Trouble bringing home coral rock with algae?

[RLG2182]

Hey everyone!

I'm about to purchase a pumping xenia for my tank... it has 4 stalks on it (sp?) for about $40. One thing I noticed is the piece of rock it's on has some reddish hairy algae. Not sure if this is cyano, or what. But the hair is about 1/4 inch tall and just chills there in a patch. The xenia itself looks super healthy, and pumps every second. The rest of the rock looks good too.

Question: if I were to get this thing, how high a chance is there that this reddish algae could spread? Is there a danger of introducing bad algae and such through new coral additions? Thanks!!!

 

[krap101]

is there any more of it in the tank?

 

[RLG2182]

Any more of "it"? Like the algae? No. The only real piece that I saw was on that piece alone... although... their setup was several smaller 10 gal tanks strung together to make like a 100 gal++ tank. They all connected. Didn't notice it growing elsewhere... but then again... I didn't look that hard

 

[melosu58]

Cyno is like a red slime

 

[RLG2182]

Yeah... that much I knew... (never had it in my tank, knock on wood). This stuff is like hair. But regardless... was just thinking of what people do when they bring in new corals... if they need to quarantine them somehow or what... since there's a chance that the rock pieces they're on could carry "bad" algae and such.

Thanks for the posts so far!

 

[MT79]

Anytime you add ANYTHING with out QT'ing it your taking a chance. Having said that, I don't QT corals b/c I don't have the equipment or space for it. I would just pluck the algae off before or shortly after adding the xenia to your tank. FWIW, I got some xenia w/ bubble algae and some shrooms on the rock w/ it, and it has overgrown/covered both! Xenia grows extremely fast. HTH

 

[Phyl]

If I was concerned about the algae I would cut the xenia off of that rock, skewer them with toothpicks and then loosely rubberband the toothpicks to my own rocks. Then you wouldn't have to worry about the algae getting into your tank (a valid concern, IMO). Still doesn't solve the "should probably QT it" problem, but I have yet to overcome that small hurdle!

 

[pharmajoeves]

Scrub the rock before you put it into your tank

 

[MYTY1705]

scrub a dub dub. Maybe a macro algea???? furry or stiff?? leafy?? maybe some type of calerpa???

 

[Brenden]

I'm with phly:
Skewer them and throw them on the barbee.
seriously though. That will not harm them?

 

[RLG2182]

This stuff is like hair... not slimy. I would've never thought to stick them on toothpicks 8O

How what when why? Just don't want to kill something that already had a good life on a dirty rock.

I would scrub... is that the best option? Again... thanks for everyone's help.

 

[Brenden]

Any pics? Would not help me to identify but maybe someone like steve-s could help. I think he is half fish.

 

[RLG2182]

Any pics?

Unfortunately no... didn't take the camera into the LFS... Probably would've been a little suspicious.

 

[Brenden]

how about a google image search for something that looks like it?