Leaving my algae in the dark

Tom,

You used to suggest to add good amounts of N and P to the darkened
tank. I followed your advice two times and it worked great. Now I
see that you just suggest 50% water changes before and after ther
black out. I bet that would work too, but adding N and P seemed to
work very well.

The plants accumulate the nutrients in the dark but the algae can't,
right? So a nice big water change after the blackout really starves
the algae that remained after the blackout. But the plants are fine
and ready to photosynthesise. At least that is how it's supposed to
work according to your previous advice, and that is what I have seen -
good results doing what you suggested it.

--Nikolay