har algea cooking rocks

[bluelinered]

I read with interest the article about cooking the live rock to control hair algae. My son and I have been doing this for less than a year. Finally have phosphates, and Nitrates under control. Now am concerned about " false readings. The hair algae is out of control. Our tank is 35 gallons bought used. I was not a fan of buying it but my son won. I have been doing freshwater for about 50 years. I have a 125 gallon full of cichlids ( kept getting larger tanks because they keep breeding) There are four rules. No over stocking. No overfeeding Water Changes. No Live plants Result Throw out ALL the chemicals. So I felt this tank is too small, and hard to control. What a learning curve. The big problem is you cannot get radical with it. Physical properties. 2 and a half inches of original sand about 3 years. Live rock is Fiji ? very clustered appearance. Soft, and Hard corals. A Razor light ( led ) maximum white is 50% at noon. Four fish 2 damsels ( inherited ) 1 clown, and 1 flame angel. 1 shrimp. 1 starfish, and it had a baby somehow ( like to know more about that ) and hermit, and green crabs.

So to the point. I just pulled out one rock, and scrubbed it. The side not exposed to light did not have a speck of algae. I want to do the cook method but one problem. One of the corals decided to spread to one live rock from its base, and my son does not want to kill it, and I assume cooking will do just that. Any ideas. Have also read about vodka but I hate chemicals. Have a 90 gallon ready to put in but will be a process over time $$$$$.

Can I save this coral?