hair algae

[mryg15]

When we went to buy live rock, we had two choices... red slime algae or green hair algae. The rock really doesn't have anything visibly living on it besides the hair algae. If we do something to get rid of the hair algae will it kill what makes our live rock live?

 

[krishj39]

Hmm, doesn't sound like good live rock to me. The way I suggest you get rid of hair algae in this case is to put the rock in a dark place to let it cycle. The algae will eventually die from lack of light. However, I'd highly recommend buying LR online instead of where ever you are getting it from. I believe I got extremely good rock from Tonga, but I have always heard that the Fuji rock sold by SWF is good.

 

[sterling]

How much of this LR did you buy?? What you should do is get a toothbrush and scrub the hair algae off under hot water. Yes, you'll kill other stuff on the rock that the hot water hits, but trust me on this one, you DO NOT want to introduce hair algae into your tank.
You're hearing this from someone who has had experience with ridding my 125 gallon reef tank of hair algae. Took 8 months, alot tears, work and dumping over 50 lbs of rock.

 

[mryg15]

I got it from our local pet store, its Fiji rock, and there are a couple fish living in the tank at the store.

 

[mryg15]

If i run it under warm water and it kills off everthing that makes it live rock what is the point of buying live rock in the first place if im just going to turn it into base? We only bought about 7 lbs and 30 lbs of base rock to start because live rock is so expensive. We are in no hurry to get fish in it so we figured we could take the time to let it seed to the base.

 

[krishj39]

Yes, don't run it under hot water. That will kill everything that you paid for. May as well have just dug up rocks from your yard. You don't want to start off with a hair algae epidemic, but you also won't be able to eliminate it from your tank anyway. If the conditions are right (wrong), hair algae will grow in your tank, regardless. Scrubbing the rock with a toothbrush is a good idea. I'd still basically do a quarantine of the rock in a dark place, be sure you get rid of the hair algae, then add it to the tank. You can do that in your tank, if you want, if you don't have any corals you can keep the lights off, or only on for a few hours and this will also get rid of it.

 

[mryg15]

Originally posted by krishj39
I'd still basically do a quarantine of the rock in a dark place, be sure you get rid of the hair algae, then add it to the tank. You can do that in your tank, if you want, if you don't have any corals you can keep the lights off, or only on for a few hours and this will also get rid of it.
If i keep the rock in a dark place will it kill off the bactera that makes the rock live?

 

[krishj39]

Not at all. These bacteria only need a supply of ammonia and nitrite to stay alive. They should get enough of that from the die off that the rock will have.

 

[krishj39]

Mryg15, What did you end up doing? How's it working out?

 

[mryg15]

We ended up leaving the lights out for a couple of days and covering it. When we uncovered it the hair was all brown and white. We brushed it off with a soft toothbrush. Its not quite all gone but pretty close.