Help live rock question.

[irishfanrock34]

So I had a 120 predator tank. Everything was great until I got some live rock off of Craigslist. Next thing I know my whole tank was filled with green hair algae. Anyways that tank has been torn down and I now have a 75. Right now there is no rock in the tank just crushed coral . The rock that was in my old tank was scrubbed in freshwater and has been sitting in a trash can out of water in the garage for about a month. My question is did scrubbing it and letting it sit out of water kill the algae spores ? Or will the green hair just come right back if I put it in the new tank? Is there anything else I need to do before putting it in my new tank. I know it won't be live until I buy some live rock to seed it with I'm just sick of looking at an empty tank .

[crazylawyer]

Your hair algae was probably feeding off phosphates leaching from old used rock. Washing and drying will not solve the problem. You need to purge the phosphates from the rock by "cooking"- search this forum for directions.

Cooking LR does not entail heating. BOILING LIVE ROCK CAN KILL EVERYONE IN THE HOUSE. DO THE RESEARCH FIRST.

Having said all that, since its a FOWLR, you might try API Algaefix. Supposed to be reef safe, but I used it on a temporary FOWLER with good results. Doesn't seem to work for everybody though.

[jahmic]

You could also try dipping the rock in muriatic to dissolve the outer layer and remove bound organics...but from your description that rock was probably loaded with phosphates and needs to be cooked.

[irishfanrock34]

thanks guys i will research cooking live rock

[petere1989]

you could also let it sit in a mixture of bleech and water. I did that for my hair algae problem. It will kill everything on the rock though but it deffinetly gets rid of it. make sure to rinse it about 5 times after the initial soak to get all the bleech off.

[irishfanrock34]

Well it has been sitting in a trash can out of water for about a month then I scrubbed it and rinsed it with freshwater so I'm pretty sure everything good is now dead. I know the only way to make it live again will be adding live rock with it. Alot of it is stained green and I thought about using bleach or peroxide but wasn't sure if I should. Didn't really wanna have to go out and buy more heaters and power heads but its looking like I will have too if I'm gonna do the cooking method.