How to properly black out a tank!
- Thread starter cichlidcichlid
- Start date
The fish will be fine. The plants should be fine too. I've done 5 day blackouts before and everything was ok. I only switched to using 4 days because I didn't notice any additional benefits to the extra day.
Great news I took everything off today and the tank looks great. Thank you to all that help!
If I had known it was that easy I would have done it a long time ago.
By the way the plants look better than before the blackout. The banana plant has grown 4 inches during the 5 days as well as everything looks so green.
I think the plants were growing while the lights were off. Hopefully the cyanobacteria is gone because the little bits that I had seen are now gone.
One problem though! The compact florecent that was on top of the tank now has some moisture in it because I seal the tank off so well that the vent on top of the light were the only openings left.
If I left it fully dry will it still work?
Also today is monday and on the chart that I drew out I am suppose to dose kno3 and KH2p04. Should I do a 50% water change and then dose this or should I wait to dose tommorrow?
Until I turn on the light I figured that dosing ferts would be a bad idea and it is already 1:39 p.m. so the day is almost over.
Just wanted to check again lights at 8 hours a day will work fine right?
I want to get it right this time now that the algae isn't holding me back, but I don't want to do something to bring it back.
Thanks,
cichlidcichlid
If I had known it was that easy I would have done it a long time ago.
By the way the plants look better than before the blackout. The banana plant has grown 4 inches during the 5 days as well as everything looks so green.
I think the plants were growing while the lights were off. Hopefully the cyanobacteria is gone because the little bits that I had seen are now gone.
One problem though! The compact florecent that was on top of the tank now has some moisture in it because I seal the tank off so well that the vent on top of the light were the only openings left.
If I left it fully dry will it still work?
Also today is monday and on the chart that I drew out I am suppose to dose kno3 and KH2p04. Should I do a 50% water change and then dose this or should I wait to dose tommorrow?
Until I turn on the light I figured that dosing ferts would be a bad idea and it is already 1:39 p.m. so the day is almost over.
Just wanted to check again lights at 8 hours a day will work fine right?
I want to get it right this time now that the algae isn't holding me back, but I don't want to do something to bring it back.
Thanks,
cichlidcichlid
Blackouts and EM will get rid of cyanobacteria, but unless you correct the conditions that allowed it, it'll just come back in a month or so. Cyanobacteria thrive low nitrate and low flow conditions. I'd say test your water. If your nitrates are consistently close to 0, then you need to be dosing more. Otherwise you may likely have a dead spot that is not getting it's water circulated enough to prevent the cyano.
excellent advice from jmhart!
cyano is one of the earliest forms of life on this planet. there's a little diversity there... blackouts work for some, in some tanks. bba is also a general name and whether it works or not would depend on what caused it in your tank as well as conditions therein.
people have different opinions because people have different experiences... and tanks.
cyano is one of the earliest forms of life on this planet. there's a little diversity there... blackouts work for some, in some tanks. bba is also a general name and whether it works or not would depend on what caused it in your tank as well as conditions therein.
people have different opinions because people have different experiences... and tanks.
