Today I’m showing you how I turned an algae-riddled planted tank into a crystal-clear, algae-free scape in basically a week. I’m talking hair algae, black beard algae (BBA), slimy algae—the whole annoying lineup. I’ve tried heaps of different “algae fixes” over time, but this is the first method I’ve used that reliably wipes out a mass of algae fast, and it’s something I’m genuinely making my go-to from now on. The process is simple but pretty full-on: I drain a big chunk of water, manually remove what algae I can, then hit the tank with a triple-dose of liquid carbon (I used Seachem Flourish Excel). I dilute it in a pipette first so it disperses more evenly, then I run an airstone for extra oxygen and flow while it sits for about 15–20 minutes. After that, I do another big water change to bring levels back to a safer range, and then the real secret sauce—an aggressive 5-day blackout. Plants usually handle the no-light period better than algae, and when I came back, the tank was pretty much spotless. Big takeaway: killing algae is only half the job. In my case, the outbreak started because I overdosed nutrients (too much liquid fert), so you’ve still gotta fix the root cause or it’ll just come back.