Free Live Rock... but...

[NickV1]

My neighbor is quitting the hobby and just gave me 100+ lbs of live rock from his 75 gallon tank. The tank has been neglected and the rock is partially covered in hair algae. I put the rock in a new trash can in the basement and covered it with his water. I put a heater and a powerhead in the can (no lights). My hope is to kill off the hair algae and save the rock.. My question is, will this work? Will the hair algae come back? How long should I leave it in the can? I plan to use it in a new tank that I'm setting up in a couple of months. Should I do water changes? Should I scrub the rock with a clean scrubbing brush? Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated..

 

[jbpig]

I would do water changes and put a skimmer on it for sure. You can also scrub the rock too, any little but helps. HTH

 

[afss]

My understanding was that hair algea grew from exces nutrients. If you were to scrub the algea of the rocks I would think it would be best to put them in whatever tank you were going to. That is aslong as you know that he didn't use copper or other unsafe to reef chemicals. IMO anyway
Scott
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Russian Legion (paintball team)

 

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't scrape the rocks either. Scraping them will only kill off the beneficial life forms living on the rock's surface. I would blow each rock with a powerhead or turkey baster to remove the algae instead. I also concur that you should use a skimmer as well as large water changes.

Dan

 

[Jeff Hood]

I have done a Dark cure of rocks covered with hair algae in the past and it works quite well. You will lose some life but compared to choking off from the hair algae it is worth it. You will be left with bare Coraline covered rock. The coraline will recover in a nutrient poor tank with adequate lighting and calcium/alk.

Jeff