Tank Blackouts To Combat Algae: Have you been successful?

[DJ Suess]

would this help bubble alge

 

[DJ Suess]

Would this work on bubble alge??

 

[beaslbob]

To me the key is balancing out the tank with algea like macros or an already turf scrubber. That said blackouts will always kill off algae and are very effective against cyano.

 

[Paul B]

I feel this method like many things people do in this hobby is is completely useless.
Just my opinion.
We treat algae like a disease and it is not so it can't be cured. We all depend on algae and so did our parents and if our parents were not here, chances are we wouldn't be either.

If you have algae (and you should) and it is growing on your corals build, buy or steal an algae scrubber. We want algae in our tanks and if you have absolutely no algae, your tank isn't healthy at all as it grows on every healthy reef in the world.

If it didn't what do you think manatees, urchins, snails, chitins, slugs, and tangs are eating?

You could always increase your clean up crew with one or two of these things.

 

[jgvergo]

I've done a blackout twice. I had an "interesting" problem both times...Since I have a canopy, I have to cover the top. The inevitable result is that I get SERIOUS condensation that tends to leak all over the place.

Both times I tried a blackout, the immediate impression is that it worked, but after a week or two, the algae/dinos resurface. In both instances, I was extremely careful to make sure NO LIGHT got into the tank. The second time I did it, I used Dr. Tim's Dino solution, but it did not work.

 

[Pinky80]

Blackouts worked twiced for me with Dino's only in the past. Regarding algae, I've had to scrape all the algae off the glass and surfaces and remove it as best as I could while dosing vinegar. I watched my nitrates and phosphates go to zero is short time, and then the Dinos came, which I half expected. So now I'm battling the brown stringy snot Dino manifestation that I'm running out of ideas to eradicate.

 

[Foneman02]

I’ve done a 3 day black out. My biggest problem was my sand would turn brown in 1 day. I have a alge scrubber but the problem persisted. I used chemiclean during the black out and I had success. Sand stayed white for about 6 months. Starting to brown again. I tu on the lights once a day for 1 he to feed fish. Looks like another black out coming.

 

[powers2001]

Heck I’ve heard of people covering their tanks with paper, that’s a pita. Use a plastic tarp from a hardware store. $6-$7

 

[Strangewaterchange]

I was having a major cyano problem and tried the Dr Tim's recipe for success. It worked but not well enough, and I noticed in the Dr Tim's schedule for dinos it included a blackout so I tried that for 3 days and the cyano was completely gone. It's come back a bit since then but nowhere near as bad as it was.

 

[Old Reefer]

I had very good results three weeks ago. I had GHA, that I just couldn't get rid of. Tried the peroxide route, but it just didn't work. So I completely blacked out the 180 with large contractors leaf bags. Three full days. Each day we would open a small section to put in some frozen food for the fish. We fed less than half the normal amount. We were really worried about all the corals, so I peeked in each night with a flashlight to check on them and the fish. When 72 hours was up, the bags came off. To our surprise, most all of the GHA was gone. There were a few small patches, but a toothbrush scrubbed on them, they came right off. Now granted, its only been three weeks, but every rock is spotless.

 

[Bradley C]

180 is in a room with only 1 drape-covered window, so minimum ambient light. Full lights on only 4-5 hours daily. Working, probably at 98% success. Trying to find manual for "POP BLOOM" lights to control spectrum, get red/yellow out of the mix. But, boy, the algae LOVE it when the lights come on full!! They do indeed 'pop' almost immediately.

 

[LegendaryCG]

I dont really blackout for algae, I’ve done it for dinos along with peroxide and uv successfully.

 

[don_chuwish]

3-4 days, problem comes back but with reduced severity, another 3-4 days, even less of a return, another 3-4 days, all gone.

 

[King Turkey]

Algae scrubber for the win hear

 

[Gravity]

I have done a few blackouts and they do a great job at knocking back GHA, Dino and Cyano, especially when done in conjunction with Dr Tim’s Refresh and Waste Away. However, the hard corals in my tank didn’t appreciate it. I got rewarded with polyp bailout from my lps. So I probably wouldn’t do it again unless it was a softy tank.

 

[Scdell]

Well. No. We are all running a micro system here. The key is keeping everything in balance. Bacterial wise, etc. It's how we all start a tank. Getting the bacteria to cycle. Then we forget about the bacteria and concentrate on calcium, magnesium Alk and N&P. You never eradicate algae. It's always there waiting for its opportunity. Then when everything becomes right for it, it rears its ugly head.
Then people want a quick fix and start throwing everything they hear is the cure at it. Completely messing up the bacterial system further.
Patience and time cures all. There is no quick fix to problems in this hobby!
I've had hair algae so thick you need a weed whacker to cut it. It went away with time and patience.
EVERYTHING living depends on bacteria. There's good bacteria and bad bacteria. Keep them in balance and good things happen.

 

[ReefPig]

As a few others have said reference dinos.
I was fighting them for about 5 months, tried all the usual things, UV, Bacteria, Phyto etc etc, but no major success.

Implemented a 4 day blackout with maximum flow and UV running, along with a bit of bubble scrubbing, this knocked it back to a tiny amount. I then immediately implemented an algae reactor running aggressively for a couple of weeks, I've been dino free for nearly two months now, all things considered, it was really easy in the end.

FYI don't use DinoX unless you have no other option and don't care about your corals, the stuff is very aggressive and drains all the colour from your corals, two months later and they're just starting to show a tiny bit of colour again. They went grey/pale.

 

[Scdell]

FYI don't use DinoX unless you have no other option and don't care about your corals, the stuff is very aggressive and drains all the colour from your corals, two months later and they're just starting to show a tiny bit of colour again. They went grey/pale.

And why did that happen? Bacteria got out of balance.

 

[ReefPig]

And why did that happen? Bacteria got out of balance.

Are you specifically asking about why DinoX had that effect?
If so, after such a long fight with dinos and so many different attempts at clearing them, I would be sure the bacteria would be a mess, but I don't think that was the reason, as such.

No other method had caused my corals to lose colour, with a few days of treating with DinoX, my corals started to turn grey, it's very aggressive stuff.

It also didn't fix my issue, it just suppress it for a few days and then it was back. Only the approach i mentioned above finally fixed the issue for me.

 

[Clownfish_Boy]

I just use a reef safe algaecidal treatment.