Wow, that's a long time. Will corals/clams/aneomones be OK for that long? I assume you have to gradualy ramp up your photoperiod after that? How about just running actinics for 20 days?
I didn't see any of those three in his list of inhabitants. Pretty much just a pair of clowns and some hermits. Running just actinics defeats the purpose entirely. A blackout lasting two-three weeks will wipe out a small infestation and will get a large one under control to the point that an average clean-up crew can catch up to it. Obviously, if you don't correct the core problem, the algae will return. In ambient room light, the fish will feed fine. And George Dubya, having done this just recently, the pH doesn't seem to continue to plummet like when you first turn the lights off. This seems like a scary tactic, but I did it in a tank with softies and LPS's and none looked remotely bleached when I eased the lights back to normal.
As for clean-up crew, I gotta say how happy I am that Renee reminds people about Margarita snails being a temperate animal. In my experience the Mexican turbo snails also do poorly in warm water.
And George Dubya, having done this just recently...
HAHAHA does he keep a tank? You could probably get mexican turbo snails from his buddy Vincente at a discount...
But I am JEFF dubya.
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I was talking to the folks at SeaChem yesterday about some related issues... they recommended if you are going to kill the HA with a drastically reduced photoperiod, that relocating any animal that needs light to a different tank. That and when you have stuff dying off you wil be adding ammonia and nitrates to the water...
__________________ "Knowledge is power. Power corrupts. Study Hard. Be evil."
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Abolish the IRS! Bring transparency and accountability to tax policy - close all loopholes and brings fairness to taxation. Support the Fair Tax plan... visit http://www.fairtax.org
The other thing SeaChem mentioned is that if you kill HA with a photoperiod reduction or a chemical solution, it will invariably RETURN. Why? Because you haven't attacked the root of the problem.
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AHa. but no i dont use selcon. i think i just overfeed. i just need to guage how much i should feed my fish from now on. i just over pamper them i guess
HAHAHA does he keep a tank? You could probably get mexican turbo snails from his buddy Vincente at a discount...
But I am JEFF dubya.
Crap, that was an accident, I promise!
I tried to make it clear that you have to take care of the root of the problem. Clearly if you simply repeat everything the way you had before, your situation will not get better. And for what it's worth, almost every invert in my tank requires light and are suffering no ill effects from right around 19 days of no lights. There won't be "die off" of hardy specimens in such a short time if the water parameters are good and the photoperiod is increased gradually.
Cory G, it's really hard via a computer to explain how much to feed. If there is a local marine aquarium society, I'd bet someone there would be happy to look at your tank. Just ask them to feed the fish as they would were the tank theirs. It may amaze you how little they feed. Or the problem could come from another source entirely, but I'd wager that hardy fish species seldom die of starvation in beginner's tanks.
The stuff on the right third of the picture (on the glass) looks a bit yellow doesn't it? I just did a scrubbing and a siphoning so there is a lot less than there was earlier.
__________________ Samuel
"If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree, some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the ocean with me.... There is magic in it. Let the most absent-minded men be plunged in his deepest reveries--stand that man on his legs, set his feet a-going, and he will infallibly lead you to water, if water there be in all that region."
Those rocks DO NOT look like the rocks of a hair algae infested tank, bro! Your glass has some film algae on it, and I see a spot or two that are growing tall... but overall -I see more coraline than hair!
I was asking for my tank. The algae is fading, but I wanted to kick it in the a$$ on the way out the door.
Not a bad idea at all!
__________________ Samuel
"If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree, some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the ocean with me.... There is magic in it. Let the most absent-minded men be plunged in his deepest reveries--stand that man on his legs, set his feet a-going, and he will infallibly lead you to water, if water there be in all that region."
I'd wager that hardy fish species seldom die of starvation in beginner's tanks.
Yes!!!
This was the first thing an experienced aquarist told me when I started back into the hobby. Heck, I have a species ID guide that SPECIFICALLY says to feed the fish 2-3 times PER DAY! And I wondered why my parameters were all out of whack?
I bet far more fish have been killed by overfeeding than underfeeding. No doubt about it.
__________________ "Knowledge is power. Power corrupts. Study Hard. Be evil."
The Palouse Region Aquarium Society is now PALOUSE REEFERS - http://www.palousereefers.com/
Abolish the IRS! Bring transparency and accountability to tax policy - close all loopholes and brings fairness to taxation. Support the Fair Tax plan... visit http://www.fairtax.org
yeah well my lfs told me one cube a day for my fish. and i spose thats why. i am part of the dallas fish boards but havent been on as much as this one. i spose i should. i fed less and the algae seems to be going away on its own and the reason i fed so much was due to the fact that my book said feed some fish 2-3 times a day...
This was the first thing an experienced aquarist told me when I started back into the hobby. Heck, I have a species ID guide that SPECIFICALLY says to feed the fish 2-3 times PER DAY! And I wondered why my parameters were all out of whack?
I bet far more fish have been killed by overfeeding than underfeeding. No doubt about it.
I call that "killed by insufficient water changes", not killed by overfeeding. You can't overfeed most reef creatures. Actually, there's a presentation by Dr. Ron Shimek on imac.org (or maybe reefvideos.com) where he discusses collected data on how much food is actually consumed by the creatures living within an aquarium-sized 3'x3' section of a wild reef in 1 day... the figures were astounding.
I feed my 75g (which is practically empty compared to most) at LEAST 2-3 times per day -- plus my carpet anemone (Stichodactyla haddoni) gets 2 heaping tablespoons of finely chopped fish every night and my two sun coral colonies (Tubastrea falkneri and T. micrantha) each get a healthy dusting of cyclopeeze or similar type of food... BUT... I also do a 30-35% water change (25g) every week and have two 10" RDSB buckets and a 6" DSBrefugium to keep up with and match that feeding schedule.
I think i finally kicked the HA habit! I did a rock scrubbing, boosted my cleanup crew, and started using DI resin in my RO/DI filter. The combination of all this seemed to do the trick.
The hair algae is still there, mind you, but it is not sustaining an overwhelming growth rate like it was before. That it exists doesn't really bother me, some biodiversity (yes, even in algae) i am certain is helpful. As long as it doesn't overgrow every square millimeter of the tank, i am okay with it.
Thanks for all your help with this everyone! Now i can actually start moving in to the world of corals!
Oh, a final note on feeding, since the topic has been raised. One item to mention about food, although i do not have any direct evidence for this, is the size of the particles you are feeding. I was using Selcon on my frozen mysis to make a "mysis soup" for my fishies. One day while feeding it dawned on me the cloud of pink Selcon floating off of the food into the water was probably not good. It is organic matter, and was certainly not being eaten by my fish since it was far to small. Selcon is great i am sure, and i still use it, but much less than i did before. As well, i feed slightly larger chucks of food, so the clowns have to pick at it several times to eat the whole thing. I figure this way less particulate organic matter finds its way into the water column and the peices the clowns miss are large enough to sink and be eaten by the nassarius snails and hermit crabs. I have even seen some corals munch on it if it comes there way. Just a though
__________________ Samuel
"If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree, some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the ocean with me.... There is magic in it. Let the most absent-minded men be plunged in his deepest reveries--stand that man on his legs, set his feet a-going, and he will infallibly lead you to water, if water there be in all that region."
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