Some of my corals have looked their best the day after a 3 days blackout. Granted, there's still ambient light (I don't cover the tank). There was a thread on RC all about using no-light days to stimulate growth, colouration, polyp extension etc...

That may be so, but the best results in eradicating dinos has always been a full black out. If OP wants to play with dark days, fine, but maybe fix the problem first.

Yeah I figured a full blackout would be best. I covered the tank in cardboard and blankets. We'll see what happens.

Well I covered it for 2 and a half days. The algae looks a lot better. Where it was thick on rocks it is still similar but all the little bits of it everywhere is gone.

I am going to take the rocks that still have it on it and put them in the sump for a bit and scrub what I can off the others. I'm still not convinced that it's actually dino.

Well after a day and a half day blackout, I scrubbed all the rocks with an old toothbrush and pulled out what algae was left and now the tank looks great. It's been uncovered for 3 days now and there has been no new algae. I'm pretty happy about it.

My next projects are:
- 2 part dosing. I have a 3 pump dosing pump left over from my planted tank days. I am going to hopefully jump onto the next BRS group buy and get that going.
- I have been doing a lot of research into carbon dosing and may also try out slowly starting vodka/vinegar dosing.
- SPS. I want to get a starter frag or two and start filling out all the empty space in the top half of my tank.

Here is a quick picture I snapped with my phone. Sorry for the potato quality.

http://i.imgur.com/J4wcl6bl.jpg

Nice job!!
 

Looking at your sump area and all it's hard to believe your new to SW.
LOOKS GREAT>>>>> :rockon:

it looks great!!! nice work!!! :)

February Update
 

I have been terrible with updating this journal. I really want to be a better member of this great community. I am going to try to keep this updated and I have lots of questions that I'd love help with.

Here is the most recent full tank shot. I have the hardest time getting the white balance even close when taking pictures of the tank. Anyone have any advice? I always see these great photos and I can't seem to get even a decent picture.

I have a little bit of hair algae and whatever the fuzzy green stuff is at the bottom middle and right. The hair algae is almost gone though. I only got it because I was away for a few weeks.

http://i.imgur.com/aFwLyMlh.jpg



Here's another picture.

http://i.imgur.com/TM5AHodh.jpg



Here is what it looks like underneath. I've got my dosing mostly sorted. I'm dosing Calc, Alk and Vinegar. The tank in the middle is the auto top up reservoir. I've got bit of a fuge going but I want to do more with it. The light is a freshwater light from one of my old tanks.

http://i.imgur.com/zsZloKnh.jpg



Does anyone know what these little things growing in the middle of the picture are? They are growing in a couple of places and look like vines.

http://i.imgur.com/osgvqK4h.jpg



I have a bunch of random questions if anyone could give me a hand.

- I want to add some more fish to the tank but am unsure what to add. There are so many options. Currently there is a Clown, a Royal Gramma, a Blue Damsel, a Six Stripe Wrasse and a Lawnmower Blenny. There is also a cleaner shrimp, and fighting conch and a bunch of snails and crabs. What are some good fish to add? Thanks!

- The Fighting Conch: I bought it on a whim and am not sure if I should have or not. There isn't a ton of sand and I'm not really sure what to feed it. It's been a few months and it seems OK but I don't want it in a sub par environment.

- Fuge: I have some Cheato in there but that's it. I have read about other macro algaes or deep sand beds or not reef safe critters but I don't really know what's best or where to start. Any suggestions?

- Carbon and GFO: What is it and should I use it? Haha not entirely but I don't really understand the pros and cons or how to get into it.

Thanks! I realize this is a lot of questions. I appreciate any help.

James

I'll leave the tank questions for the experts to answer, I'm a relative noob myself.

I can help you with your camera stuff, that I am an expert :wink: Most cameras including DSLR will have crappy white balance straight out of camera (SOOC) with JPG. If you find/use a camera that can shoot RAW files, then you can use a photo processing software like Lightroom or Aperture to automatically adjust the WB, and it'll usually be pretty accurate to your "reality" colour. Some people use a white/grey card for indexing WB but I don't feel it's too necessary. With JPG you're always crippled in terms of post processing. You can try the WB settings in camera but I find those are usually pretty off.

Let me know if you have further questions.