# Thinking of doing a 4 day blackout...



## Ka Splat (Jul 4, 2014)

Hello I mwater irst apoligize for all the mispellings I magnifies or random words but my phone keeps on changing words and were I type so sorry for that.
Anyway, Ive been at war for 4 weeks against hair algae now and blue green algae! All of which I introduction by adding frog bit to my tank...... Whoops. It's funny though since I got rid of the frog bi as I ddidn't like it wasn't working out for me then hello algae bloom. 
So In the past this stuff coated my stem plants (lost strands of Money wort and red ludwigia. 
I manually removed it by sryinging it out, reduced light levels to 8 hours and yeah.
I currently have a dual 24 watt T5HO lighting system and a Turbo red sea Co2 thing a ma jig 
The current plants I have are red Ludwig, penny wort, 4 anubius, 2 water sprite, 2 amazon swords, some bits of western, 2 banana plants, tons of Java fern, and 2 saggiteria. 
The fish so far are 9x EMBER TETRAS, 6x PYGMY cories, 2x Otos, and 1 lone Cardinal tetra from my old school of Cardinals that I had in a different tank. Oh and the tank is a 20 gal. 
I do 25% water changes every Tuesday. 
I used to add double to dose of Api co2 booster daily and add flourish comp every water change but now since Thursday I am spot treating a double dose of Excel and adding comp Tuesday and Saturdays. 
I can't really tell yet if the excel is doing much but I have seen spots of white algae flowing gracefully throughout the tank. 
Any who
I'm about to leave to my cabin for 5 days on Wednesday and I am a bit iffy of leaving my tank that long and if that's not good enough I'll have to leave my tank for 15 days On August the 3rd..... 
I've invested a lot of time and money into this tank and don't want to come back to a giant green mass. so I thought about doing a black out over the time I'm gone (for 5 days) 
Would that be okay? Or would that harm my plants and fish in some way? 
What would you guys recommend I do? 
Thanks

And sorry again for all the spelling errors and random words:icon_lol:


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## Raymond S. (Dec 29, 2012)

The plants would just take a couple of days to get growing again well.
Outside it has a week sometimes with cloudy days.
But it likely will come back if you don't change something. Because the light is too
intense or too long of hrs. Raising it higher will be the same as doing less hrs.
Lack of enough current is one other cause of hair algae.


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## Solcielo lawrencia (Dec 30, 2013)

Yeah, blackouts only treat the symptoms, not the cause. I've only tried blackouts thrice, to no long-term effect. But now that I know algae is due to poor plant health, I just focus on improving plant health and algae goes away or is severely limited.


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## Ka Splat (Jul 4, 2014)

I have my filter on the highest output but I guess it's not powerful enough. 
Can I decrease my light levels even lower? I thought plants needed at least 10 hours to properly photosynthesize and I'm already at 8... Maybe if I do the on for 4 hours of for 4 hours thing or something like that..And I can't really raise the light..... 
I thought Algae was more of a nutrient problem? As I thought I was under dosing the proper nutrients... 
Hmm.

Bump: Didn't even see your post! I just thought doing the black out would weaken the algae enough so that it would not be on the plant leaves then add more plants (rotala and Hygro) then dose the excel, comp and buy Api leaf zone and have a regular fertilization schedule... 
So how exactly do I improve my plant health? 
Thanks


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## Raymond S. (Dec 29, 2012)

I use 7.5 hrs in both my tanks. One/w T8 x 2 bulbs for med light and one/w 2 x T5 bulbs for high light. You can do a split hrs light with a no light part in the middle for one or two hrs. You can also put one piece of window screen under the bulb which will cut the light some. How far is it from the bulb to the sub ?


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## Ka Splat (Jul 4, 2014)

Ok I must be tired today so sorry for this but what's a sub?


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## Raymond S. (Dec 29, 2012)

SUBstrate...gravel etc that is on the bottom of the tank. People on here get used to using short terms so often that we forget some may not be familiar/w it..LOL..sorry.


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## Ka Splat (Jul 4, 2014)

Oh hahahaha:icon_mrgr
Makes sense now! 
Well the tank is 16 inches rest l and the substrate varies... 
At spots it's 1 inch and in others 3 inches deep so the light rest about and inch above maybe less. 
So about 17 inches


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## Raymond S. (Dec 29, 2012)

Typically(here) there are two 20g tanks. A 20L(long) or 20T(tall) sometimes called 20H(high). The 20L would be blown away by 2 x T5 bulbs. Mega algae possible.
They are only 12" tall. Way too close for T5 bulbs and not expect algae.
At 17" you may need to add a screen to the fixture if it can't be suspended from the ceiling. If the fixture has a clear plastic "guard" below the bulbs, it is easy to add that screen. Just cut a piece to fit in it on top of the plastic piece.


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## Ka Splat (Jul 4, 2014)

Well the light did come with this plastic guard but it's not clear.... If I put that back on would it be as good or would I still need another screen thang.?


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## Solcielo lawrencia (Dec 30, 2013)

Ka Splat said:


> dose the excel, comp and buy Api leaf zone and have a regular fertilization schedule...
> So how exactly do I improve my plant health?
> Thanks


It looks like plants are missing essential micronutrients from Comprehensive (NPK) + Leaf Zone (Fe). In addition to macros, plants need micros such as Seachem Flourish.


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## Ka Splat (Jul 4, 2014)

So by adding the right Micros and Macros...... Gotcha
Will have to go to the pet store! 
Anyway do you think my tank will be fine for 5 days? If I just left it but had the pet sitter dose excel?
I also changed my light to 7.5 hours a day with a 2 hour gap so it's on from 10-1 and 3-8:30


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## Solcielo lawrencia (Dec 30, 2013)

I don't use excel but since the plants are already suffering, it may not help.


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## Ka Splat (Jul 4, 2014)

I started only dosing excel two days ago mostly for its algaecide use. 
And my plants are growing they have began shooting out new leaves but the main plants that don't seem to really be doing good are my Red Ludwigia. The leaves start to rot away and turn brown. The same happened when I had money wort all its leaves rotted then I just had the stems but they started rotting in sections two. But then some of my Ludwigia looks fine and has shot out new roots at the nodes and is beginning to shot out new leaves. 
Anywho
How often should I be doseing Flourish and leaf zone? Should I still go as recommended or should I be doubling the dose or anything like that? 
Thanks for all the help so far!


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## Solcielo lawrencia (Dec 30, 2013)

It all depends on how much plant mass and how much light there is.


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## Raymond S. (Dec 29, 2012)

*Possible confusion:*

Quote:
dose the excel, COMP and buy Api leaf zone and have a regular fertilization schedule... 
So how exactly do I improve my plant health? 

Originally Posted by *Ka Splat*  
_dose the excel, comp and buy Api leaf zone and have a regular fertilization schedule... 
So how exactly do I improve my plant health? 
Thanks_
Quote:
It looks like plants are missing essential micronutrients from Comprehensive (NPK) + Leaf Zone (Fe). In addition to macros, plants need micros such as Seachem Flourish. 

In the top quote, the word COMP is "Sea Chem Flourish Comprehensive"
Which is actually the full name of the product.


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## Raymond S. (Dec 29, 2012)

If the "guard" is white, then you have a fixture that was not made for aquariums I think.
I think you will be OK if you rduced the light from 8 to 7.5 hrs with a break in the middle.
I don't know if the white guard is too much. It may reduce your light a bit too much.
But if you did reduce the length and add a no light period in the middle it's probably enough.
I would just follow the directions on the Leaf Zone.


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## Ka Splat (Jul 4, 2014)

I ordered the light off of Amazon and it's says it was an aquarium light from odyssea but oh well. 
I guess I'll remove the guard then
So for my light it's on from 10-1 and 3-7:30 ish is that good or should the no light period be split between 10 and 7:30?


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## Raymond S. (Dec 29, 2012)

I have the Odyssea 20" fixture(2bulbs) and it has a clear lense for a guard.
Is the one you have white ? If they are calling it an aquarium light, they usually have clear plastic for the guard.
If it has been on there it will increase the light if you remove it.


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## Ka Splat (Jul 4, 2014)

Yeah it came with a white one. Maybe packaging error? I just put it in yesterday but gonna take it out sometime today. 
Do you think my tank week be fine for 5 days?


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## Raymond S. (Dec 29, 2012)

As long as it's not on any regular basis you won't hurt anything to leave the light off for 5 days. When I did a blackout I put a black garbage bag over the tank to keep out ALL light.
You know sometimes an error can work out for you. You might try leaving the white guard in for about 60 days to see if the plants still grow well enough. It maystop the algae by reducing it enough to work. If the plants just stop growing you can always take it out.


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## Ka Splat (Jul 4, 2014)

Ok sounds good! Hopefully it all works out in the end. 
Thanks for all the help!

Should I unplugg my Red sea co2?


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