General Care Discussion :: Black out kill algea?

[rangerman2003]

My water keeps turning green as soon as I place it in there and it wont go away... my dock keeps growing algea on it also.. If I black out speedys tank for a day or two will kill that, since I know from here that algea needs light to grow??

[marisa]

I don't know if a day or two will do it, but last year I found it necessary to dry tank my RES for about a week (hydration was in a different container) and all lights were off in his tank during that time. When I turned them back on, the algae was magically completely gone.

I've heard of some people turning tank lights off for a few hours in mid-afternoon in an attempt to discourage algae, but don't know how successful the outcome was.

How big is the tank, how much water is in it, and how often is the water changed and filter cleaned?

[rangerman2003]

as of now its a 20 gal, little over half full.. lately trying to get rid of this algae im doing 25% every 2 days and filter 1 a week, its a 40gal filter... Its a small filter but im working on that

[rangerman2003]

Well guys I said screw it and went and completly cleaned the tank after putting speedy in a temp home for a while.. Then before putting the old filter back in and letting it all happen again I took a drive to the store and came home with a Rena XP3.. hope it will solve my problems