Cover Aquarium Glass At Night?

My aquarium is placed in a way to be viewed from the kitchen or the living room.
This means light gets in from 3 locations usually.

This was never a problem until I switched to dirt, which made it super easy for everything to grow, including algae.
It didn't help that I tossed a bunch of my plants during the switch, letting the algae compete with the remaining plants.

Anyway, now I want to cover my aquarium completely at night, like, total blackout with curtains or something.
Does anyone else do this? Or is turning the overhead lights usually enough to not affect the plants and algae in the aquarium?

 

I haven't done it... but did it for birds for years. It wouldn't be a bad thing to try. You may instead just up the CO2 levels though so the plants take more of the nutrients instead of the algae though.

 

I only use excel since it's supposed to be a low-light tank. Is this enough to up CO2?
My tank is a 55 gallon so I add two capfuls daily.

 

2 capfulls? That seems to be a lot. I use 1 cap in my 45 and it is growing out of control. So CO2 shouldn't be the issue.

What fast growing plants are in your tank?

 

2 capfulls? That seems to be a lot. I use 1 cap in my 45 and it is growing out of control. So CO2 shouldn't be the issue.

What fast growing plants are in your tank?

I put in 6 frogbits and 4 bunches (about 20 stalks) of bacopa monnierI (sp).
I already have a ton of crypts in there, some java moss, some other type of grass that I forget, an two anubias and two java ferns.

 

What percentage are you planted? You may need some more fast growers.. only the bacopa and frogbit are fast growers. You may just have too many nutrients and need more plants lol.

 

What percentage are you planted? You may need some more fast growers.. only the bacopa and frogbit are fast growers. You may just have too many nutrients and need more plants lol.

I'll take a picture tomorrow and post it so you can see in context.
My LFS said to not buy anymore frogbit as they propagate quickly on their own. He said I also didn't want to cover the light source with too many frogbits floating around.

 

 

How recent is the build?

 

How recent is the build?

My tank is pushing a year now. The dirt about 2 months and the new plants last weekend. The frog-bit and bacopa.

 

My solution is a paint tarp for now. Hopefully the plants grow enough to out compete the brown algae.