Need Tips On Cleaning Brown Algae Off Tank Rocks

[phlawed]

I have a few rock ornaments that are getting pretty covered in algae. I have tried to boil them but that does remove it. I dont know if something like a wire brush is safe or not being it might leave metal shavings on rock. So is there a chemical or anything that removes it?

 

[nmonks]

Nothing really cleans brown algae off short of bleaching. Obviously if you use bleach, you need to rinse the objects very well afterwards. Possibly you could use a safer alternative like hydrogen peroxide (which converts to water and oyxgen very soon after it's out of the bottle).

To be honest, I'd let the algae grow. Once there's a decent thickness of the stuff, it'll look quite attractive. This is what you see in public aquaria, for example.

What's your salinity? If it is relatively low, you could grow more plants to surpress algae. If the SG is under 1.010, then Malayan livebearing snails could be used as algae eaters. If you have a high salinity system, things are more tricky. Violet gobies and mollies are the two prime algae eaters, though scats eat hair algae.

Cheers,

Neale

 

[Dave Legacy]

Let it grow! It looks beautiful on my lace rock and very natural.

 

[phlawed]

Nothing really cleans brown algae off short of bleaching. Obviously if you use bleach, you need to rinse the objects very well afterwards. Possibly you could use a safer alternative like hydrogen peroxide (which converts to water and oyxgen very soon after it's out of the bottle).

To be honest, I'd let the algae grow. Once there's a decent thickness of the stuff, it'll look quite attractive. This is what you see in public aquaria, for example.

What's your salinity? If it is relatively low, you could grow more plants to surpress algae. If the SG is under 1.010, then Malayan livebearing snails could be used as algae eaters. If you have a high salinity system, things are more tricky. Violet gobies and mollies are the two prime algae eaters, though scats eat hair algae.

Cheers,

Neale

i just boiled them really well for about 30 minutes and put them in new brack tank. I scrubbed them down with a tooth brush and will let them go from there. I agree it does make them look somewhat natural and will let it grow from here on. I am getting some olive nerite snail to help with what they can. They will also breed in brackwater. But, thanks for all input from the both of you.l