Yet another newbie question (1 Viewer)

[Guest]

I just bought my 1st live rock today and found this on it when I got it home. Is this a good-guy or a bad-guy plant?

http://www.tripledaily.com/pics/hairalgae.jpg

 

[Guest]

Its bryopsis (I think). Get rid of it quick! Once it gets a foothold, get used to lookin at a green lawn.

 

[Guest]

Vertigo is right, that stuff is just like grass. I had some on a rock and I could never get rid of it- you really need an aquarium lawn mower. I finally just turned the rock upside down in the sand so the light wouldnt get to it.

 

[Guest]

Any way to get rid of it without killing all the things I just paid $5 a lb for.

 

[Guest]

Getcha sum gloves and a steel brush. That stuff is virulent!

 

[Cakepro]

That stuff got in my tank by way of some frags from another reefer and man, was it a bitch to get it out. It ended up getting in my blood-red blasto and growing between the polyps. I had to finally resort to superglue to cover what I could not pull off, because no matter how much I was able to pull off, some remained and regrew. The superglue worked extremely well. Since there's nothing on that rock of yours yet, you may want to consider trying that instead of risking it spreading.

 

[Guest]

Wow -- Why would they knowing sell LR with this crap on it? I bought local instead of Mailorder because I was worried about getting something horrible in the mail. Guess I will know where NOT to shop from now on. Anyone have a suggestion on where I can get some REAL live rock?

 

[djreef]

I had a Mithrax (emerald) crab that used to eat that stuff up like it was candy.

DJ
= 8-->{I>

 

[SeanB]

I've heard nothing but great things about www.liverocks.com

 

[Guest]

SO do you'll think the LFS should make good on this rock, or do I just have to eat it (so to speak) and write it off to lessons learned?
in case you missed the picture above

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[SeanB]

I'd send them the picture and ask them if they will take it back and trade it out for another piece. If it's one of the sponsor stores, I'd think you wouldn't have any problem.

 

[Guest]

Yea, except it's a three hour round trip, so the gas would cost me about what the rock is worth, I think I'm just outa luck on this. Wont allow anyone else to bag up LR before I get to inspect it again. I wonder if their whole LR tank is infected with the stuff, so I'm not even sure I can trust the ones that dont SHOW the algae as it likely has the spoors from what I have read. :-( This hobby is expensive enough without haveing to protect yourself from your 'friends and sponsors'.

 

[SeanB]

Just put it face down in a bucket of tankwater with no light and a power head. Whatever is on there should die off and at least you can use it for base rock - salvage what you can.

 

[incysor]

Just put it face down in a bucket of tankwater with no light and a power head. Whatever is on there should die off and at least you can use it for base rock - salvage what you can.

I bought about 75lbs of rock from a local guy that was moving to Seattle. Many of his pieces had stuff like this, both hair and bubble algae on it. I scrubbed all the rock with a wire bristle brush, rinsed each piece off, put all of it in a tank without a light and added 3 emerald crabs to the tank. Then I just left it alone for a month, with a skimmer on it. I didn't do anything else to it except add top off water and empty the skimmate cup. It all died off. That rock got added/distributed through all my tanks, and I haven't had any recurrance of any of the nuisance algae.

B

 

[Guest]

I appreciate the input incysor but that seems like an awful lot of work for little return, I think I will just scrap it and order me some safe rock from one of the reputable online places. Between the prices and this experience I dont see much reason to drive all the way to houston to shop any more. I dont have the luxuary of having extra tanks and skimmers and all that to give it a place to fix itself in a month. I just wanted a little rock to kick start my tank cycle, so if I cant actually put it in my tank, it has little value to me :-(

 

[BrianPlankis]

You might want to consider:

http://www.tbsaltwater.com/index.html

They culture their own live rock, so no damage to natural reefs The downside is that sometimes you get hitchhikers that are not good with the rock, generally gorilla crabs and mantis shrimp. It sounds like you don't have a lot of time for taking care of algae and catching gorilla crabs and mantis shrimp can be a pain, so maybe TBS isn't for you. Other than that though, amazing life on the rocks including clams, mussels, barnacles, sponges, etc. I'm going to order some rock in January or February if you are still looking then(Helps reduce the cost of shipping).

B.

 

[Guest]

Just keeps getting better and better. The live sand that I bought to go with my bryopsis covered Live Rock imported a good dose of red slime algae with it. I hope no one else that bought from them that day is having the same problems as me. You spend months studying to try to set things up correctly and do it right and the 1st LFS you deal with dumps DEATH in your tank. I have e-mailed them a number of times and they dont even have the common courtesy to answer. With sponsors like that, I think I can do wothout the 'discounts'.

 

[djreef]

Dude,

Keep the rock and sand. The problems you're experiencing are a PIA, but not uncommon. You aren't going to find sterile liverock - what would the point of that be. I mean, yea it would be great if you could, but the real world is where we live. Spores of all kinds of crap infests liverock of all types, and from all places. Problem algaes are everywhere - it's just one of the laws of this hobby. You just have to do what everyone else does, and learn how to deal with it. If not now, then eventually - I say better now than when you're system is full blown. Bryopsis sucks, but it's not indestructable, you can keep it under control by limiting/exporting nutrients and predation.

DJ
= 8-->{I>

 

[Guest]

thanks I was getting the impression from some of the earlier comments that I was about to have to tear it down before I even got my 1st fish in it

 

[incysor]

Actually since you're tank is cycling, if you just scrub off the worst of the hair/bubble algae, the rest, including any red algae should die off, because you won't be feeding/lighting the tank for the cycle period.
It sucks that this was your introduction to the sponsor stores. I feel bad about it since this was one of the stores I recommended.