Saving my live rock

elohssa

elohssa

New Member
Last weekend I tore down my 37 FOWLR. I'd been fighting a losing battle with hair algae for the past couple of years. I've taken EVERYTHING out of tank and given it a good scrubbing.
Now I have 40-45lbs of live rock soaking in the tank with RO/DI treated salt water a heater and a power head. I'm trying to starve out the hair algae.
My questions are, should I have any lights on, and if so how much? Should I continue to pull the rock out and scrub it as the hair algae grows? Should I run a skimmer?
The rocks I'm trying to save are beautiful pieces covered in coraline. I am open to any suggestions you people might have.
Thank you.
 
beth

beth

Administrator
Staff member
What do you mean by scrubbing the LR?
I can't say that that was benefical at all.
The cause of the hair algae wasn't the rock, it was something in the way that you have your tank set up. Lighting, water, etc.
LR isn't just pretty rock, it is teaming with benficial bacteria as well as microfauna. You scubbing just killed all that.
 
jlem

jlem

Active Member
Maybe it means ALOHA and they accidently hit the S key twice:D :notsure:
Can you describe in detail your maintenance routine and, feeding schudule, anything that you dose, and water circulation and lets see if we can figure out why you have had such a hair algae problem.
 
elohssa

elohssa

New Member
My set up was a 37 gal FOWLR (40-45lbs LR). It had an Eclipse 3 for Lighting and filtration, my first mistake. I was able to modify it to install a Bak Pak II skimmer and a 55w retro pc. I had 3 fish a Perc a Lemonpeel Angel (dwarf) and an Orchid Dottyback. I was using RO from the grocery store.I just learned recently RO filtering does not remove phosphate. I recently bought an RO/DI unit. I'm pretty sure I was over feeding (hard for me not to).
When I say I scrubbed the rocks, I mean that I used a soft plastic bristle brush to remove the hair algae.
So back to my questions.
Should I have light on the rocks?
Should I run a skimmer?
I think I know how you feel about scrubbing the rocks.
Thanks again.
 
lestregus

lestregus

Member
if you dont have coral, don't run the lights for several days.
if you have coral, run the lights
run the skimmer as much as possible
since you are trying to save the live rock continue to pull it off the rocks.
 
lestregus

lestregus

Member
no problem...also, you may want to get a lawnmower blenny, these guys eat hair..
this isnt the technical way to solve the problem, as it just masks it but it works well :D
 
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