Best approach for cleaning rock rubble of green hair algae?

wwarby

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I have a mantis shrimp tank which had a pretty bad outbreak of green hair algae in it's early stages. The tank is about 6 months old now and I've mostly gotten the algae under control through regular scrubbing with a toothbrush, phosphate control with GFO and a dose of Flux RX at one point. The main aquascape is in pretty good shape at this point, but I have about 40 pieces of rock rubble / coral skeleton scattered around the sandbed which the mantis shrimp uses as building material to cover the entrances of her burrow. Every 2-3 weeks I'm still having to remove every piece of that rock rubble and scrub with a toothbrush in tank water during a water change just to keep the GHA from getting out of control again, which is fine, but I wondered if I might be able to rid those rocks of the remaining GHA by dipping them in hydrogen peroxide or something similar? I know it won't necessarily be a long term fix as any remnants of the algae on the main aquascape will eventually find it's way back onto these rocks, but if I could reduce the tedious work of scrubbing dozens of small rocks every couple of weeks, I'd be happy.
 
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wwarby

wwarby

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H2O2 should work well. You're not disturbing most of the aquascaping so there should be minimal impact on hte ecosystem. You might consider some easy corals to compete with the algae.
Thanks - yeah there’s actually quite a few soft corals in the tank. I had some macro algae at one point but it got smothered by the GHA so I binned it. I’ll give the h2o2 a try. Any instructions on how to use it? I mean like how long, whether to dilute, whether to scrub whilst in the h2o2 solution. I’ve never bought any before.
 
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Thanks - yeah there’s actually quite a few soft corals in the tank. I had some macro algae at one point but it got smothered by the GHA so I binned it. I’ll give the h2o2 a try. Any instructions on how to use it? I mean like how long, whether to dilute, whether to scrub whilst in the h2o2 solution. I’ve never bought any before.
And presumably I want 3% strength?
 

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I would place it in a container of tank water and pull off as much as you can by hand and scrub the rest with a firm toothbrush and some 3% hydrogen peroxide.
Return to tank, reduce white light intensity and number of hours of white lighting and unfortunately snails and crabs are a no-go with mantis.

Are you using RODI water or tap water from the faucet ?
What is your phosphate level?
Is tank at or near a window?
 
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wwarby

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I would place it in a container of tank water and pull off as much as you can by hand and scrub the rest with a firm toothbrush and some 3% hydrogen peroxide.
Return to tank, reduce white light intensity and number of hours of white lighting and unfortunately snails and crabs are a no-go with mantis.

Are you using RODI water or tap water from the faucet ?
What is your phosphate level?
Is tank at or near a window?
Thanks very much, I’ll order some 3% now. Yeah, my attempts at cleanup crew failed pretty quickly, she went through about three snails and two urchins before I gave up on that path to algae control. Phosphate is around 0.05 at the moment, I’m using RowaPhos to control it but thinking of trying Phosphate Rx instead on the advice of a more experienced friend.

I make my own RODI, and I keep on top of maintenance - TDS for the water is zero and I’m doing 10-15% water changes weekly. The tank is below a window as you see in the photo but actually that window gets very little light, and not in the direction of the tank. I hear what you’re saying about lighting schedules. There’s a balance to be struck of course - the algae isn’t so bad that I want my tank in darkness all day, and my softies need at lease some light, but I could shorten the schedule a bit.

The algae certainly isn’t terrible at the moment - the attached photo is a couple of months old when I still had some macro algae but it’s no worse than that today. I’d just like to get the rock rubble a bit cleaner as that stuff is a pain to scrub regularly.

5CC25493-C1A8-4BAF-B8E9-2BF240F4B3FB.jpeg
 

vetteguy53081

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Thanks very much, I’ll order some 3% now. Yeah, my attempts at cleanup crew failed pretty quickly, she went through about three snails and two urchins before I gave up on that path to algae control. Phosphate is around 0.05 at the moment, I’m using RowaPhos to control it but thinking of trying Phosphate Rx instead on the advice of a more experienced friend.

I make my own RODI, and I keep on top of maintenance - TDS for the water is zero and I’m doing 10-15% water changes weekly. The tank is below a window as you see in the photo but actually that window gets very little light, and not in the direction of the tank. I hear what you’re saying about lighting schedules. There’s a balance to be struck of course - the algae isn’t so bad that I want my tank in darkness all day, and my softies need at lease some light, but I could shorten the schedule a bit.

The algae certainly isn’t terrible at the moment - the attached photo is a couple of months old when I still had some macro algae but it’s no worse than that today. I’d just like to get the rock rubble a bit cleaner as that stuff is a pain to scrub regularly.

5CC25493-C1A8-4BAF-B8E9-2BF240F4B3FB.jpeg
According to pic- Not terrible. A couple of tweaks and you should have it gone
 

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