SkyReef
New member
Two Weeks Ago: I had bryopsis algae on LR purchased from a LFS. The bryopsis algae showed up after only 4 days in a brand-new aquarium-setup. So I pulled the LR, bleached it, sunned it, and now that bleached rock sits in a covered vat of circulating R.O. water in my garage.
I scrubbed down the tank and installed new power heads, guaranteed not to have algae.
Next, I installed a lone piece of dead rock in the tank to see if it would sprout bryopsis algae. It did not. This particular piece of dead rock was not from the batch of LR that had a bryopsis-algae problem. Rather, it was from an older batch of LR that had hair-algae problems, about a year ago. This dead rock became dead in the same manner: it was bleached, power-washed, sunned, and stored the rock in a covered vat of R.O. water, with a circulating pump. The lone piece of dead rock should now have bacteria on it that is only two-weeks' old (i.e., the amount of time it has been sitting in my aquarium, becoming live rock again).
One Week Ago: Encouraged by the observation that no algae appeared to grow on the lone piece of dead rock, I added in more dead rock from the same batch from which the lone rock came. Thus, the bacteria on this second-wave of dead rock is only a week old.
Today: I noticed that long strands of some life form were growing on the lone piece of rock that is in process of becoming live rock, again. A few days ago, these strands were clear strands, and I hoped that they were not living algae, believing that it would need to be green, in order to be living algae. However, today these strands turned noticeably green. (See picture below.)
I presume that this is hair algae that was not killed by the bleach, or it is hair algae that quickly established itself--in under two weeks--perhaps from the zoa that populated the lone rock. The discs on which the zoas are affixed have small amounts of hair algae, from the LFS.
The picture below was taken less than an hour ago. Very depressing. Is this what I think it is, hair algae? Why is it so sparse and not "clumped," like traditional hair algae?
What to do? Pull the lone, infested rock, and kill it again? Leave it alone and let it cycle? Your advice would be most appreciated.
Thanks.
************
MY SPECS:
Tank: 75 gallon, bare-bottom;
Tank Age: 2 weeks old (nearly brand new);
Sump: running at about 20 gallons;
Protein Skimmer in Sump
Waterfall ATS in Sump;
Livestock: 2 clown fish, 1 blue tang, 1 cleaner shrimp, 1 conch snail, 4 zoas (with hair algae on the plugs, the culprit I think), and 1 frag.
Temp - 79.7 degrees F;
Salinity - 1.02275
High PH 8.4
Ammonia - 0;
Nitrite - 2;
Nitrate - 0;
Calcium - 380;
Alkalinity - 196.9
Phosphate - 0
Picture taken 10/20/2013:
I scrubbed down the tank and installed new power heads, guaranteed not to have algae.
Next, I installed a lone piece of dead rock in the tank to see if it would sprout bryopsis algae. It did not. This particular piece of dead rock was not from the batch of LR that had a bryopsis-algae problem. Rather, it was from an older batch of LR that had hair-algae problems, about a year ago. This dead rock became dead in the same manner: it was bleached, power-washed, sunned, and stored the rock in a covered vat of R.O. water, with a circulating pump. The lone piece of dead rock should now have bacteria on it that is only two-weeks' old (i.e., the amount of time it has been sitting in my aquarium, becoming live rock again).
One Week Ago: Encouraged by the observation that no algae appeared to grow on the lone piece of dead rock, I added in more dead rock from the same batch from which the lone rock came. Thus, the bacteria on this second-wave of dead rock is only a week old.
Today: I noticed that long strands of some life form were growing on the lone piece of rock that is in process of becoming live rock, again. A few days ago, these strands were clear strands, and I hoped that they were not living algae, believing that it would need to be green, in order to be living algae. However, today these strands turned noticeably green. (See picture below.)
I presume that this is hair algae that was not killed by the bleach, or it is hair algae that quickly established itself--in under two weeks--perhaps from the zoa that populated the lone rock. The discs on which the zoas are affixed have small amounts of hair algae, from the LFS.
The picture below was taken less than an hour ago. Very depressing. Is this what I think it is, hair algae? Why is it so sparse and not "clumped," like traditional hair algae?
What to do? Pull the lone, infested rock, and kill it again? Leave it alone and let it cycle? Your advice would be most appreciated.
Thanks.
************
MY SPECS:
Tank: 75 gallon, bare-bottom;
Tank Age: 2 weeks old (nearly brand new);
Sump: running at about 20 gallons;
Protein Skimmer in Sump
Waterfall ATS in Sump;
Livestock: 2 clown fish, 1 blue tang, 1 cleaner shrimp, 1 conch snail, 4 zoas (with hair algae on the plugs, the culprit I think), and 1 frag.
Temp - 79.7 degrees F;
Salinity - 1.02275
High PH 8.4
Ammonia - 0;
Nitrite - 2;
Nitrate - 0;
Calcium - 380;
Alkalinity - 196.9
Phosphate - 0
Picture taken 10/20/2013: