# Partial blackout?



## ForestDave (7 Mar 2021)

Hi.
My tank has been going for 2 weeks now although I did a re-scape after 1 week as I wasn't happy with various bits. There's not much algae apart from some weeping moss which is attached to some wooden branches which have spirogyra on them. It's impossible to remove much of it without pulling the moss away. 
James's Algae guide says this-


Once it has appeared it can be very hard to clear as it thrives in the same conditions as plants. Pick out as much as possible and do a three day blackout with CO2 turned off and doing large daily water changes. Dose back with macros after the water change. Afterwards I found normal dosing Excel also helped, you could use EasyCarbo or TNC Carbon also. Rosy barbs will eat it if made hungry. Also, try reducing the lighting.
Another method to try is to try lean dosing at around 1/4 to 1/8 Estimative Index levels for a few weeks. I had good success doing this.

As it's a new tank I don't want to turn the CO2 off as some carpet plants are struggling at the moment. Has anyone had any success wrapping black plastic or fabric around small algae-affected areas in their tanks? The branches unfortunately are not easy to remove as the rest of the scape sits on them. The other option could be to scrape all the weeping moss off and treat it outside of the tank? The branches are sticking up and are close to the T5 light strips so they are always going to get a lot of light. The outbreak was probably caused by a massive ammonia spike due to 2 builds in 2 weeks and me moving plants every other day rucking up the substrate


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## dw1305 (7 Mar 2021)

Hi all,


ForestDave said:


> As it's a new tank I don't want to turn the CO2 off as some carpet plants are struggling at the moment.


You could try black plastic around the branch, I've no idea whether it would work or not.


ForestDave said:


> The outbreak was probably caused by a massive ammonia spike due to 2 builds in 2 weeks and me moving plants every other day rucking up the substrate


Personally I'd carry on with manual removal, just wait until he strands get long enough to wrap them around something. I use a little lab. <"glass cleaning brush">, like these burette brushes (I use them for the tubing) but with a much shorter handle.

Hopefully once things have settled down the _Spirogyra_ will go away.

cheers Darrel


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## ForestDave (7 Mar 2021)

Thanks Darrel!
I'll keep at it. Might give the plastic a go for the hell of it too.


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## papa_c (7 Mar 2021)

I battled green thread algae for some months, it would attach to stems and moss and grow daily. Tried everything I could to get rid of it, in the end I resorted to dosing EasyLife Algexit at every water change for 4 weeks and it cleared it up totally.

There was one other change I made and reduced my phosphate dose to under 3 ppm per week, previous to this I was double dosing to see the impact on green spot algae on some Anubius. Whether this also had an impact is not possible to tell.


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## shangman (7 Mar 2021)

I have had spirogyra in all of my tanks (sadlol). I don't think that a partial blackout would work, once you see it on one plant it's probably on others too, the blackout can get rid of all of it though. I have stopped it with BO in 2 of my tanks. In one tank it was gone after the first blackout, I've only started to notice a tiny bit of resurgence and will do another which I think will get it. In the second tank I needed to do 2 blackouts, with 2 days inbetween for plants to recover a bit and dosing some excel, the first one didn't fully work, but I think this is because it had more light than the other tank. The blackouts is the only thing I've found works, when you manually take it out it will grow back quickly if it has light - it absolutely loves light. I didn't find that dosing excel did anything at all, though I've heard that high CO2 can kill it, as long as you take it out and do extra large waterchanges and make sure your filter is very clean. 

I would maybe let your plants establish for another few weeks, and take out as much as you can every few days during this time. Then once your plants look stronger, do a proper blackout on it all for 3 days and hopefully that will get it. Good luck, it is a real pain!!


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## ForestDave (8 Mar 2021)

Thanks @shangman and @papa_c 
I really appreciate the advice!


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## Jaseon (8 Mar 2021)

Ive had success with just not putting lights on for 3-4 days no need to black out i found.


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