Blackout advice

[Matt Warner]

Hi all, I have been having great difficulty in removing blue green algae from my tank, I have tried adding more nitrate as I wasnt adding enough to my EI mix and things improved a bit but it was still growing. I have finally decided after much struggling to get rid of it, to do a blackout on the tank. I have turned the lights off and co2 off and dosed nitrates beforehand. I have covered the tank with black bags. How long should I leave it like this before returning to normal? Does it actually work as I have heard good and bad experiences from a blackout.

 

[Derek Tweedie]

I did it for 3 days. Before the blackout I cleaned everything including the filter and did a 50% water change. 3 days later when I took the cover off I still had algae trouble although it had taken beaten. When I do it again I may do it for a few days longer.

 

[Matt Warner]

Thanks. I really hope this blackout works. If it comes back after then I am running out of ideas!

 

[gmartins]

Hi,

I did mine for 4 days. did a massive water change immediately after. It worked great. Never seen the tank so clean 😉

cheers,

GM

 

[Iain Sutherland]

I had always heard 5 days and no peeking. There was a great thread around somewhere... ill see if i can find it for you

 

[Matt Warner]

Well I have done a 3 day blackout and it seems like it was a success! 😀
The algae has just dissolved or died so I have done a 50% water change and sucked out as much dead cyano as I could. I have the lights on for 2 hours less a day, and added ferts. I also fitted a spray bar to my juwel internal filter so flow is much more even in the tank and works with the spray bar on my external. Would it do any harm to run some activated carbon in my external filter for a while?

 

[frankzappatistas]

First time i did it it was to get rid of blue green algae. 4 days, no picking, no feeding, one of my Cardinal Tetrras died. Blue green algae disappeared completely.

Second time 5 days trying to get rid of hairy algae, i was uncovering the tank to feed the fish twice a day for 15 minutes, didn't turn on the lights, just leaving some light from the window to drop on the tank. Algae was reduced significantly, The fish didn't seemed to care.

if you have any sick or skinny fish go for the second method.