Live Rock Blasting

[the egregious]

I am curious, as I have never had to do this before but...I was gone for 3 days about 2 weeks ago and my wife left the lights in the tank on for about 14 hours a day which therein resulted in a large Diatom bloom on my rocks and sand. I have heard that people just take the LR out and blast it with a high powered hose.
Is this safe?
will it take all of the beneficial bacteria off?
will I have to recycle my tank?
Will it actually even work?

 

[breiwa1]

just take it out and scrub it with a new tooth brush and some saltwater. I will come right off.

 

[the egregious]

I have also heard of the toothbrush method before but Am curious about the high powered hose method?

 

[digitydash]

It would need to be a pump that is spraying saltwater.I would just do a water change and syphone it out as u brush it off.

 

[nyyank]

Just curious---What would be a proper MH light cycle for an established tank Vs. one in the cycle process%

 

[the egregious]

You will most likely get more posts if you made your own thread but, ...as far as the lighting cycle goes, I use VHOT5's so I have no knowledgeable answer. sorry.

 

[candycane]

I had the same thing happen and just left it. In most well established aquariums, the diatoms will die off rather quickly as long as there arent other unwanted nutrients in there.
As for the lighting, even an established aquarium will most likely go through some sort of alga bloom when it comes to adding metal halides. Takes about 3-4 weeks to go away in my experience. Usually doesnt kick off an entire new cycle though.

 

[the egregious]

I was thinking of doing something I havent done before but, I've read alot on here that some people leave their lights off for about 2 or 3 days a month to kill algae as well as simulate overcast conditions. If I were to do this would it hurt my corals?

 

[candycane]

I wouldn't mess with it. It would effect everything negatively because your PH would just start to droppppppppp. As far as I know we are only talking about Diatoms in a well established aquarium right? You SHOULD just see them start to slowly go away with several of water changes and the return to normal lighting times. Hopefully you remember how your original cycle went. This is just an extremely weak alga in almost every case I have seen it.
I am rather surprised that it hasn't started shrinking in coverage on it's own by now though.

 

[the egregious]

Yeahp it is a 2 year reef. The PH sounds right on the money, I guess I never thought of it before. I will keep everything the same and just do some water changes.
Thanks

 

[candycane]

Good luck. Keep the thread posted and post how it turns out. I just tend to syphon off diatoms with water changes if I had a timer break or something else and just didn't notice.

 

[earlybird]

You can turn your lights off for 2 days and I'm sure your corals will be fine. Think of the beating corals take in shipping with no light. However, I don't believe diatoms have anything to do with lights as it's not quite algae.
I blast my rocks once or twice a week with either a powerhead or a turkey baster just to clear detritus. I do this all in my tank and don't remove my rock. I just take a powerhead off of my wall and have at it. Careful not to blast any corals but sometimes do on accident. It should have no effect on beneficial bacteria.

 

[horsin1963]

Originally Posted by earlybird
http:///forum/post/2524871
You can turn your lights off for 2 days and I'm sure your corals will be fine. Think of the beating corals take in shipping with no light. However, I don't believe diatoms have anything to do with lights as it's not quite algae.
I blast my rocks once or twice a week with either a powerhead or a turkey baster just to clear detritus. I do this all in my tank and don't remove my rock. I just take a powerhead off of my wall and have at it. Careful not to blast any corals but sometimes do on accident. It should have no effect on beneficial bacteria.
I do the same as Boxer if and when I have a problem with them. I had also purchased a diatom filter if you dont have one research it, buy it if you can they are worth the money. my last outbreak that I had, I did nothing except for hanging the filter and turning it on two days later I had the problem solved the water was so clear after that... well good luck with them

 

[nyyank]

I thought that a diatom filter referred to the media used-not what it filters.
Isn't it harmful to a reef to filter out everything? % ie:filter feeders food?

 

[the egregious]

Filters feeders, like the feather duster for example do not solely feed off natural tank created particles. A lot of their food intake are left over food particles from feeding your tank. Like if I were to feed my fish marine cuisine, the feather duster will slowly collect the remaining small particles. That is how most Filter feeders work.

 

[topfins-mj]

I'd say leave the light cycle alone, and just blast the rocks twice a week to swish around any resting food particles. It helps feed some of the creatures in the tank adn clean out the let over during th enatural flow of water overflow. You jsut need to clean yoru sponges, mechanical media adn such to ensure you fully remove the extras.
I do scrub my rocks once every four months since I've had some really stubborn hair algae outbreak even though my parameters read well. But use a toothbrush not blast them with pressure.

 

[mytank]

I had a bad alge problem a few years ago and we used a power washer on our live rock and wound up tossing out about 110 lbs of it. I probably would not do it over again, if I had the chance. But the alge was so bad I had no other alternative and yes I scrubed the rock prior to the power washing. I think most of all I felt as though the alge was the winner.

 

[candycane]

I don't understand why you would want to stress anything out again? As far as what I am getting, there is a diatom outbreak because of excess lighting. Most people know what a diatoms' favorite food source is. Water changes SHOULD remedy the problem I would guess. Why pull all that rock out and scrub it? I mean if it was some sort of more serious alga then maybe........

 

[tinmanny]

the best cure for what lights grew in your tank is to undo it the reverse way shut the lights off for a couple days and it should go away and if the tank is stable then it will be gone for good

 

[horsin1963]

Originally Posted by nyyank
http:///forum/post/2524996
I thought that a diatom filter referred to the media used-not what it filters.
Isn't it harmful to a reef to filter out everything? % ie:filter feeders food?
Again I just have to state research a "diatom filter" you will be suprised on how good they work. I have both fresh and salt water tanks and I use this filter on both.. its like a water polisher and you dont run it all the time I use mine only to clear things up if and when I need to.
The Egregious .. I sent you a PM