# Three-day vacation; should I black out?



## tacoshooter (Oct 25, 2005)

I've got a three-day out of town vacation coming up this weekend and am tossing around the idea of doing a blackout. Now, I don't have any out-of-control algae issues, just some diatoms and a quite a bit more hair and thread algae than I would like.

Since I'm going to be out of town, this seems like an opportune time to see if I can blast the algae some. Basically I would start the blackout on Friday and lift it on Monday. Three days total.

Tank is heavily planted, moderate fish load. Pressurized CO2, 110 watts over a 29G. Current pic below if it helps.

Just looking for some input to see if it can help me clean up some nuisance algae.

Thanks!


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## DaFishMan (Dec 4, 2005)

A 5 day blackout might make a better impact. Why not start it on Wed ?


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## trenac (Jul 16, 2004)

Welcome, Tacoshooter 

Blackouts don't work on all algeas, mostly used to get rid of blue green algae (BGA).

It would be better to post your water parameters, tank specs, fertilizers used etc, so that we can better help you.

How long has this tank been set up?

You can also check out our Algaefinder for methods on getting rid of the algaes you have.


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## tacoshooter (Oct 25, 2005)

Tank has been up for for two months. kH is 5, pH is 6.6 for about 38ppm -- but the fish don't seem to complain so I've left it there. Mostly use RO save for about a gallon of tap during water changes.

Lights are on 11 hours per day.

I dose KNO3 and KH2PO4 3x/week and Plantex on the other days per Tom Barr's reccomendations. EI 50% water changes weekly.

Plants pearl strongly and overall growth and condition seems to be good; I just have some hair algae on the blyxa and on some anubias leaves that I just can't to shake. Thread algae elsewhere. A tiny bit of BBA that I nuke as soon as I catch. No BGA that I've seen.

Otos, cardinal shrimp and amano shrimp make up my cleanup crew but they're not exactly on top of it.

I've been manually removing as much as I can and it seems to be going the right direction -- but was wondering if I should take the opportunity of being out of town to do a blackout and maybe kickstart. Basically I think I'm almost there and if I could tip the equilibrium through the blackout I might emerge in full planty glory! :supz:


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## Laith (Sep 4, 2004)

As mentioned, the blackout will not help with all algae but may impact the hair and thread algae you have. However there must be an imbalance somewhere and this needs to be tackled or else any algae removed through a blackout will just come back.

Two comments:

- You've got 3.8wpg in that tank. I would lower the light period to 9 or 10 hours and see if that helps.

- How much are you dosing? you may be under dosing your ferts...


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## hooha (Apr 21, 2005)

if you do do a blackout, don't forget to turn off you CO2, or else you'll come back to a tank full of dead, smelly fish and shrimp.

Trust me on this :sad:


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## zeek (Jan 5, 2005)

One thing a blackout will do is cause to plants to expend all their stored resources on new growth. Plants grow at night, and take in nutrients during the day.
There is potential for a nutrient imbalance when you return if the uptake rate is higher than your dosing levels. If you are underdosing to begin with (as mentioned by Laith) you are looking for trouble when you combine those two factors in with 3.8WPG. 


Isaac


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## kristap (Oct 31, 2005)

Turn 'off' the CO2? Have been following this thread since my plans line up with tacoshooter's but wasn't sure what to do about the CO2 though have received conflicting advice on this. :|


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## JerseyScape (Nov 18, 2005)

Laith said:


> As mentioned, the blackout will not help with all algae but may impact the hair and thread algae you have. However there must be an imbalance somewhere and this needs to be tackled or else any algae removed through a blackout will just come back.
> 
> Two comments:
> 
> ...


Why would algae start forming if you are under dosing? I always thought that algae came if you had too many ferts in the water....can someone please explain?


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

The latest I have read about algae is that overdosing ferts does not cause algae. Instead, underdosing CO2 and/or the presence of NH4 will start an algae bloom. It appears that you can use at least double the recommended amount of NO3 and PO4 with no problems at all. I currently have some algae, and after a search I found a small cory had wedged himself behind my cork background where he expired = NH4! Now if I can just find a way to get the corpse out without causing other problems.


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## david lim (Mar 30, 2004)

kristap said:


> Turn 'off' the CO2? Have been following this thread since my plans line up with tacoshooter's but wasn't sure what to do about the CO2 though have received conflicting advice on this. :|


Definately turn off the CO2. At night plants don't photosynthesize (make O2). Instead they respire (make CO2). Turning off the CO2 will make sure that the water column isn't saturated with it helping the plants to grow and prevents hypoxia for the fish.

David


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