hair algae help

[skiergd011013]

my new 55 gallon reef is in its cycling stage its been filled for 3 weeks and i got 2 pieces of cocktail shrimp as an ammonia source in the water. i got 2 chunks of liverock in the tank right now. one of them had a very little amount of brown hair algae on it when i bought it. after i put it in my tank it soon become covered in brown hair algae and it spread to my other rock. i got 50 lbs of rock due any day in the mail and im nervous to add all that rock in fear that it will ALL be covered in the hair and i will be overwhelmed with the stuff. is this completley normal and does the brown hair algae go away on its own i.e dissolve into the water. i want to do a water change with a siphon and suck out some of the algae will water changes interfere with my cycle?

[Vj]

Sounds like you need to cook the rock, definately dont introduce any other live rock into a tank with HA. You might as well cook the new rock that comes at the same time. I wouldnt put the new rock in the tank even after taking out the other rock with HA on it.

I would keep ALL light sources out of the tank while your cooking, let it finish its cycle. I believe cooking takes around 6-8 weeks. This should be plenty of time to get rid of any HA left in the main tank if its strangled of light. I know it sucks to wait this long, but belive me that time will rid you of tons of problems.

Your lucky in the fact that your having this problem before youve already set it all up.

[skiergd011013]

i dont understand what cook the rock means. so just leave my current rocks in my tank and when my new 50 lbs of rock come just dont put those in the tank yet? dont run my lights and the Hair algae will die? i dont think i should be doing water changes because i need my ammonia and nitrite to peak to complete my cycle. i will just be topping off my tank with water from evap. the hair algae is nasty!

[Vj]

Basicly take all of your live rock, the new and the old and put it in 5 gallon buckets or a trash can full of saltwater with a good strong powerhead for circulation and let it sit with no light.

Once a week you need to shake the rock out and do 100% water change, do this for 1-2 months and you should have clean, cooked rock.

What your trying to do is rid the rock of all algae and detritus. I know its not the answer most people want to hear but unfortunately its the best way to go about it in my experience. Hair algae is the bane of all tanks and once you have it in an established tank its VERY VERY hard to get rid of. Cooking your rocks will reduce the chance for nuisance algae blooms by 10 fold.

[skiergd011013]

well i belive the new rock comming is dry rock she sells alot of it and said this is clean rock there is no vagabonds on it. so what im going to do is just take the 2 pieces of rock out of my tank that i know have hair on them and put them in a ten gallon tank in my dark basement with a powerhead and just shake em and change water weekly(tap water to save money) for a long time. as for the new rock just leave it out of my tank hopefully the residual algae will die off during the cycle. since i will be absent of liverock during my cycle will the bacteria have places to grow like on the sand and glass etc? i can still cycle my tank even though its pretty empty?

[guitar8222]

You will still want to seed and cook the dry rock as well. If you want to kill off the algae, spraying on hydrogen peroxide will kill it and it will fall off in two days. You will still need to cook the rock because the algae is feeding off of the detritus in the rocks.

Since your tank is new, I would turn off the lights and just use your main tank to cook the rocks. It will smell some, but not more than it does already. You need to use salt water to cook the rocks and your tap water may have a lot of phosphate and such in it, so it may not be as productive as RO to use near the end of the cooking. Also I would wait to add sand until your rock is cured or else the sand will just absorb all of the detritus from the rocks.

[ktellerman]

Originally Posted by Vj

Sounds like you need to cook the rock, definately dont introduce any other live rock into a tank with HA. You might as well cook the new rock that comes at the same time. I wouldnt put the new rock in the tank even after taking out the other rock with HA on it.

I would keep ALL light sources out of the tank while your cooking, let it finish its cycle. I believe cooking takes around 6-8 weeks. This should be plenty of time to get rid of any HA left in the main tank if its strangled of light. I know it sucks to wait this long, but belive me that time will rid you of tons of problems.

Your lucky in the fact that your having this problem before youve already set it all up.

Hello - following this thread, I've realized I have a problem... I have set up a 28 gal. NanoCube with LR & LS. It's been up since August, cycled, levels are all good and CUC is in. HA is starting to run rampant! I use DI water for top offs & water changes. Nitrates & phosphates are low. What are my options for getting rid of this stuff?

[parnapy4]

I just had a terrible HA prob .....terrible terrible stuff. But i added Pura Phosban and 3 weeks later it is gone. Best stuff ever.

[ibanez2k]

I've found that HA is actually not very difficult to get rid of for good. You just have to find the root of your phosphate problem. When your phosphates are gone, your HA stops growing. Scrub all the HA off your rocks, get your water quality up, and you'll never see the problem again. Unfortunately if your rocks and sand are already bound up with phosphates then there is really not much you can do but cook it out.

[Salty O'Shen]

if cooking isn't an option, lawnmower blenny will keep it cropped until you can cook it out