I’m in the same boat with the algae infested rock from my current tank, unsure if it’s worth reusing or not just because of bubble algae. I definitely want to use live rock for my new tank and it seems like a waste not to use what I have already, full of beneficial bacteria and life. I hadn’t thought of light starving it. I’m curious how that would work and how much life on the rock would survive. Ever done it before? Thanks for the idea!The old tank at my parents is fully removed now, there's a good 40 lbs of three year old marco rock that's unfortunately full of algae. I've got it in a brute can with the water from that tank and a heater / MJ1200 in there right now. Not sure if I should just light starve all that algae out, or give it a muratic acid bath and lose three years of maturation. I definitely won't put it in any of my tanks as-is, don't want that hair algae all over the place. Might just run it dark for a few months and do water changes using my DT water to keep some nutrients for the rock dwellers.
Ordered a carbide hacksaw rod to cut some of the dry marco rock flat, tried with a 24t metal blade and it just didn't work all that well. A few smaller pieces I'm going to try just grading on some rough concrete as one person suggested since I don't have access to a pedestal grinder.
Last equipment update is I used the last of my xmas / hobby money to order a wave engine and the adapter cords to run four gyres. The two XF230 on my DT, the XF150 from my parents tank and the Icecap 4K gyre that came with the icecap controller, which I'm using on my 1K gyres. Also going to run the SW-4's off of the 0-10v port it comes with, potentially use the two of them from the frag system in the new tank as well. We'll see..