Cleaning algae off rock with Rock Flower Anemones?

[Pancetta]

So I am battling a hair algae outbreak and have been advised to take my live rock pieces out of the tank

and clean them in tank water.

Problem is my rock flower anemones are attached to the rocks. One RFA per rock.

 

Will the RFAs be OK after I do this cleaning? I suppose the best time to do this would be during a water change? Clean the rock with the RFA attached in a bucket with old tank water then put the rock back in the tank full of new water.

 

Advice appreciated.

I love my Rock Flower Anemones and want make sure they will be OK!

[Pancetta]

No replies? Really? Is it a stupid question?

[Dr.Brain Coral]

I don't see a problem with this.

[jedimasterben]

They'll be fine. I've subjected both maxi minis and rock flowers to some pretty horrific stuff and haven't lost any that I haven't left sitting in a bucket outside for a week with no water. Whoops.

[Pancetta]

Thanks guys. Appreciate the feedback.

 

David

[Dr.Brain Coral]

They'll be fine. I've subjected both maxi minis and rock flowers to some pretty horrific stuff and haven't lost any that I haven't left sitting in a bucket outside for a week with no water. Whoops.

When did you do that haha

[jedimasterben]

When did you do that haha

It's been a while back now. The current red rock flower I have now I accidentally left in my car (hit over 100F for several hours). Bleached badly but it's since recovered quite nicely

 

[Dr.Brain Coral]

Nice Rock Flower

[BulkRate]

Depends on the size of the rocks - if they can be removed for treatment, tupperware is your friend, plus flower anemones can handle brief time exposed to air - scrub the rock using a soft-bristle toothbrush & a shotglass of peroxide and just a few minutes should do the deal while letting you avoid anything you care about.

[Pancetta]

Thanks Bulkrate.

One rock is large. Approx. 7" tall and 8" wide; sorta pointy. The other one is small and flat about the size

of my hand.

 

I have never used peroxide. Suppose you just dip the tooth brush in the peroxide and scrub some?

[BulkRate]

Thanks Bulkrate.

One rock is large. Approx. 7" tall and 8" wide; sorta pointy. The other one is small and flat about the size

of my hand.

 

I have never used peroxide. Suppose you just dip the tooth brush in the peroxide and scrub some?

 

Yep. Do what you can within about 5 minutes and all should be well. Repeat as needed until your clean-up crew can keep the new growth in check. I only used 3% peroxide undiluted with r/o or tank water, but with a tank water rinse prior to putting the rocks back in your main display.

 

Another approach comes to mind (but manual removal's needed anyways):

 

A local reefer gave me a tip for hair algae control - get your rocks encrusted with coraline. I was skeptical, but since it needed to be done anyways I cleared all of the side/back walls with a blade scraper over a few days in sections to repeatedly seed the water column. Within a couple of weeks my two problem rocks developed a decent patina and I haven't had to spot treat them in over two months.

 

With a grain of salt, though - I also added 3 banded trochus snails that FINALLY survived acclimation and two white claw hermits in the same span... it could be that they're simply eating it all nowadays before I see any sprouting up, but I doubt it. Those sections of my tank would look like chia-pets if left unscrubbed for more than a week or two previously.

[Pancetta]

Thanks.

 

That is a interesting tidbit about the coraline. I have one rock partially covered with coraline and it is the only one in the tank that does not have algae.

 

My cleanup crew needs reinforcements too. A couple of snails have died and a hairy crab killed one of my hermit crabs. Going to buy more this weekend.