Black Out - How long?

[DGalt]

So in my ongoing effort to eliminate as much algae in my tank as possible before I rescape it (I know I will never get rid of it all, but might as well try to get as much of it as possible), I'm going to do a black out.

I've taken pretty much everything out besides the substrate and the fish themselves. All the plants are out. I did a rather thorough cleaning this afternoon and now this is the last step in my algae fighting process before the rescape.

I'm just wondering about how long should I black out the tank for it to have any type of effect.

[xpirtdesign]

i just finished my 3.5 day blackout today. that got rid of about 80-90% of the algae...the water looks beautiful. there is a little bit of algae on the rear glass and one of the sides. a little bit on the anubias leaves also

[jmhart]

First step, put all the plants back in. The plants have algae on them, and it won't do any good to black out the tank without killing the algae on the plants.

However, if you simply want to black out the plants in another container, that's cool. Plants can be blacked out completely safely for 3-4 days, assuming the are healthy going into the blackout(i.e. not been sitting in a bucket without light/ferts/co2 for a days).

If you blackout the plants separately, you can black out the tank as long as you want, but 4 days is more than sufficient to kill the algae.

[DGalt]

well, the only plant that's going to be going back in to the tank is a small anubias. and already have some plans for cleaning it up (used in the past, very effective). the rescape is really a complete overhall lol

but ok, 4 days then? sounds good. thanks :D

[Gerber]

On my SW tank, I am in the process of a 5 day black out. I'm 2 days in and I'd say theres about 40% gone