# Turning off lights 24/7 to kill algae? Works?



## Option (Oct 2, 2010)

I tried this method once for about 2-weeks (not of complete darkness but just w/o the aquarium lights on). The tank still had ambient light from the room and a nearby window, but it was almost complete darkness inside the tank. It does kill almost all of the algae...good enough that I could take care of the rest by manual removal.


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## msawdey (Apr 6, 2009)

you need to fix the underlying problem. Do you dose co2? Thats the most likely culprit here. Basic planted tank keeping is feed the plants, keep them healthy= no algae.


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## Rob in (ca) (Aug 24, 2012)

I to have the green hair issue, after buying some plants ....so stop the co2 for a couple days?


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## UDGags (Sep 13, 2009)

No, its usually caused by lack of co2. If anything increase your co2.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk 2


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## Kinection (Dec 1, 2012)

UDGags said:


> No, its usually caused by lack of co2. If anything increase your co2.
> 
> Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk 2


 How do you do that without getting a CO2 system? I have shrimp there too... so yea. Kinda risky. :/


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## chew (May 18, 2012)

From my experience, just turn the lights off for 2 or 3 days and most of it will be stuck on your filter intake and really easy to grab off of it. When I had hair algae pretty bad I would just leave the lights off 1 day a week and if the outbreak isn't super bad all the little pieces of it would get sucked into the intake of my filter. If the plants are healthy already it's pretty much see if the plant can outlast the algae w/o light


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## chew (May 18, 2012)

Kinection said:


> How do you do that without getting a CO2 system? I have shrimp there too... so yea. Kinda risky. :/


Oh and you can reduce your light intensity/photoperiod as well to make it not come back if you don't want to invest in a co2 setup.


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## msawdey (Apr 6, 2009)

turning off the lights WILL NOT solve the problem. You may kill the algae, but it will be back.

If you want it completely gone, you NEED proper co2 levels. This means a DIY, pressurized system or Excel. 

The more and healthier the plants are, the LESS algae you will have. The plants will out complete the algae for light and other resources.


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## Kinection (Dec 1, 2012)

msawdey said:


> turning off the lights WILL NOT solve the problem. You may kill the algae, but it will be back.
> 
> If you want it completely gone, you NEED proper co2 levels. This means a DIY, pressurized system or Excel.
> 
> The more and healthier the plants are, the LESS algae you will have. The plants will out complete the algae for light and other resources.


 Well... I previously was invaded by BBA a couple months ago, then I decided to take as much as I can off, then I put the moss in my guppy tank which I don't turn on the light much. The moss is all bright green now! I'm hoping that I'll have success with this green hair algae too. I've just put the moss into the breeder net, I'll update in a couple of days.


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