Paint them black?

[hubby11]

I have a few self watering 5-gallon buckets going.  I am using pickle buckets from Firehouse Subs, a solid red.  Is it necessary to paint the bottoms to limit algea growth?
 

 

[Peter S]

I have a few self watering 5-gallon buckets going.  I am using pickle buckets from Firehouse Subs, a solid red.  Is it necessary to paint the bottoms to limit algea growth?
 

Either that or you could wrap some aluminum foil around them.

 

[hubby11]

Thanks for the reply, I did hear about using foil as an alternative to painting the buckets.  I guess my question should have been, how important is it to block sunlight from the water reservoir?  Is the effort justified?  Does it depend on how fast the plant uses the water?
 
 

 

[LocalFart]

It's to stop algae from growing from what I believe