hair algae questions

[corsuz]

Ok, we are in the process of breaking down our 29 gallon and have some really nice live rock (good coloring and nice "bridge" pieces in it that I would like to reuse in my 125. Problem is it's covered in green hair algae. The main tank is algae free and I don't want to move this problem from one tank to another. Snails won't touch it, emeralds and hawaiian won't touch it. All of the fish have been removed from the tank and all of the inverts have also been removed. So it's just rock and maybe a few sand snails that we couldn't find. Is there a way to treat this rock in the current tank to kill the algae and then be able to move it to the 125 reef? As I said there is nothing left in the tank other than the rock and LS. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks.

 

[jjlittle]

to kill it you could just cover the tank from all lighting it would then die off for it need lighting to live. I have also heard of people pressure washing it to remove but I think it would do more damage to the live bacteria doing that but not 100% sure for I know one LFS which does it to all there rock that comes in.

 

[corsuz]

We've stopped the lights as of today and we'll see how that goes. I thought I read somewhere that you could hypo (?) the tank?

 

[jjlittle]

Hypo my work I have no idea on that one not sure of hair algeas needs in regards to salinity. It should n't take to long to kill with not lighting a week i would think would do the trick.

 

[corsuz]

thanks. i'll update this in a couple days and let you know. I put an couple of old towels to keep it completely dark in there. keeping my fingers crossed.

 

[bigarn]

Since you're taking the 29 down you can scrub the algae with a brush right in the tank.

 

[stonynut]

you could put it in a rubbermade bin with a skimmer and no lights... circulate it for a while (month or so)... the algae will begin to die... mal-nutrients will spike... and beneficial bacteria will begin to consume the waste (and your skimmer will go nuts)
you may lose some of the beneficial critters in your rock this way as well. if you wanna keep that from happening.. do regular water changes with ro/di
to keep it from happening in the future... run a strong skimmer, keep a low fish load, feed sparingly, use ro/di, do frequent water changes, and keep an eye on po4/no3.

 

[corsuz]

want to dry and not scrub it, it's got lots of good corraline growth underneath the algae. i'm going to stick with the lights off for a while and see what happens. As I said there's nothing else in the tank and we're getting ready to break it down anyway.
we do all ro/di water (i live in nj...my fishies would die if I put my tap water in) and monitor all levels, etc. this 29 gallon tank was just supposed to be hospital/qt tank for when we were getting the large tank going. we never thought of keeping it long term so don't have anything great running it.

 

[indigorn]

I have seen postings on the message boards for this very large slug (of course I forgot the name of it)that will eat the hair algae in a matter of days. I also saw a smaller version of it at my lfs. It did an amazing job for thier tanks.

 

[_nix_]

Originally Posted by indigorn
I have seen postings on the message boards for this very large slug (of course I forgot the name of it)that will eat the hair algae in a matter of days. I also saw a smaller version of it at my lfs. It did an amazing job for thier tanks.
It's a sea hare. Yes, the MOW down hair algae. Just be prepared to feed them Nori sheets, or some other algae once the hair is all gone.