Blackout while AFK?

Space heater · 01/13/2015, 01:36 AM

Here's the situation:

My tank is about 4 months old now, 40g DIY AIO. I had diatoms, then some minor hair algae, and a small amount of red slime in the fuge. Admittedly, most of these were due to low flow, overfeeding, and missing some waterchanges. After the algae became noticeable I did some self examination and came up with a plan.

A couple weeks ago I moved my koralia powerheads behind the rockwork and added 2 RW-4's in wave mode to increase flow. Over the last few weeks I've been changing 5-10 gallons about every 4 days and scrubbing the rocks with a toothbrush. In the last week I've been doing 5 gallon w/c every other day, and scrubbing the rocks daily. On top of this I've been changing filter floss a couple hours after each scrubbing session, skimming much wetter (dark green swamp water) and vacuuming the sand and sump compartments. It's now gotten to the point where I have no visible hair algae, and the glass hasn't needed to be scraped in a week.

Enter this week. I have to go out of town Wed, and won't be back for 6 days. My system is currently run by a DIY Arduino based controller. I'm planning on setting the controller to do a 3 day blackout Wed-Fri, then bringing the lights back 2 hrs/day from Sat to Tues, until they're back at the 8 hour photoperiod. During this time I'll be running the fuge light 24/7 for pH reasons.

My tank currently has a pair of clowns, a scooter dragonette, a orange spot goby, and a chalk bass. Corals are rics, shrooms, a couple zoa colonies, a couple candycanes, a few birdsnest and stylo, and a GBTA. As far as the fish my neighbor will be feeding them every other day with pre-measured amounts.

I'm asking for opinions on whether or not this is a good plan. I am winning the algae war, and I am hoping that the blackout will set the algae back far enough that regular maintenance keeps it at bay. Right now the tank has never looked better and in just a couple weeks I've had noticeable coral growth, especially from the SPS. I'm afraid that while I'm gone the algae might gain back some ground, and I'm so pleased with the way things are going I really don't want that to happen.

Space heater · 01/13/2015, 05:06 PM

No thoughts?

I'm starting to think that I'll leave the lights on normally for the first 3 days, then have the blackout go for the second 3 so that I can do a waterchange as soon as it ends, the day I get home.

DasCamel · 01/13/2015, 05:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Space heater

No thoughts?

I'm starting to think that I'll leave the lights on normally for the first 3 days, then have the blackout go for the second 3 so that I can do a waterchange as soon as it ends, the day I get home.

+1

The tank is also young, may not want to be as aggressive and give it more time naturally balance out. Have you tried GFO?

01/13/2015, 01:36 AM	#1
Space heater Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2014 Location: Ithaca, NY Posts: 150	Blackout while AFK? Here's the situation: My tank is about 4 months old now, 40g DIY AIO. I had diatoms, then some minor hair algae, and a small amount of red slime in the fuge. Admittedly, most of these were due to low flow, overfeeding, and missing some waterchanges. After the algae became noticeable I did some self examination and came up with a plan. A couple weeks ago I moved my koralia powerheads behind the rockwork and added 2 RW-4's in wave mode to increase flow. Over the last few weeks I've been changing 5-10 gallons about every 4 days and scrubbing the rocks with a toothbrush. In the last week I've been doing 5 gallon w/c every other day, and scrubbing the rocks daily. On top of this I've been changing filter floss a couple hours after each scrubbing session, skimming much wetter (dark green swamp water) and vacuuming the sand and sump compartments. It's now gotten to the point where I have no visible hair algae, and the glass hasn't needed to be scraped in a week. Enter this week. I have to go out of town Wed, and won't be back for 6 days. My system is currently run by a DIY Arduino based controller. I'm planning on setting the controller to do a 3 day blackout Wed-Fri, then bringing the lights back 2 hrs/day from Sat to Tues, until they're back at the 8 hour photoperiod. During this time I'll be running the fuge light 24/7 for pH reasons. My tank currently has a pair of clowns, a scooter dragonette, a orange spot goby, and a chalk bass. Corals are rics, shrooms, a couple zoa colonies, a couple candycanes, a few birdsnest and stylo, and a GBTA. As far as the fish my neighbor will be feeding them every other day with pre-measured amounts. I'm asking for opinions on whether or not this is a good plan. I am winning the algae war, and I am hoping that the blackout will set the algae back far enough that regular maintenance keeps it at bay. Right now the tank has never looked better and in just a couple weeks I've had noticeable coral growth, especially from the SPS. I'm afraid that while I'm gone the algae might gain back some ground, and I'm so pleased with the way things are going I really don't want that to happen.

01/13/2015, 05:06 PM	#2
Space heater Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2014 Location: Ithaca, NY Posts: 150	No thoughts? I'm starting to think that I'll leave the lights on normally for the first 3 days, then have the blackout go for the second 3 so that I can do a waterchange as soon as it ends, the day I get home.