Ridding Algae from tank ala Tom Barr

[aquaverde]

This came up in discussion in my tank journal; I'm posting some information I got from Tom Barr several months back that helped me to overcome a nasty algae infestation. Tom has two methods for dealing with it, depending on whether the tank is CO2-enriched or not. These directions were for a non-CO2 tank. The blackout instructions were common to both methods, and I found, very effective. It killed the algae but the plants and fish were just fine. I was pretty frustrated at the point when I did this, and was ready to tear the tank down if necessary to get rid of the plague. I highly recommend the blackout method as a way of getting a new start. It worked for me.

Blackout
Prune unhealthy or heavily infested leaves, scrape algae and clean the tank. If a lot of plants have to be removed due to severity of the infestation, replace with new. Clean out your filter. Do a 50% water change. Cover the tank with something to block out the light and turn off the lights for 3-5 days. Turn off the CO2 also and drop an airstone in the tank. Now sit on your hands (I did mine on a Thursday and left for a long weekend on Friday- not as nerve-wracking that way).

Uncover the tank. Do another 50% water change.

Post-blackout changes
This is partly specific to my tank, so only applies in principle to any other tank.
Original setup: 20xh tank (24" deep), 1.5wpg NO lighting (2 15w tubes), KH 7, DIY CO2 around 20ppm, Onyx/Flourite/gravel substrate, slow growing plants (Crypts and Anubias)

I decided to chuck the CO2, and this is Tom's response verbatim:

"No, CO2? Now things/method need to change. Do not mix these two methods(CO2 vs non CO2/carbon enriched) together.

You might try using Excel, but you may as well use CO2 then.

A CO2 tank needs some dosing(NPK, traces), a non CO2 tank grows so slowly that fish waste/food supplies the nutrients for the plants and also some from the substrate(Some use soil, mulm, peat etc with gravel flourite etc-generally non CO2 plant tanks have/can have deeper richer substrates).

The substrate issue of replanting is not as difficult since you are not
replanting nearly as much in a non CO2 tank.

But it requires more trial and error with plants and takes more time to
balance the tank out.

When you add CO2, you no longer can add enough fish waste/food to supply the plant's needs. So you need to change methods, use water changes etc to your advantage.

Try adding 10-25% surface area with floating plants, eg water sprite, etc.
Don't do water changes, just top off the tank for evaporation losses.

Water change after pruning.
Add herbivores like Amano shrimps, SAE's.

These will be more effective per critter as algae will also grow slower in
these tanks.

Add more plants/some fast growing types like moneywort, Egeria najas, water sprite, coon tail etc.

Consider adding another 15w/light or a PC light. On a 20 Extra Tall, this is not that much light. 2-2.5 w/gal would do well.

Also, you might want to add a 1/2" of ground peat and maybe some mulm from another tank to the bottom and cap with 3-4 inches of onyx sand.

Then you'll be up and running with the non CO2 approach.

Some fish loads:
2-3 SAE
10 Amano shrimps.
School of tetras, maybe 10-12 etc. School of cherry barbs etc.
A few Cory cats
Small Ancistrus type pleco

Regards,
Tom Barr"

[aquaverde]

You are correct, and my original post mentioned several types of algae I was dealing with in this tank. Original exchanges:

http://fins.actwin.com/aquatic-plant.../msg00023.html
http://fins.actwin.com/aquatic-plant.../msg00027.html
http://fins.actwin.com/aquatic-plant.../msg00083.html
http://fins.actwin.com/aquatic-plant.../msg00088.html

I've spent the last several hours in the APD archives and found almost the same statement about BBA by Tom. Evidently, the change of conditions post-blackout were what beat it, not the blackout. Sorry for the bad skinny!

EDIT: modified original post to reflect that the method is for algae, not specifically for BBA.

[pedietz]

I've been having crazy hair algae and BGA the last few week, so today I started this blackout technique with my CO2 off.

In 12 hours, my PH increased from 6.9 to 7.6.

I'm running an airstone to keep the fish oxyginated... so this might explain the largish jump.

Any tips ??

[aquaverde]

The fish should be fine. Mine went up, too. The blackout lasted 4 days for me, the fish were happy to see me, but suffered no visible ill effects.

Be sure to post back when you're done with the blackout.

[George Willms]

what did you use to blackout the tank? Garbage bags?

[aquaverde]

Yes. This tank is 20"x10" and 24" high. I had a heavy green trash bag that fit it perfectly, just drop on top. The bag was thick, even for a lawn & leaf bag, and no light shone through. I was kind of lucky to not have to cut or tape anything, but for a different size tank, duct tape and several bags should work nicely.

[George Willms]

James,

I don't think I'll need to worry about duct tape. I'm only having a problem with my 5.5!

[aquaverde]

No, probably not, lol

[pedietz]

Sunday night I covered my tank, turned off the Co2, added a dose of algae killer, and added an air stone.
Its been 4 days, so I decided to uncover my tank.

I still have hair algae on my swords.
I still have green dot algae on the back glass.
I still have some velvety green algae on my hagen diffuser and tubing...

But all in much less quantities.
Hair reduced maybe 50%.
Green dot reduced maybe 60%.
Green velvet reduced 70%

The water is crystal clear.

Now for the weird things....

The anacharis that grew slowly, grew 8 inches.

The 2 pink-hygros that used to lay across the tank (I needed to trim them) are standing staight up.
The 2 bunches of swords that laid flat like a rosette, are all standing completly vertical.
The lily leaves that were brown, are now deep purple.

Wasnt sure if the algae killer would help or hurt.
My guess is neither.

Those vertical swords really look nice now.
It's like a face lift :-)

[aquaverde]

A pretty good listing of changes initiated by the lack of light. In my high light tank, things grow horizontally. Less light, the plants reach for the sky. I had better success with the hair algae- did you trim well before blackout?

[pedietz]

I did a really good cleaning before the blackout...
as for the hair algae, every sword leaf was covered...so I could only get so much of it.

I'll probably do a 2nd blackout in the coming weeks, once I get my N-P-K straightened out. Flourish N and K are arriving today.

I'm also replacing the Emperor 260 with a Rena XP2 tomorrow.

Hopefully the sponges and polishing pads will screen the water better and trap the water-borne algae particles preventing future outbreaks.

[fishpoop]

I'v got control of my alage, all but the BBA, is there no cure for the BBA? it grows on everything but least on the plants. I dont have any slow growing plants because I know the BBA will kill them! Should I just pull the plants+ fish out and bleach the the tank and equipment?
I HATE BBA It is probably on the plants in small patches and will come back any way.

[aquaverde]

Fishpoop, are you injecting CO2?

[fishpoop]

yes,
Do think blackouts will harm the BBA :?:
I dont think anything can stop that stuff :twisted:

[aquaverde]

Ok, since this is the Tom Barr method we're talking about, you need CO2 levels at around 25-30ppm during the entire photosynthesis period as your first parameter to correct with BBA.

What's your CO2 levels, how often do you check, is this yeast or pressurized system?