Algae Question: Playing with fire?

[FishTri]

I was offered some corals as part of a trade, but was told they have green hair algae on them. See pic below.

My tank is algae-free right now, and I've got a great clean-up crew. Am I playing with fire by introducing this algae-laden rock into my tank? Or will my good water conditions and clean-up crew get rid of the hair algae?

[coope81]

If you have a good cleenup crew they should sort it out no problem, tangs also eat it, if you have any that is.

[silvers]

If your peram. are in check your clanup crew might take care of it but if you have any traceable Po4 in your tank you could be coverd up in a couple of weeks

[seapug]

It looks like it's on the way out and I wouldn't worry about it spreading if you don't already have a problem, but I'd still take it out and pull as much off by hand as you can in a separate container. Just for health and appearances sake.

[FishTri]

Thanks everybody. I'll put them in my quarantine tank and let the snails go to work!

[Shnabbles]

Thats not dinofalangies is it?

[matasw]

I had zero algae in my tank... and according to my test kits 0 phosphates. I made the mistake of putting a frag in their with algae on it and its everywhere now Test kit must be wrong... RODI may be shot.

[FishTri]

Originally posted by Shnabbles
Thats not dinofalangies is it?

What's dinofalangies?

[papagimp]

Originally posted by FishTri
What's dinofalangies?

Dinosaur fingers?

btw, think he meant dinoflagellates



My personal opinion on weather to add the corals with HA or not would entirely depend on how pretty I felt the coral was . I'm not worried about spreading algae into my tank since the CUC and nutrient exports I use seem to keep any/all unwanted algae in check.

[steven_dean17]

The proper solution is to QT the "anything" before adding it to the display. Who knows, that piece of rock may have a "anything" that could desimate your pretty display in a short time.

[papagimp]

that'll work if you can get the HA off while in QT. If I QT a hA covered frag, it'll stay that way usually until it gets in my display tank. But yes 100%, QT "anything" is the safe/smart way to go.

take a read through the havoc that's been wrecked from people getting in some type of parasite and/or coral eating flatworms, and other such pests. it'll make you reconsider the whole QT thing more closely.

[FishTri]

In this case, my quarantine is really a separate system. 55 Gal with 2" of sand and a little LR and a 20 gal chaeto/refugium, Right now there are also 50-75 snails from a recent group buy.

The "hair-algae" covered corals were put in this morning. The snails had done a great job of cleaning the 55 (which had been covered with algae) so I'm gonna give them a shot at cleaning up these new corals.

Here's the next question. How do you know if you've got parasites or coral-eating flatworms?

[steven_dean17]

Now that you have the frag in QT you can watch it for signs of infestation. A freshwater dip wouldn't hurt it either.