lights out 3 days?

[andrewsky]

im doing lights out for 3 days, and on the fourth day actinics only. but wondering how to go about doing this, i started it yesterday and i also did a 20 percent water change yesterday. so today i noticed there wasn't as much cyano on the rocks, sand, covering my green star polyps. but do i have to take a turkey baster to it and blow off the cyano during the lights out period? is there anything else i need to do during this? my tanks is 7 months old, lights are the same age, do i need to change lights? when do you know to change the lights do they give off a different light spectrum, or do you just need to know how old they are? my lighting schedule is LED's on all the time, blue actinics on from 11a.m-7p.m, and MH from 1p.m to 6p.m.

thanks.

[thebkramer]

I also just recently did 3 days out, 1 day actinics...
I did blow/rub off cyano once a day (especially on my GSP.. the cyano killed most of my colony)
I'm pretty sure rule of thumb is to change bulbs once a year.. some do it sooner.
Good Luck.. I hope it helps.. remember.. there is a chance you will still have some patches (I did) but with patience and care it will eventually clear up. You may have to do repeat the process again each month for a couple months.
Did you find the source of the cyano? How are your phosphates? nitrates? how is your flow? powerheads? filtration? do you use tap water?

[andrewsky]

i think i have a feeling of the source which was not doing a single water change for a month because one week i didnt have enough salt and couldnt get it for 2 weeks then the week i got the salt i was extremely busy. so my levels might i have fluctuated, but when i checked my levels the only thing that really dropped a little was my dkh and my calcium raised, phosphates and nitrates stayed at 0, but maybe because cyano was using it all up? my flow on the bottom of my tank could be a little better so im getting a new pump because the one i have now is extremely loud, and i am also gonna get a powerhead for the bottom for the sand and base rock. i use ro/di water and check for phosphates in it every month or so. and my filtration i have an asm-g 2 series protein skimmer, UV sterilizer, a little bit of rock down in my 30 gallon sump, and filter socks, im looking into getting a phosban reactor towards december or so.

thanks.

[briankmarsh1980]

How often you change your bulbs depends on what they are and how long you run them.
Just blowing off the cyno isn't going to help because you just moved it to the rest of your tank, you should suck it out with water changes extra water changes would be a good thing.
Plus the dying cyno will release toxins into the water.
I couple years ago I had a really bad cyno problem it was covering everything I killed it off to fast with vodka and no light periods and the cyno toxins killed about 200$ worth of inverts:(

[andrewsky]

WOW!! really, so if i suck out the cyano will that get rid of most of the cyano and and prevent the toxins from being release?

[briankmarsh1980]

Suck out as much as you can. It will come back until you have solved your nutrient problem.
But my cyno outbreak was BAD! My whole tank was covered in grape jelly lol that's why my issue was so serious.

[kingfisher62]

At 7 months old, your tank is relatively young. Your cyano might just be part of your cycle that might just need to run it's coarse. How bad and how long have you been dealing with it? How Is your circulation. May be you need to kick it up a bit.

[Toddrtrex]

After (( and IMO, should have been done first )) the lights out you need to address the root cause, otherwise the lights out will be for not.

[andrewsky]

i have had cyano for 2-3 weeks maybe month. its not all the bad theres little blotches on the rocks but not alot on the rocks. mostly on the sand but it just covers the top of it. like i said before, the circulation up top is excellent, but down below could be a little better so im gonna add another powerhead soon.

[kingfisher62]

I really think the powerhead will help. That and kick up the water changes with rodi water will take care of thing.