Black out????

[Greenphantom]

What is your guys take on blacking out aquariums I have a algae problem in my 125 gallon and have tried everything to get rid of it I have 5 live plants the rest are fake but was really wondering what effect the black out will have on the. Do you think this will help my algae problem and should I go all out and garbage bag the whole tank of or should I just leave the light off for a while. Also how long should I do it for?

 

[paytertot]

What kind of algae are we talking about here?

 

[Greenphantom]

Green stuff covering my walls plants deco even the live ones also its a freshwater I ve tried large pwcs and scraping it all off it just comes right back lights are only on 6 to 8 hours a day at most and I only feed twice a day also I have a api master water test kit everything is testing great good filtration aquaclear 110 magnum 350 canister filter water is fine crystal clear just that algae everywhere and in some spots it is like carpet in the substrate

 

[paytertot]

It could be the feeding or the light. Do you have high light? And I'm pretty sure in most cases it isn't necessary to feed that much. What kind of fish do you have, are they young?

 

[Gboy66]

I'd go for it. A 5-6 day blackout solved me BGA problem..and it hasnt come back

 

[Greenphantom]

Lots of fish I am quite over stocked but not as bad as some of the crazy things I see on here so here we go bare with me I am on a cell phone sooo..... I currently have 3 kribensis for which I am looking for a home feather fin cat fish a hybrid synodontis of some sort four golden wonder killifish some other kind of killifish 8+ inch bgk coo coo catfish 5 dwarf cory catfish about 15 apple snails calico angel fully grown also 2 L333 plecos 1 3 beacon pleco 1 vampire pleco 1 snowball pleco 1 clown pleco 1 royal pleco I think I got em all I got all these because I answered 1 craigslist add about free fish what ended up happening was a pet store closed and I acquired most of these fish from terrible conditions most were starving and full of ich so I rescued them and put them in my pleco tank added a canister filter and here I am also alot of theses fish are available except the plecos although I would be interested in cash or trades on the 3 beacon pleco I will also consider trades on the other live stock but thats a whole nother thread. I have a 120 breeder est. dimensions are 2 foot tall 2 foot wide 4 foot long lights are 2 t5 50000 k full spectrum day light bulbs from fish store and 2 t12 garden and aquarium lights from walmart filtration marine land magnum 350 canister filter and a aquaclear 110 hob ph 7.6 ammonia 0 nitrite 0 nitrate 0

 

[paytertot]

Wow!! That's... That's some stocking.. lol. Wait, 0 nitrates? Are you sure?

 

[Greenphantom]

Positive the most its ever read is 5.0 mind you all of the plecos are babies

 

[Greenphantom]

Positive the most its ever read is 5.0 mind you all of the plecos are babies

But yea tested yesterday 0 for sure I will test in the A.M. and post a pic of the results. In the mean time check out my pics on some of the threads I posted etc.

 

[paytertot]

With the amount of stocking you've got, you should have tons of nitrates. I'm just going to go ahead and say someone with more knowledge than me needs to step in right about now lol

 

[Greenphantom]

I will test my tank shortly. Do you guys think I should completely black it out or just leave the lights out for a few days?

 

[paytertot]

Is there sunlight hitting it? That will make a difference.

 

[Cichlid Kid]

If you have algae covering everything it could in fact be absorbing most of your nitrates. I would check to make sure your testing kit is up to par firstly. What kind of test are you using? Secondly i would decrease the amount your feeding. With the amount of algae present all of your plecos will be fine.
If you decide to go with the blackout however make sure to test the water every 12hrs or so. If the algae can't use photosynthesis to convert then you will probably experience a spike at some point.

 

[Greenphantom]

No sun its in the basement and I use a API master test and I am gonna test as soon as I take a shower

 

[paytertot]

No sun its in the basement and I use a API master test and I am gonna test as soon as I take a shower

Ok well then if there's no other light hitting it, you can just leave the light off for a few days.

 

[Greenphantom]

Well here are my tests from today not much difference in the last 2 weeks

 

[Greenphantom]

Well here are my tests from today not much difference in the last 2 weeks

This is good results right?