Blackout for algae treatment

nursie

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I've seen a blackout mentioned for treatment for certain types of algae. How do you do it?
Do you just leave the lights off or do you cover the tank too? Do you still feed the fish and add FLourish Excel...I use that, not CO2.
Does it have adverse effects on the fish?
 

Tom Barr

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Re: Blackout for algae treatment

Cover the tank and turn lights off, CO2 off etc. Add KNO3 for the BGA treatment.

Only useful for BGA really and few others.
You can add Excel but do not do the treatment for extended peroids, more than 3-4 days, can produce leggy strem plants but they grow quick and can be trimmed and replanted quick(2-3 weeks).


Regards,
Tom Barr
 

nursie

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Re: Blackout for algae treatment

My site with the cheat sheet info is down..(aquariacentral)..what is KNO3? Is that the NuSalt?
 

snytiger_92

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Jul 29, 2005
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Re: Blackout for algae treatment

I am trying to get my algae under control: attempting a 2-3 day blackout. I did a 10 gallon water change on a 30 gallon tank, and the water parameters after the change are as follows:
CO2 - 12-14 ppm (DIY - 2 2-liter bottles)
GH - 5
KH - 4
Nitrate - 10
Amonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
pH - 6.8-7.0
PO4 - 1

I have been dosing ferts:
Day One: 10 gallon water change; dose NO3 to about 3-5 ppm; dose PO4 to .5-.7 ppm; does K2SO4 to 17-18 ppm.
Day Two: dose 3 mL Plantex CSM+B
Day Three: add 2 ppm NO3; Flourish Excel
Day Four: add 3 mL Plantex CSM+B
Day Five: same as day three
Day Six: same as day four
Day Seven: nothing

I am running an Emperor 400 and a Rena XP2 during the blackout. Turned the CO2 reactor off. Heater is on.

I am wondering: will the blackout be effective in ridding the tank of some of the green algae I have? Do I keep dosing ferts during the blackout?

I did not have the green 'carpet' when I was not dosing Plantex CSM+B. However, I do not know if that is where the imbalance is coming from in the tank. Becuase of the Plantex CSM+B, could my algae begin to proliferate? If I quit dosing the CSM+B, what would the effect be?

Thanks!
 

Laith

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Re: Blackout for algae treatment

The blackout may help eliminate some algae but without fixing the causes they'll just come right back.

Your CO2 is too low. Try to get it up to 30mg/l and keep it there during lights on.

I don't think you're dosing enough NO3 and PO4. You want to get your NO3 up to between 10 and 20 and your PO4 up to between 1 and 2.

But most importantly: How much light do you have on this tank?
 

snytiger_92

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Re: Blackout for algae treatment

The tank is a 30 gallon cube. The lights are: the light that came with the tank (runs about 10-12 hours a day) and a 65 watt cf light (runs about 10 hours a day). While the cf lights are on, I run the DIY CO2 - 2 2-liter bottles. I change one one week, the other the following week: I understand that is the best way to keep CO2 more consistent.

Am I overdosing the Plantex?
Thanks!
 

Simpte

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Feb 17, 2005
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Re: Blackout for algae treatment

I have found that my 2 main causes of algae are..........
1. poor CO2 levels
2. poor PO4 levles

Even when I dose PO4, its gobbled up faster than you can say (insert cheesy phrase here). I've dosed 4 times the recommended amount of PO4 and the only result was a tank clear of Green Spot Algae.

Blackouts work great for BGA!!!
Co2 and flourish excel overdose work great on BBA
po4 works for GSA
Never had a problem with the others.
This is my experience with algae...........
 

snytiger_92

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Jul 29, 2005
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Re: Blackout for algae treatment

Cool; I'll try the dosing of PO4; however, I thought I had read somewhere that high levels of PO4 lend to algae problems, which is why I have never dosed that nutrient too much - in fact, I have a phosphate remover in my XP2 right now.
We'll see....
 

matpat

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Re: Blackout for algae treatment

snytiger_92 said:
Cool; I'll try the dosing of PO4; however, I thought I had read somewhere that high levels of PO4 lend to algae problems, which is why I have never dosed that nutrient too much - in fact, I have a phosphate remover in my XP2 right now.
We'll see....

Please try to increase your PO4 dosing and remove that PO4 remover from your filter. You may also want to tak Laith's advice and increase the NO3 dosing als. Give it a week or two for the results to show.

The thoughts of limiting PO4 dosing has gone by the wayside thanks to Tom. Most of the sources you read on limiting phosphates are 10 or more years old by now (thinking of the Krib and Sears Conlin). It seems that high levels (within reason) of most fertilizers do not lead to algae problems but rather the opposite is true.

The best bet would be to invest in a pressurized CO2 system for the stability it provides and the ability to increase it easily. That being said, You could possibly add another bottle of DIY to your arsenal. This should help in getting your levels higher and keeping them more stable. Higher CO2 levels will keep most algae from taking over. Every time I find an algae outbreak in one of my tanks, CO2 is the first thing I check and it is usually low.
 

[email protected]

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Re: Blackout for algae treatment

Another option is to go the non CO2 route. Cut your lighting back below 2 wpg and look at Tom's article on non CO2 tanks. I have 3 tanks now doing great on this system. The only algae I can't completely beat is the hair algae which lives in my Riccia but it is not a big deal to brush it out every few days.

Good luck, Bill
 

Tom Barr

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Re: Blackout for algae treatment

It's funny, today folks tell people to add PO4.

Ohhhh, if you folks had been around 15 years ago.
:gw

Regards,
Tom Barr
 

snytiger_92

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Jul 29, 2005
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Re: Blackout for algae treatment

Thank you guys for the advice :) . I dosed the NO3 and PO4 yesterday; I'll do a 50% WC today, since I am "bringing back the sun" for my fish and plants today; I'll bring the freshwater parameters up to 10 ppm NO3 and 1.0-1.5 ppm PO4, as well as remove the PO4 remover; and I will continue to dose the NO3 and PO4 every other day, except day seven of the WC cycle. We'll see what happens.

As far as the pressurized CO2, I am working on that right now. I am hoping to have that set up and running by the end of the year.

Again, thanks for the advice.
 

Simpte

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Feb 17, 2005
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Re: Blackout for algae treatment

Tom Barr said:
It's funny, today folks tell people to add PO4.

Ohhhh, if you folks had been around 15 years ago.
:gw

Regards,
Tom Barr
Whats funny is going to the local grocery store and purchasing 3 2packs of fleet enema and watching the lady behind the checkout counter try to keep a straight face! lol
 

Tom Barr

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Re: Blackout for algae treatment

Sometimes you just have to do it. Give her a wink and discuss it in detail.
That drives them nuts.

Tell em it makes you feel fresh and clean afterwards, err yer planted tank that is...........

When they figure out what it's for, they go "sure.....whataver you say", so why bother? Have fun and tell them what they want to hear instead.

Regards,
Tom Barr
 

jimjim

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Jan 24, 2005
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Re: Blackout for algae treatment

START OF RANT:You know I think if everyone would really follow Tom's advise, they'd quit worrying about the parameters of their water. I've been keeping fish for over 40 years and have not owned a test kit for about 30 of them. My plants grew nicely, My fish bred so much the LFS owed me money. What I used was similar to the Barr method. By listening to Tom, I found out why what I did worked(more than I wanted sometimes) but I wonder why people spend so much money on test kits, high dollar substrates, various other paraphanailia(paid $.50 for that word) when they're just not needed in normal day to day plant and fish keeping. My alge worries have been gone for years, and I'm once again way ahead of the fish store only because I don't need anything they have. Sorry, just had to get that off my chest. END OF RANT:...Jim
 

matpat

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Re: Blackout for algae treatment

Simpte said:
Whats funny is going to the local grocery store and purchasing 3 2packs of fleet enema and watching the lady behind the checkout counter try to keep a straight face! lol

Try getting a two-pack of Fleets Enema along with a pound of Epsom Salts (laxative) and see what kind of looks you get :)
 

nursie

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Re: Blackout for algae treatment

cheap tip....you can get the walgreen brand of fleet enema for about 59 cents...at least here in peoria.
I keep it in the fridge...cold and ready :D :eek:
 

Tom Barr

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Re: Blackout for algae treatment

jimjim said:
START OF RANT:You know I think if everyone would really follow Tom's advise, they'd quit worrying about the parameters of their water. I've been keeping fish for over 40 years and have not owned a test kit for about 30 of them. My plants grew nicely, My fish bred so much the LFS owed me money. What I used was similar to the Barr method. By listening to Tom, I found out why what I did worked(more than I wanted sometimes) but I wonder why people spend so much money on test kits, high dollar substrates, various other paraphanailia(paid $.50 for that word) when they're just not needed in normal day to day plant and fish keeping. My alge worries have been gone for years, and I'm once again way ahead of the fish store only because I don't need anything they have. Sorry, just had to get that off my chest. END OF RANT:...Jim

Jim, I have about 2000$ in high quality testing equipment.
Yep, I hate testing(I just want the data, not the work testing), but of I do test, I want it to be easy, extremely accurate and precise and cover all my bases.

I test far more than most anyone in the hobby, that much is clear, the things you uncover and can definitely state show that.

Now........... while I have all these goodies....I alos know what EI does, and Non CO2 and the accuracy PPS and PMDD casn hope to acheive.

EI and PPS are not that far off.

If you did test and measure things and dose and change youer routine using PPS, you could provide slightly more stability, but so could doing 2x water changes a week and dosing EI afterward also.

PPS ias only as good as it's user and the frequency the user is willing to put in for a slightly more stable nutrient level.

But..................PPS does not focus nearly enough on CO2. I think Edward will figure this out in due time. Most of the unknown issues are not the nutrients, it's the poor CO2 levels.

But a user cannot maintain using a test kit 15-20ppm NO3 anymore than guessing, test kits and the frequency folks are willing to test oftwer over long peroids of time are simply impractical.

EI hits the target very close.

Put another way: is there any significant difference in growth of plants with a range of 10-20ppm vs 15-20ppm?

The accuracy you gain is very small.

If it does not grow plants better and it takes more effort, time, complexity, cost, I think it's a tough sell.

Taking down data is fine if the data is good.

Mine is very good.

Regards,
Tom Barr
 

Tom Barr

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Re: Blackout for algae treatment

BTW Jim, I was like you, I never tested for many years, didn't need to, then I slowly got into it over many years. I wanted to know why so and so's tank did not do as well as my own. I also wanted to see if there was a universal range of nutrients that plants liked.

I achieved those goals pretty much.
So now we know why.

Regards,
Tom Barr