HA on LR

[ChristianJock07]

Just picked up a few very nice pieces of Tonga and Figi LR today from a local reefer that is getting out of the hobby.

The rock is gorgeous but does have a bit of HA on it. He scrubbed it before taking it out of his tank and I just put it in my temporary LR tank until I get my display tank up and going.

My question is:

Should I go ahead and scrub the LR again.... or since the water I put it in is completely fresh just do partial water changes in it 2x a week and keep the lights off until I get my display up and running?

If I actually commit to it, I should have my display up and going by next weekend or the weekend after. Depending on how much modifying I do.



Edit: I should add... I did recieve a couple of hitchhiker rics on a couple of the LR pieces, so they may survive, or they may not. If I leave the lights off, i'm sure they'll die off. But if I leave the lights on the HA may get out of control. I never had to deal with HA with my other tanks I had in the past. So a bit unsure what to do. I remember reading a couple of years ago various opinions about scrubbing the rocks, keeping lights off, water changes, etc etc.....

[hansmatt]

I'd do the lights out...unless it's cherry & covered with coralline, it will not hurt it at all (except hikers)...also start it out even in the dark with a bunch of snails & crabs to chomp it down.

[ChristianJock07]

Yeh, it is covered with coralline... gorgeous rock. I don't want to introduce any cleaners just yet since it's 100% fresh made water in the temp tank and hasn't cycled. Would probably just be a death sentence.

[schneijt]

Some recent articles that I've read have suggested that boosting your Magnesium helps to kill off hair algae. It's suggested that boosting the Magnesium to something like 2200 (I think that's what they said) screws with HA's ability to photosynthesize or something... It messes up something that it needs to survive, and it literally withers away and dies...

So, if you want to give that a try, you could keep light on the rock. I wouldn't recommend boosting magnesium in a reef tank without careful monitoring, but in a small bin while you're just holding the rock, it wouldn't hurt anything to raise the Mg and see if it helps kill off the HA. I'd also scrub it and put some hermits and maybe an emerald crab or two in there to eat a bit of it possibly. It sounds like the rock is already cured by the other guy, and that you currently have it in saltwater. So, I don't think there should be a huge cycle issue or anything. And hermits and emeralds are pretty resilient anyway, so I don't think they'd have a problem dealing with a mini cycle if it were to happen...

Just my $.02
Joe

[ChristianJock07]

Here is a more accurate post which I put up on RC. I haven't had any replies on it yet.


Greetings all.

After a year hiatus from reefing and moving to Wisconsin from Florida, I have decided to set up a small tank until my wife and I purchase a new house.

With previous tanks I never had an issue with GHA, but I do know the basics of how to battle it if it sets in. GFO's , Scrubbing, Blowing off / siphoning, CUC, etc etc etc.

But what I am unsure of is how to prevent it on a brand new system that has yet to cycle with LR that does have GHA.

Explanation:

I am currently modifying a 30g Finnex M-Tank to use as a display tank for a few months until we get a new house to set up my large tank.

While I am working on the Finnex, I have set up a 29g tank (I guess you could say quarantine tank) to house LR in since I got a great deal today from a local reefer that is getting out of the hobby.

I picked up 20lb of gorgeous looking Toga and Figi LR earlier today, but they do have a bit of GHA on it. The guy I picked it up from scrubbed it as best as he good while taking it out of his tank, but there is still a bit left.

With new water (RO/DI w/ TDS = 0) and nothing else in the tank other than 2 K3's and Heater, should I just take the rock out, scrub it down and clean it up the best I can, dose the water with something, or just let it run it's course? Since the water has yet to cycle, I'm sure once the phosphates get higher, this will cause the GHA to really get out of control.

Also, I do have a MH 175 light over this which I will not be running while this GHA is present. However, there is so much corraline growth on this rock that I would hate to lose it.

I'm trying to avoid a CUC right now since nothing has cycled in this quarantine tank and it would take nothing to just take the rock out and scrub it down.

Finally, any reason to run a skimmer on this since it's basically just cycling and housing the LR?


Thoughts or suggestion greatly appreciated.


thanks,
Chris

[ChristianJock07]

Originally Posted by schneijt

Some recent articles that I've read have suggested that boosting your Magnesium helps to kill off hair algae. It's suggested that boosting the Magnesium to something like 2200 (I think that's what they said) screws with HA's ability to photosynthesize or something... It messes up something that it needs to survive, and it literally withers away and dies...

So, if you want to give that a try, you could keep light on the rock. I wouldn't recommend boosting magnesium in a reef tank without careful monitoring, but in a small bin while you're just holding the rock, it wouldn't hurt anything to raise the Mg and see if it helps kill off the HA. I'd also scrub it and put some hermits and maybe an emerald crab or two in there to eat a bit of it possibly. It sounds like the rock is already cured by the other guy, and that you currently have it in saltwater. So, I don't think there should be a huge cycle issue or anything. And hermits and emeralds are pretty resilient anyway, so I don't think they'd have a problem dealing with a mini cycle if it were to happen...

Just my $.02
Joe

Thanks Joe,

ATM i'm trying to avoid having to dose with anything and don't want to have to purchase a GFO. I figure since the LR isn't in my main tank yet, I could just scrub the hell outta it, blow it off, scrub some more, siphon and put back into the quarantine tank for a couple of days, rinse and repeat.

The main thing I want to avoid is losing the beautiful corraline and anything beneficial.

So I'll figure something out within the next day or two.

[bcrum51]

hair algae is a pain you can run actinics thats what I did and the hair algae hated it but my coraline seemed to do just fine actually notcied some growth on a rock today of new coraline

[tangmang23]

i would think that as long as your water is fresh and mixed with salt then the coraline will be fine with no light. In the amount of time it will be without light, the rock should be just fine. In most cases, rics are hardy enough and may survive this as well. If the algae is not gone by then, I would focus on adding a few emerald crabs and other crabs, as they do a dang good job on eating that stuff up. If that still doesnt solve it, then give the magnesium a shot. its just in a holding tank, so no worries on messing anything up if it doesnt work. After all this and still not gone, id add a tang, if your tank is big enough lol.

[schneijt]

Yeah, the thing to remember is that you have the rock in a temporary holding state. So you could dose a chemical or whatever, and not have to worry about its effects on your tank since it'll be moved to a tank full of fresh saltwater when your tank is ready to get the rock in it.

I definitely would put a few emerald crabs in with the rock, as they should help you out by picking at the HA and such that is on the rock. As far as the GFO, you really don't need to buy anything other than the GFO (which is very inexpensive). It just needs the water to flow through it, so you could even run GFO in a simple hang-on filter that people have laying around from an old freshwater tank or whatever. Since the rock came from an established tank with a bit of a HA problem, it probably has some organics (namely phosphate) built up deep inside its pores. GFO would remove any phosphate that may leach out of the rock while you're holding it for your display tank, and phosphate is one of the biggest "problem factors" for HA.

-Joe

[ChristianJock07]

Yeh, I've made up some fresh water.

So tomorrow I'm going to do a water change and give the rock a good scrubbing.

I do have an emperor 280 laying around I used to run on the 29 (which is the quarantine tank) that I could put some GFO in.

I'll do that and give it a few days to see how it does and try to avoid investing in a CUC that may die off due to the cycle. Although I do know scarlets and emeralds are fairly hardy, I'd rather forego that option for now.

Now to research GFO. I've seen the term thrown around quite a bit and read its' used in phospate reactors, but never really looked into what it really in. Now that Joe said it can be used in a hob filter, i'm curious.


Edited: Found this interestig info: http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-09/rhf/index.php

[tangmang23]

tanks for the article. I read the reefkeeping articles pretty much all of the time lol. There always full of great info. If your set on avoiding CUC members then good luck getting everything squared away. how well will a reactor work with GFO? Isnt GFO a clay??