Live Rock...

LouPhoenix

LouPhoenix

New member
So, after much observation and deduction, I now blame the live rock for the perpetuation of green algae in my tank... Through much diligence I've been keeping it subdued, but it just never goes away and there is no other source of nutrients in the tank. With that being said, i'm going to re-do my entire system... scrape the walls clean, remove & replace the old sand and put the live rock somewhere really, really dark.

In the very near future I will be looking to buy live rock, branch is nice, but I need some flat / boulder rock as well, so if anyone's got some already-cured and established rock, please let me know.

I'll also need to reinforce my cleanup crew, specially those Mexican Turbos... Compulou, are you getting any more soon?

Anyone looking to sell any of the above, please let me know. Thanks!
 
Yeah dude, my pops is bringing me more on Tuesday. I have to contact Manny (Thesaint?) as he needed some as well. Can someone PM me his cell?

Thanks
 
Coralfragger - I don't mix cuz I don't have an RODI, so I buy my water until I get an RODI unit one of these days.

Ding2daDong - I'm hoping to avoid paying more than $4 + per lb. from an LFS... so i'll consider buying it from a store as a last resort. Anyone looking to get rid of their own rock?

Lou, hold 6 or 7 more for me if you get that many. Let me know when I can come by.. thanks!
 
Agios - No I don't have a Silica test kit, but I use pure aragonite sand so the only source of silica in the tank would be the glass walls or the live rock.
 
Before I ripped my whole system apart I would test for nitrates, phosphates and silicates. I would test the water that you are buying for these as well. Determine if any of these could be coming from the foods and supplements that you are using.

Although not impossible, I believe that it is a fairly rare occurance that bound up nitrates within the live rock is the main source of anyones algae problems.

If you ran a FOWLR for years and had years of high nitrates and then converted the tank over to a reef tank this might be your problem.

It would be a shame to rework your whole system just to end up with the same problem because the rock itself was not the source of the nutrients.
 
Yeah, I test the water here and there before I add it to the tank. Nitrates and phosphates are non-existent... I haven't tested for silicates, but the store that I buy the water from does, and they don't have any issues with it. The only reason I think it is the live rock is that hair algae doesn't grow anywhere, except for the live rock. Also, one time I blasted some of the rock with a turkey baster to clear off some debris and some of my inverts died within hours... which totally freaked me out. I did some research and found out that live rock can build up a toxic amount of nutrients / chemicals. I've improved my circulation since, but the algae remains. I'm out of ideas other than replacing the rock...
 
Are we talking about green hair algae? Thats easy - well not hard to get rid of. Here is an old post that I wrote on the subject:

If you have a hair algae problem then read my cure all. I just recently took a tank off someone's hands, a very experienced reefer too, who had a hair algae problem that they could not fix. But the fix is so easy when you understand it. This is the instructions for a established tank. If your tank is under 3 months old read below* first.

Hair algae wont grow if you don't feed it.

1. Use Ro/DI water ONLY. If your not doing this then you are making a fatal mistake.

2. Pick off the big clumps of hair. Pull the rocks out you can and pull pull pull. Dip them back in the water to get the algae to hang down. Turn off the flow for the rocks you cant remove while you pick it off. By picking off the big clumps you remove the nitrates and phosphates from the water.

3. Know why it grows. It consumes nitrates, phosphates and light. Export the nitrates and phosphates with water changes and some cheto. Rember if you test says that you have 0 Nitrates and 0 Phosphates that does not mean you don't have them. It just means that they are consumed. If you have algae growing then you have nitrates and phosphates. Yea there in there.

4. Cut back on feeding. Where do you thing those nitrates and phosphates come from. If you have any really piggy fish then you may want to move them to QT.

5. Turn down the photo period by shutting the lights off and only turn them on for 6 hours a day. Most corals can handle this for a month. Just think of it as the rainy season.

6. Get a emerald and some mexican snails. Yea the big ones. They will both eat the short stuff.

7. Time. Give it 3-4 weeks then start to turn the lights to 7, 8...more hours till your back to a normal amount of time.


Done. Now I have my nano cube filled with sand, rocks, zoos and fish because I was able to follow this plan and he was not. Which is weird since he has an awesome sps tank.

*If your tank is new that is less than 3 months old then the question is not how to get rid of them but understanding that this is only part of the natural cycle of a new tank. If this happened just as your ammonia and nitrites test at 0 then its going to grow. Its the same reason because there is alot of nitrate and phosphate in the water. This would be the time to do your first water change and then add your clean up crew. They will take care of the algae along with water changes.

Remember don.t feed your nuisance algae and it wont grow.
Good Luck
 
I posted about my hair algae problems earlier this year and you kindly posted the same instructions. I followed EACH and EVERY step to a tee but nothing worked. The only step that has always stood out has been # 3... I reduced the photoperiod considerably and increased circulation, yet the problem remained, which leads me to the conclusion that the only source of nutrients in my tank would have to be either the sand (which is being replaced) or the live rock (which is being replaced too), which is why I started this thread.
 
I have herd that high nitrates and phosphates can be absorbed into the rock. Humm ...OK...

What size tank?
What fish are in there?
what do you feed?
What is the nutrient export routine? h2o changes, macro algae?
What kinda growth can you see in your cheato? Need some. coralfragger is givin it away.
What lights? How old? How long are they on?
How many snails? What types? How many emeralds?
How long are_the strands of hair algae? In inches?
Got a pic? That might help.


Consider a Lawnmower Blenny There cool fish and it cant hurt??
 
Alright here we go:

65 Gal.
-A Clownfish, Foxface and Leopard Wrasse

-Feeding is minimal - misys, cyclopeeze and a minimal amount of low-phos flake (only as much as they can eat within 1 minute - nothing settles to the bottom of the tank).

-Weekly 25% water changes

-Cheato has not grown much but it is there. I don't have a sump so it sits on a hob refugium (in case you're going to suggest getting a sump, I simply can't due to space constraints).

-Metal halides and PC actinics - 6 months old. At a point my lights were only on for 4 hrs a day for several weeks but my corals started taking a turn for the worse and I had to increase it to 6 then 7 hours, which is my current setting.

-As of now i've got 6 Mexican Turbo snails. I had more but most died off when I blasted the live rock to clean debris (as I mentioned on a post above) and the cloud storm killed off a bunch of inverts - another reason why i think the rock is the culprit .

- Where I can pick it, the hair is like a short grass carpet. The spots I can't reach have strands between 1 to 2 inches long.

I tried a lawnmower blenny but they only pick at red algae, which is not an issue in my tank. Matter of fact, he seemed to enjoy picking off the coralline and completely ignored the hair algae.
 
Damm man you got it right. Here is what I would suggest.

1. Damm

2. You have mexicans. How about turbos, emeralds, pencil urchin (I got 2 you can have).

3. Ok I know you dont have room for a fuge. But how about a temporary one. Fill it with cheato and put a big honkin light on there.

4. How about a phosban reactor.

5. There are also nitrate reactors and sponges.

6. Lawnmower Blenny wont touch the long stuff. Get in there and trim. I take the rocks one at a time and pull it off. Put it in water and keep pulling.

You can always give the rock away and start over. Heck I just got a new 55 gallon. Give em to me. :D


But I have to believe that you can beat it.
 
To address # 4, yeah, I do run phosban too.

Thanks for the offer on the pencil urchins but I'm afraid to add more inverts to the display until I am SURE that what ever killed them is gone. That's why to be safe I'm replacing the sand and getting new rock.

What i'll do is cook my the algae riddled rock for a loooong time and give it a try on my next tank sometime in the future.

So back to question one... anyone got cheap live rock to sell?
 
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