Another algae question....

[NYYFan19801]

Sorry for yet another algae question, but this one is not one I found while searching, though I partially found the answer! So I have a fairly heavily planted tank which recently had an outbreak of green algae, after reading and testing, I found out both my phosphate and nitrate levels were way too low. So I swiped some KNO3 and KH2PO4 from my lab and I'm going to be starting to dose according to a wonderful spreadsheet I found on here that was posted years ago (the EI forumula I suppose). My question is, should I do a blackout first to kill all the algae and then start dosing? Or start dosing and that will rid the algae on its own. Thanks!

 

[fort384]

I would do as much manual removal as possible, and start dosing. It shouldn't make things worse. You may get rid of most of it without a blackout if the plants start out-competing the algae for nutrients. If it doesn't work you can always go back and do a black out.