Bah - The Green Stuff

[Lion007]

Hiya, well as the title suggests, i have green algae
(thought it was too good to be true - 3 years of no problems and now with my new setup, snails & algae )

I only have my lights on for 4 hours in the morning, then 5 hours at night, and we havnt had any sun! lol
Ive heard a 3 day blackout is good for clearing it - but will this be ok for my live plants?

At the moment its not too bad - theres a few small blooms on the tank walls & the water has a green tint, but not cloudy. I'm going to starve my plec for a night or 2 to see if he eats any of it aswell.

Any other suggestions (i dont want to use chemicals)

Cheers

 

[SnBMeg]

Your plants should be fine with a few days of darkness, though if they begin to look sickly then it might be best to go back to your normal routine a bit early--but most likely they won't have any problems.

Do several water changes over the next few days. The water may only be tinted now, but it could very quickly begin going opaque. The additional water changes will also do a lot to help with removing the excess nutrients that the algae are feeding on. (If your tap water normally has a measurable amount of nitrate, it might be best to use bottled water instead.)

Just before you do the water changes, or while you're doing them, scrape the algae off of the walls, and suck up as much as you can with the vacuum so that it doesn't just settle elsewhere.

Chemicals should definitely only be a last resort.