Quick Lighting/Algae ?

If I have cyanobacteria in a FOWLR tank. (I used tap water to set it up cause I couldnt afford to the RO/DI the. date is in my sig) Is there any harm in just turning the lights out for like a week until its gone. I do have a small colony of brown button polyps that came in on my live rock that I would like to keep. I always use RO/ DI for water changes since set up, but I can't kick this stuff.

 

Nope the lights out would be fine I just did the same thing , You know there is underlying cause of the problem that you may want to look for Cyano's are not a real algae but a bacteria . If we are talking about the same problem ?
may want to correct the waters alk and Calcium and Phophates levels and check the nitrates also ..

 

I figured It was phospates from the tap water. But didn't test because I have always heard it wont show up if you have an active algae problem. I will flip the lights on a take a few pics in a minute so you guys can confirm. It's NASTY lookin stuff!

 

Have you tested the water straight out of the tap?

 

^ +1. I tested tank water and got 0 ppm when I had a cyano bloom. I tested the tap and there were traces of phosphates. Will be getting an RO/DI soon, but phosguard has worked to pull out the source of the problem. I manually "raked" the cyano off the top of the sandbed into a cup and tossed it out. A few times doing that with the phosguard and it was gone.

 

I have not. My better half has the good digicam with her. So stay tuned. When I turned the lights on it already looks like less than yesterday after 24hrs without light so they are going back off. I will just turn them on every few days to feed fish until the nastiness is gone.

 

Thanks for the tip bogie.

 

I would suggest Ultra life red slime remover as a last resort that stuff really works it will make your skimmer go crazy for a week but very effective in the long and short term I haven't seen the stuff since I used it .

 

LIGHTS OUT! I will keep everyone posted on times it takes for this crap to die so if anyone is interested in trying the same they will know what to expect. As for being without my fish tank.....I need it like a needle needs a vein..... Hello my name is tarheel and I'm an addict. The first step to recovery is admiting you have a problem.

 

A little over 48 hours in to the lights out phase and the algae is almost gone. (from what I can tell with the lights off) Think I will give it 2 more days just to be sure, cause I don't want it coming right back. Tanks look sooooo much better clean! So far brown button polyps look great. The stretched out a little probably reaching for light but I am turing the lights on for about 10 mins daily to feed and get my fix. They open right up and look good. This is great if your corals can stand the lack of light!