# Is a blackout necessary?



## aaronnorth (31 Jul 2008)

I have BBA and spyrogyra, on James' algae article, it says a blackout for the spyrogyra, is there any other way?

I know the cause, my CO2 ran out while i was away, high lighting and heavy ferts dont go well as you know,


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## Ed Seeley (31 Jul 2008)

Excel or Easycarbo should help knock these back coupled with removing as much as you can manually.


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## aaronnorth (1 Aug 2008)

Ed Seeley said:
			
		

> Excel or Easycarbo should help knock these back coupled with removing as much as you can manually.



Another visit to AE   

I removed as much as i could today with a 50% w/c i cant see anynore BBA but you never know, it wasnt as bad as i thought, thank god


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## Themuleous (2 Aug 2008)

Excel overdose should remove it as a short term fix.

Sam


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## JamesM (21 Aug 2008)

Can someone ban Mr. Spam?  

Removed the post and banned him.  Ed Seeley.


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## Dusko (22 Aug 2008)

> Excel overdose should remove it as a short term fix.



I experienced Spirogyra in my 11 galls medium-light. This aquarium is dosed with Easy Carbo 5-6 times a week and Tropica+NP 2-3x a week. Planted mostly with Cryptos. The only plant which got this algae was a few remaining stems of Rotala rotundifolia which didn't show deficiency symptoms.
Easy Carbo didn't help in my case since it was dosed regularly. Actually at that time I was dosing EC with the original EC dosing cup, which makes dosing difficult for smaller tanks because it is hard to see 2ml, and for that reason I would always go with 2,5ml at least sometimes even more (nowadays I use a syringe for precise dosing).

As stated earlier, I dosed EI for this tank but didn't perform often 50% WC. Also, my surface agitation wasn't that good.
I removed all the algae manually (which was very easy), performed a 50% WC, improved the surface agitation and the algae didn't return.
There is one thing I did at the same time but didn't pay any attention to it and could also be very important, KH.
You see, my tap water is very soft 3.5-4KH (4GH) and I never dosed any bicarbonates to this tank until the algae appeared. Could this be one of the reasons which triggered Spirogyra?

Some might say it was the NH4. I am not sure because I have a clay based substrate in this tank from Aquatic Nature "Ferti Soil". Clay has the ability to bind NH4. Hmm... It could be the dirty filter accumulating organics + reducing flow and low O2 levels in combination with low KH.

Regards, Dusko


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## aaronnorth (22 Aug 2008)

thanks, the syrogyra has gone, tiny amounts of BBA, but that is going quickly, i am overdosing excel and running CO2 high, verything is back to normal now.

James, who is mr.spam?


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## Ed Seeley (22 Aug 2008)

aaronnorth said:
			
		

> James, who is mr.spam?



There was a spam post in this thread but I deleted it and banned him!


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## aaronnorth (22 Aug 2008)

Ed Seeley said:
			
		

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nice work  8)


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## JamesM (22 Aug 2008)

Ed Seeley said:
			
		

> aaronnorth said:
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Top bombing bud 8)


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## PM (1 Sep 2008)

BTW I have never blacked out, and find spot dosing (with a syringe), Excel with the filter off for a while far more effective (and cheaper) than just dumping some in the tank every day!


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## aaronnorth (1 Sep 2008)

PM said:
			
		

> BTW I have never blacked out, and find spot dosing (with a syringe), Excel with the filter off for a while far more effective (and cheaper) than just dumping some in the tank every day!



starteed that 2 days ago


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