Can GHA spores live through darkness?

[Smoke-Town]

So if I take algae covered rock from an established system and keep it in a heated and circulated brute can for idk 2 or 4 weeks or whatever and put that in a pristine environment afterward with no algae but offer enough no3 and po4 to grow algae... will that algae come back? Or will it grow some bacterial stuff instead because the spores were also eradicated in the darkness?

 

[Dan_P]

So if I take algae covered rock from an established system and keep it in a heated and circulated brute can for idk 2 or 4 weeks or whatever and put that in a pristine environment afterward with no algae but offer enough no3 and po4 to grow algae... will that algae come back? Or will it grow some bacterial stuff instead because the spores were also eradicated in the darkness?

2-4 weeks might not be long enough to guarantee success.

 

[bushdoc]

Most algae can form spores and become dormant, so if conditions become favorable, they will resurgence. GHA may not be the first algae to start growing on your rock after blackout, but you will always have them in your tank, even it they will not be visible.

 

[djf91]

I’m curious about this too. I recently took my refugium offline from my main system and started a blackout in order to kill off the GHA. It’s been 3 weeks now. I’m wondering if 2 months would be enough before slowly ramping up lighting again.

 

[Waters]

I posted something a while back about 40 or so pounds of hair algae infested rock I kept in a brute can in the dark just to keep my livestock alive while I swapped tanks, which took a couple of months. The only light was an overhead basement light that was flicked on for 10-15 minutes a day. The hair algae actually flourished and grew with no light and very little nutrients.

 

[djf91]

All of the GHA, cyano, and what were maybe Dino’s died off within days of me starting the blackout and now all of the rock looks perfectly clean. I just don’t want it to come back. (Sorry, don’t mean to hijack this thread)