URGENT help needed with hair algae

[yunabug]

An extremely nice lady just gave me 25lbs of live rock for free. HUGE pieces of live rock and absolutely beautiful.
Only problem.... they are more or less covered with hair algae, and there are signs of red slime forming.
I'm still cycling my tank. All I have in there right now are my three little rocks and three hermits.
What can I do to get the hair algae and general nasty stuff of this new rock before I put it in? Or do I just need to put it in, leave my lights of for a few days and let it die off?

 

[big]

Light starvation it is the right idea. But I would suggest doing it in a separate dark heated container with a power-head.
Putting into a new DT system with Hair on it is just asking for more issues. Some will most likely show up anyway are the tank goes threw the "maturing process" along with other unwanted things too. Keep it wet continuously to prevent die off of other beneficial critters...... After you are sure all the Hair Algae had died, clean scrub,or rinse it well to remove any junk in saltwater (keeping the rock wet) to keep from needing to cycle it again.
This is a time to not rush things. By the time this process is done the DT should also be done its cylcle. Then you can safely introduce this good clean and cycled rock to the DT.......Good Luck......... Warren

 

[yunabug]

I really don't have anything else to put it in, or another powerhead besides the one I have in the tank right now.
I went ahead and put the rock in the tank, if only for tonight. I didn't want it to sit in a bucket with wet newspaper over it all night.
I'm pretty sure this won't help, but I made sure to put the side of the rocks with the alge on the bottom. I'm not gonna turn my lights on at all tomorrow.
Any other suggestions? I really don;t mind if it means my cycle will take longer. I don't plan on adding fish until after Christmas XD

 

[big]

Originally Posted by yunabug
http:///forum/post/2800194
I really don't have anything else to put it in, or another powerhead besides the one I have in the tank right now.
I went ahead and put the rock in the tank, if only for tonight. I didn't want it to sit in a bucket with wet newspaper over it all night.
I'm pretty sure this won't help, but I made sure to put the side of the rocks with the alge on the bottom. I'm not gonna turn my lights on at all tomorrow.
Any other suggestions? I really don;t mind if it means my cycle will take longer. I don't plan on adding fish until after Christmas XD
OK, Then that will work. Patience is truly is a virtue in this obsession. Just keep the light at a bare minimum, do several partial changes after the crap dies off and thing will work out...........

 

[yunabug]

Oh, I have incredible patience when it comes to living things. The last thing I would want to do is to rush into this and kill some poor helpless fish. I would feel terrible.
But I thank you so so much for your speedy help! About how long would you reccomend me run my lights? For the past few days I have only run them for like, 3 hours, because I was trying to cut down on the brown diatom outbreak I had.

 

[taz_12777]

You should try to manually pull off as much as possible also. This will help cut down the time to get rid of it.

 

[big]

Originally Posted by yunabug
http:///forum/post/2800202
Oh, I have incredible patience when it comes to living things. The last thing I would want to do is to rush into this and kill some poor helpless fish. I would feel terrible.
But I thank you so so much for your speedy help! About how long would you reccomend me run my lights? For the past few days I have only run them for like, 3 hours, because I was trying to cut down on the brown diatom outbreak I had.
kEEP YOUR LIGHING CUT BACK TILL SEVERAL DAYS AFTER THE HAIR SEEMS TO BE GONE, Opps sorry cap lock was on,,,,,,,,
The Brown Algae is Diatoms. It almost always shows up in a new system. Do you use RO?? Without RO in most cases they will keep coming back because the nutrients in the tap water( mostly Silica based). The Silicas keep providing food for them. That is one of the main ( but not the only)reasons we need to use RO water. Every time you top off the tank or do a partial change you just feed the little buggers more. Most anyone that ever had extensive fresh water tank set ups used their tiny skeletons as the best filter media around in Diatomaceous earth filters. They are tiny tiny critters. Look at this link. They are a very interesting subject to learn about. SFF should not complain too much about this .com............ just good info....
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...=Google+Search

 

[big]

Originally Posted by TAZ_12777
http:///forum/post/2800214
You should try to manually pull off as much as possible also. This will help cut down the time to get rid of it.
Yea, What Taz said I should have remembered to tell ya too!!!

Off to bed for me , I will keep your post tracked......... Warren

 

[yunabug]

Ok, I will keep the lights off for a few days ^_^
Unfortunately, I had to fill my tank with treated tap water. Stupid walmart in this backwards town didn't have a R/O unit @_@ I do have a jug of treated tap that I have let sit for a couple of weeks. I was told that if you let treated tap set for a while, it would help out.