So, I have a rock in quarantine.. (Algea advice?)

[907_Reefer]

Hey all! Looking for some advice on this algea situation, we had a pretty aggressive bunch of algea show up over a few weeks - luckily it was mostly contained to one smaller rock on the top center/left, decided yesterday to pull the rock and quarantine in RO for the time being for fear of a massive takeover.. This 55 gal tank has about 90 lbs live rock, 120 lbs live sand, and lots of phosphates lol. It's still young, just running for 5 months now.

What would you do? Any good methods of soaking/rinsing? Cutting/picking it out looks like a nightmare..

The Rock:

FTS (orange filter):

Thanks all!

 

[Uncle99]

Deprive it from light.
Keep phosphate low low, but not zero.

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

You've got a CUC, right?

 

[907_Reefer]

It's in dark RO now, and definitely need phosphates down, also have some bubble algea. Will do a full workup on levels this weekend.

Have a CUC, handful of hermits, astrea and nassarious snails, 2 tiger cowries, 2 turbo snails, peppermint shrimp and 2 emerald crabs, also have a number of bristle worm hitchhikers and also saw a micro brittle star hitchhiker on one occasion. Any suggestions for adding to the CUC welcome though!

Fish in the tank are, 2 clowns, 1 melanarus wrasse, pistol shrimp and goby pair, royal gramma, lawnmower blenny, and just added a starry blenny yesterday. Thinking about a canary blenny, and the LFS has a few small yellow tangs. Figuring we have room to balance out with a few additional fish..

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

I'm definitely no lighting expert but ime algae tends to grow faster under more white light and it looks like you have a lot of white light in the pic...maybe turning the whites down a little would help

 

[907_Reefer]

Thanks, I will take a look at lighting adjustments also. Just to note that picture above was taken with an orange filter, I am running the dual XR-15s on the AB+ setup with no mods, at 31% schedule. Will post a no-filter shot below.

Definitely curious what I should do with the rock though, some type clean and reinstall, let soak in RO, will that kill some organisms that could cause a problem when re-adding to tank, etc. We have plenty of rock in there, could toss this piece, but I hate the thought of ditching any live rock :/

This is a shot from a few weeks ago without any camera filters (Samsung phone):

 

[aSaltyKlown]

For that single rock, I'd pull off what I could and then pour some peroxide on it and scrub. Rinse it off well and put it back in. I would not worry about killing any bacteria on it as you have plenty with the rest of the rock in the tank.

 

[907_Reefer]

Thanks - may try a little peroxide and RO soak!

 

[Rick's Reviews]

As you have removed it then easiest way to deal with is give it a good scrub with a toothbrush, same with your rocks in your aquarium. (From your pictures it looks like a little growth to the right on adjoining rocks)

I believe once hair algae gets to a certain length then cuc show little interest so manual removal is best next step.
Worst case you could use hydrogen peroxide to dip this one rock or target blast but this may kill anything living in/on rock
A good scrub will remove majority

 

[907_Reefer]

Thanks Rick! I see some scrubbing in my future today

 

[907_Reefer]

So, after an overnight RO bath, I borrowed my wife's toothbrush, scrubbed it down and I think we're in business!

Now I can get back to our main project, fishing for a Starry Blenny..