Quote:
Originally posted by HighlandReefer
dngspot,
After what you have gone through, I would jump on this pest using AlgaeFix also. 
Unfortunately, you are like many hobbyists who have exhausted every means they can come across to help eradicate their particular pest. Once a hobbyist is in this position it is very frustrating. I can understand how many will simply give up after pumping hours and dollars into their dream reef system. Thankfully you have not chosen to do this.
I am curious about a few questions:
1) What kind of rock and sand did you first use when you started your system?
2) Was your system components bought used?
4) I am curious about the procedure you used to try to kill the pest with bleach? What concentration of bleach did you use? How many times did you soak your rock in bleach? Was there any visible signs of organic matter on the rock after you finished bleaching it? Did you bleach the sand or did you simply use it as is after re-doing your tank? Did any of the corals you have in the infested tank, show signs of infestation on them before you introduced them into the new clean system?
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1) What kind of rock and sand did you first use when you started your system?
Most of the rock is DIY rock, 300 lbs of concrete rock and 40 lbs of large Fiji pieces. The algae does not care what type of rock it is, it started on Fiji.
2) Was your system components bought used?
All of the items in the system were bought new.
3) How do you think you acquired this pest?
It could have been anything over a period of 4 years. I really do not have any idea. I can tell you it started on one of my rocks, a spot about the size of a pencil eraser.
4) I am curious about the procedure you used to try to kill the pest with bleach? What concentration of bleach did you use? How many times did you soak your rock in bleach? Was there any visible signs of organic matter on the rock after you finished bleaching it? Did you bleach the sand or did you simply use it as is after re-doing your tank? Did any of the corals you have in the infested tank, show signs of infestation on them before you introduced them into the new clean system?
Using the bleach was as simple as this. Remove all that you want to keep. With the pumps running add 1 gallon of bleach, non scented. Before the gallon was empty the HA was white. The rock and sand was removed from the tank. The rock put out to dry for a week. It then was put in a container and soaked in fresh water for a week. I then removed it and pressure washed it off. It went back into the container, water and chlorine remover was added. The rock stayed this way for another week. Then it was placed back in the tank with new Southdown sand.
I would like to add that at no time did the sand have any HA on it.
The corals were put in my frag tanks and showed no signs of HA before they were put back into the display system.