what if

[snagged by reef]

What if.....
im so disgusted with the brown hair algae and every other algae in my aquarium. i cant do anything to get rid of or even control it.

Heres the WHAT IF part:

WHAT IF i just took all my rock and put it in boiling hot fresh water. What are the consequences, really? And im being serious and asking a valid question. im just so upset with all the money ive went through and all the articles of "cooking" rock. Can i kill everything in/on it, leave some out and then buy "new" live rock and add it to the aquarium?

All suggestions/critism welcome....

 

[Shagsbeard]

"Cooking" doesn't have anything to do with boiling it in water. It's actually just depriving the rock of light, killing off the plants without harming the animals. Eventually the animals too would die, but if you time it right you can fix an algae problem without harming the rocks this way.

If you boil your rocks you will essentially sterilize it. Organics will remain, albiet cooked organics. If you put that rock back in your tank, the organics will decompose like any other dead stuff and really stink up your tank. It will not fix your algae problem.

 

[DetectiveTofu]

Hm, well I know if you were to cook your rock, your rock would become biologically dead. I suppose it would solve your problems temporarily, but perhaps you can try tackling the source of the problem. Here is my reasoning. Say you boil the rock, and get all the algae (and beneficial bacteria colonies) off. You put the rock back into your tank but what is to stop the algae from growing back if the root of your algae problem is in your water? By that I mean high levels of phosphates, nitrates, silicates, etc. Boiling the rock to me would only be a temporary solution...unless you plan to never turn on your tank lights again =)

Bear in mind, all algaes need two things to grow. Light, and nutrients. We all have some degree of algae in our tanks, however everyone copes with it a different way. Some will tell you that you need to use RO/DI water...but not all of us have money for it. Others will tell you a refugium...but not all of us have room for one. Water changes never hurt. And some of us just scrub it every week =P Boiling the rock would be a last resort for myself personally.

Another thing is maybe to get your calcium levels up (maybe to around 420 or so) and try to get some coralline algae growing to compete with nuisance algae for nutrients. Also look into nutrient export via macro algae such as chaetomorpha and caulerpa to help take up some of the phosphates and nitrates. And last but not least, if you don't have one already you maybe definitely want to look into getting a clean up crew.

hope this helps