3 days of darkness

[polarbear]

So this morning I was going to do a water change because I have been having a hair algae problem. I talked to the guys at elegant reefs last week and had my water tested. My PO4 have gone down from .1 to .062. They advised me that the hair algae should start dying off and could be sucked out within another week or two. Well a couple of days ago I got a tooth brush and scrubbed a piece of the rock and the algae came right off. I was going to do the water change today and get in there to scrub the rocks but I was thinking that maybe the 3 days of darnkness would help to losen it up some more so it won't be to hard to get off.

What do you guys think? Will it hurt to do it since I'm going to do a 20 gallon water change when the 3 days are done anyways?

[polarbear]

Also usually when the lights go out the fish hide so how do I feed them during this time? Do I just put the food in the tank with the lights off and hope they eat it?

[Alamo]

I dont think a few days with no food is gonna hurt em.

[CoryDude]

Your fish will be ok, but I don't think it's going to help you much with your algae. I think you can just reduce your photo period by a few hours a day and get the same results.

[dsachs09]

I agree. Ive gone 3 days and not seen results.

[polarbear]

Thanks for the help. Im not doing this as a way to make the hair algae go away. Im trying it to see if it will help to make the hair algae come off the rocks better when I get ready to scrub it off with a tooth brush. Like I had mentioned above it kinda comes off ok now when I scrub it but am hoping that it will come off a little easier after the 3 days of darkness. I was more worried about my fish then anything.

Also should I turn my refugium light on at night during these 3 days?

[SoLiD]

If it's truly "hair algae" then it should come off pretty easy. If it takes some real elbow grease then it might be bryopsis.

[polarbear]

Its hair algae. I showed it to the staff at elegant reef and they confirmed. And your right it is easy to come off already when I use a tooth brush. I dont really have to scrub hard. I just thought that doing the 3 days would help maybe kill some more off. If I was going to do a water chabge then I wouldnt have start the 3 days. But since im doing one when this is over I figured it would hurt.