. I noticed it after i started using the purigen and the chemipure elite so I was think this was a good thing?