Hair Algae Question

reefbobc · Aug 30, 2011

Hey guys, I just purchased a bunch of live rock that is in a large rubbermaid can waiting for me to get my tank set up and ready. It is nice rock but has quite a lot of Green Hair Algae on it. Looking for ideas on how to best git rid of it before it goes into the tank. Critters? Chemicals? I'm open to suggestions. Thanks!

Sasquatch · Aug 30, 2011

Id suggest letting it do its thing, as its cleaning up the nutrient loaded rock its a good thing, keep it lighted,warm and nutrient free, keep up manual removal as it eats up what dies off, when its gone you'll have clean rock

Krish · Aug 30, 2011

Sasquatch said:
Id suggest letting it do its thing, as its cleaning up the nutrient loaded rock its a good thing, keep it lighted,warm and nutrient free, keep up manual removal as it eats up what dies off, when its gone you'll have clean rock

Agreed or you have two other options. Manually remove what you can off of the rock before putting it in the tank or if you don't care for any of it, just kill the rock (making it base rock) and re-seed it with something from another tank. The thing with hair algae is that almost everyone encounters it at some point during the cycle and maturing of the tank so letting it run it's course may be the way to go. I've seen many tanks that look a forest that cleaned right up over time. You will be using the algae for nutrient export as suggested (just like a refugium) and as you manually export some of it each week, eventually it should stop growing when the tank starts to balance out granted you are "feeding" it with excess nutrients. I know some tangs can do the nutrient exporting for you as they graze all day so depending on the size tank you have, a tang may be an option in keeping the algae trimmed down for you as the tank finds it's balance. It's not a "cure" for hair algae, but it will "mask" the problem for you in the meantime as your tank balances out so you don't have to look at it during this time.

Just a few thoughts.

07FocusST · Aug 30, 2011

About 90% of Reefers don't care for GHA and never want to see it in their DT. Me, personally, I intentionally grow some to allow pods to have a home away from home (Flourish in my DT along with my refugium). This way I use less LR in the tank but maintain enough live food souce for my mandarin(s). I do recommend a DSB in either your Fuge or DT. My Yellow Eye Kole Tang loved to eat away at my GHA too

Sasquatch · Aug 30, 2011

07FocusST said:
About 90% of Reefers don't care for GHA and never want to see it in their DT. Me, personally, I intentionally grow some to allow pods to have a home away from home (Flourish in my DT along with my refugium). This way I use less LR in the tank but maintain enough live food souce for my mandarin(s). I do recommend a DSB in either your Fuge or DT. My Yellow Eye Kole Tang loved to eat away at my GHA too

not often I hear someone else that doesn't mind a bit of algae! Ive said before most reefs are like an English garden (or fruit stand at the grocery store) weed weed weed and only keep the roses lol