live rock hair algae

skelator · Feb 3, 2014

hey guys i got one 5 lb rock that has a good amount of green hair algae. its really only on that one rock. i just decided to take it out as i have a ton of rock in there anyway. what should i do with the rock? do i just let it dry out in the air? after a while would it be ok to drop back in the tank if i wanted to?

Longnose Hawkfish · Feb 3, 2014

You could put it into a bucket filled with saltwater to help prevent the beneficial bacteria from dieing, and make it completely dark to kill the algae.

Reefing Madness · Feb 3, 2014

Throw it in a bucket of bleach and water, it'll kill the rock and everything on it, but if you don't need it for biological, then that'll do it.

skelator · Feb 3, 2014

its weird that that one rock has so much of it. i just inspected the tank and say its here and there in small spots. im not sure it if got spread somehow from that one rock. ive had the tank up 5 months and everythings been really good so far. im just trying to stay ahead of things.

i got my rock from an existing tank so it was established. i do have 25 lbs of nice white dead rock that i took out when i got this stuff. what do you guys reccomend? i got 4 mexican turbo snails when i first noticed it.

Reefing Madness · Feb 3, 2014

Checking the phospahte levels.
Sea Hares eat that stuff up also. Turbos will help you. Running 3 day lights out will kill it. But if you don't find out why you have it, it will come right back.

skelator · Feb 3, 2014

i saw the sea hare at the lfs but they were so big i was worried they knock my corals over. will the lights out hurt the coral? also is running the lights 8 hours bad? i thought it would be good for the coral.

Longnose Hawkfish · Feb 3, 2014

Turning your lights off for three days shouldn't hurt your corals, but die off from algae will cause unwanted nutrients so water changes would be good during the three days. But as mentioned, if you do blackout but don't fix source of the problem algae will come back

Reefing Madness · Feb 4, 2014

If your running a skimmer, you won't have to worry about water quality when the 3 day lights out is done. The skimmer will take care of it, but keep an eye on it, as the third day will fill it with ugly stuff.

skelator · Feb 4, 2014

Ok I have a API phosphate test kit but recently I've been reading that phosphate kits are very in accurate. I tested everything on Sunday I had 0 nitrate 0 phosphate, calcium was high to my suprise and my ak was 8.

I do a five gal change once a week on my 46 gal tank and my nitrates always read 0.