trying to rid algae with black out

[peter fumo]

Has anybody ever done a blackout in their tank by taping black plastic around it to rid themselves of hair algae? If so how long did you do it and what were the results, I am in the middle of a three-day blackout any input would be appreciated i do have some cayno too running phosphate reactor... phos @ .120 .....just switched to RODI about a month ago and the pail of salt i got was bad ,after a bunch of large water changes i lost 3/4 of my tank before i realized it was the salt **** mass die off started an algae out break, didn't want to start putting a bunch of chemicals in the tank and i need to replace my clean up crew too so i thought this might keep it at bay for now, please give me any input you can

 

[Bugger]

I don't think it will work

 

[Cory]

Ive heard of people having success with it. However its not going to be a permanent solution. Algae love all the things you put in your tank. Hydrogen peroxide works better and quicker to kill algae. But it will still come back. You must reduce the nutrients in your tank or it will grow. Id try an ATS run lots of phosphate remover.

 

[peter fumo]

Ive heard of people having success with it. However its not going to be a permanent solution. Algae love all the things you put in your tank. Hydrogen peroxide works better and quicker to kill algae. But it will still come back. You must reduce the nutrients in your tank or it will grow. Id try an ATS run lots of phosphate remover.

How do I use the hydrogen peroxide...??? Do I dose it?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

What else is in the tank now?

 

[peter fumo]

Some shrimp , clown fish Diomond goby a few scattered Zoa's a few snails and a few crabs ... Not much

 

[peter fumo]

I took the plastic off this morning turn the lights on this afternoon and looks really clean there is a few spots of hair algae took those pieces out and scrub them put them back in, I got to say that the water looks pretty Chrisp I'm going to do a 20 gallon water change tomorrow morning

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

How long was it dark?

 

[beaslbob]

So at this point you have algae with whatever lighting and feeding you had before and no algae with a total blackout.

So now all you have to do is find some duration of lights where everything thrives but not the algae. I would start with 1/2 duration and adjust.

And I would also add macro algae in a refugium as well.


my .02

 

[shred5]

If you dont control nutrients you can not limit algae growth it will eventually come back.. Algae can survive very long time in the dark even months.

Some algae can go dormant and produce spores that last a long time.. Heck put a glass of water in a window and see what happens.

 

[peter fumo]

The nutrients came from a mass die off that I've been actively cleaning up and doing lots of water changes also running GFO in a reactor , Was doing the blackout to keep the algae from spreading too much and getting out of hand before I got the parameters back to normal

 

[peter fumo]

It actually worked pretty well didn't lose anything more water looks crystal-clearand very little algae the stuff I saw was manually removed

 

[peter fumo]

How long was it dark?

3 days...no feeding either. everyone is still alive and the tank looks crisp.did a 20 gal waterchange today

 

[gcrawford]

How do you know the salt was bad? I've never heard of that....

 

[peter fumo]

How do you know the salt was bad? I've never heard of that....

i tested it

 

[peter fumo]

i tested it

it was a fluke

 

[beaslbob]

If you dont control nutrients you can not limit algae growth it will eventually come back.. Algae can survive very long time in the dark even months.

Some algae can go dormant and produce spores that last a long time.. Heck put a glass of water in a window and see what happens.

if you kept it in the dark the water would remain clear.

 

[peter fumo]

So at this point you have algae with whatever lighting and feeding you had before and no algae with a total blackout.

So now all you have to do is find some duration of lights where everything thrives but not the algae. I would start with 1/2 duration and adjust.

And I would also add macro algae in a refugium as well.


my .02

that sounds logical

 

[peter fumo]

if you kept it in the dark the water would remain clear.

Was doing the blackout to keep the algae from spreading too much and getting out of hand before I got the parameters back to normal and while waiting for my clean up crew, to replace the ones lost in my tank crash

 

[Turbo's Aquatics Verified Sponsor]

How long has the tank been up and running? Where did the live rock come from? (Dry rock, from another tank, etc)