cleaning rock

[StephNewman]

Some of the rock I bought from a fellow reefer has what I am assuming is hair algae growing on it, some brown and some green. How should I go about cleaning this rock to remove the algae.

 

[sirreal63]

That is always a fun one. Scrub a dub dub.

Honestly it is very hard to not have some hair algae no matter what you do. I would scrub it off the best you can. It can lay dormant as can most other algaes and pop up when the lighting and nutrients are right. I had a bad case of red turf algae that was dormant on my rock for a year...when I added Halides it sprouted up and took over. For a year there was no trace of it then it was everywhere.

Clean it, scrub it and put it in the system or cook it. Cooking it doesn't guarantee it won't come back and most likely you will add it back when you start buying corals. I prefer to keep a system where it is in check. I have it too, it just doesn't take off in my system.

 

[StephNewman]

can I use anything to scrub the rock?

 

[sirreal63]

Anything clean and that has never had soap on it. I have a very stiff plastic brush I use. If in doubt don't use it.

 

[chadfarmer]

or you could buy a fish and or nudi to clean the rock.


manual removal sounds like to much work

 

[stlouisguy]

Powerwash

It works

 

[StupidsReef]

I use a toothbrush. It works quite well. I take the rock out and place it in a 10g tank with fresh SW and then as Jack stated, Scrubb a dubb dubb. Farmer what Fish or Nudi were you refering to??

 

[JxMetal]

Just get a tang or angel in there and let it eat algae for a few weeks, it'll be all gone. Feed it only once a day so he relies mostly on microalgae.

 

[sirreal63]

Most leave hair algae alone, solve the nutrient issues and the algae is under control. My YT, Scopas and Kole and algae blenny didn't touch the hair algae.