# BLACKOUTS for Algae



## sketch804 (Mar 2, 2011)

i can honestly say that i have NEVER had a blackout work for me..i always just end up having to manually remove it and change up something in my tank upkeep, either lighting, nutrients, or step up on water changes/cleanliness...about the ONLY time it ever works for me is to put plants in a small 2gal tank and cover it with a towl for 4+ days and even then its only a 50% chance itll work and never gets rid of all of it, just reduces it to a degree...used for green fuzz, and brown algae..so prolly not the best person to comment on this ha! But i would like to know more on this one also!


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## Tenor1 (Jan 15, 2012)

Blackouts didn't do much for my tank even after 3 days of darkness. Things looked a little more pale and that's all. I used blankets draped over the tank held close to the tank with something leaning against it. 

Sorry I can't remember what type of algae I was doing battle with, it was over 25 years ago. What I realized is the tank was out of balance and I took steps to correct it, much less food was the first step (for the fish, lol) and powerheads to increase even water flow throughout the tank. 

Good luck with the battle. My current tank is about 10 years old and I rarely have any issues with algae.


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## speedie408 (Jan 15, 2009)

Blackout killed my thread/string algae. 3-4 days, complete darkness. Don't even feed the fish. Some more fragile plants may suffer a bit, but they'll bounce back. No ferts, no nothing. Just keep the filter on. 

After the last day, do a 50% WC and continue on with your business. Your thread algae should be gone. Although you may want to dial in your CO2 and maybe raise your lights a tad because that's what ultimately triggered the algae in the first place.


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## wkndracer (Mar 14, 2009)

Blackout is total darkness or it won't work.
helping a friend I took a picture of the tank wrapped.










Wrapped the sides first and pulled the plastic under as possible taping it to the bottom. then wrapped the top and sides, (don't worry you can't seal it air tight).

What we did on granny's tank was clean the hob filter, trimmed the worst of the bba off the plants, vacuumed the sub and did a water change. The hob and an air stone ran during the blackout. Wrapped the tank on Monday night and removed the plastic Friday morning. I have a UV unit made up to be portable so I ran it too while the tank was covered.

No peaking! fish were hungry but all did fine making it through the long night.

Granny had neglected the tank for about 6 weeks, dirty filter, badly overgrown, bga on the gravel, bba on the plants, thread or hair algae too. Tank water even smelled bad. She didn't want to use chemicals and had nowhere to put the fish to break the tank down. 

A month later it looked really clear and the plants were filling back in. Her son does water changes for her now every 2 weeks and the tank is back to low tech easy and stable. 

Start a blackout with clean water, clean filter and don't cheat any of the steps and it will kill off a bunch of algae. Vacuum the tank afterwards then dose the ferts and address the original cause of the imbalance.


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