green algea

[willthepenguin]

i am geting quite alot of algea , how much is normal , and how much is to much, ?

 

[1979camaro]

a description of "quite a lot" would be helpful, as would a description of what type, but in a tank which is stable and mature you should see virtually no algae on your live rock or sandbed because of your cleanup crew. a fine dusting of green on the glass is about all you should expect to get and that will be easily removed with a magnet cleaner

 

[dbacksrat]

you know you have too much when your snails die from overeating (or have it growing like little afros on their shells)

 

[yamahaguy06]

ha camaro a clean up crew will really do the job huh(or help a good amount)?

can you take a picture panguin?

 

[1979camaro]

cleanup crew is an integral part of any SW system in my opinion

 

[dbacksrat]

i agree w/ camaro 100%, but a cleanup crew can only go so far: you have to figure out where your algae obtains its nutrients (water, salt mix, overfeeding, etc) and fix the problem at the source

 

[yamahaguy06]

man I need one, the LFS never sugested it at all, now what or how many snails, crabs do you guys think I need. or a good size crew for my tank? (60 gal.)

 

[1979camaro]

i think one turbo, 5 nassarius, and 10 other smaller snails (margarita, trocheus, cerith, etc) will be good as far as snails go. these will help keep the sandbed clean and the glass walls/LR clean of diatoms and softer coating type algaes

i think an emerald crab would make a good addition to your tank as well as 10 or so smaller hermits (scarlet reef, dwarf blue, dwarf red, or left handed). this should handle any vallonia (bubble algae), hair algae, and denser tufty type stuff that pops up

they will also all take care of uneaten food

make sureyour nitrites and ammonia are zero and your nitrates are low before introducing

 

[yamahaguy06]

I am going to buy some, do you think my LFS should have all that? I know I have seen hermits there but I dont know about snail. those guys shouls run me about 30$??

 

[1979camaro]

should have it

dwarf hermits are usually $1 to $2 each same with the smaller snails. emerald crab is about $6 to $8 each usually and the turbos are usually $5 or so

 

[willthepenguin]

ok, i have one peice of awesomly shaped rock, was a 12 pound rock, its like cmpletely covered, abd i bought this snail who has an alga afro, and i think it may came from it, ima clean it up today,

 

[1979camaro]

well, even if the snail brought the algae in (which i think is what you are saying) it wouldn't have spread to cover the entire rock unless there was a source of nutrients present (the culprit is usually nitrates or phosphates)

 

[dbacksrat]

just a warning for everyone: check your snails that you buy from the lfs for hitchikers--i bought one with little white snails on the bottom of it (pyrams)

 

[yamahaguy06]

umm, if one of you snails doent move for like 24 hours it is prob dead huh. how can you tell? I think one ofd mine died( all the rest move all over and clean? I poped the little guy of the glass and it just sunk to the bottem(still didn't move??

 

[1979camaro]

if he was still stuck to the glass he at least was alive...even if it is dead you might as well just leave it in there because a crab will probably move into the shell eventually

 

[yamahaguy06]

ok, lol, will do, but I think he is still alive. so not yet. mucho gracias

 

[jammerz]

today i bought 30 nassarius snails. 10 for my new refugium, and 20 for my 80 display tank. When i changed out the crushed coral to sand, i also used g.a.r.f grunge. So now i have alot of dirt looking stuff on top of the sand(detrius?). I have like 3 or 4 turbos and a grip of crabs and other snails but the guy at the LFS said i need like 1 nassarius/gallon is this true? could i ever have to many? What else is good to airate the sand bed?

 

[1979camaro]

you don't need that many....20 ought to be plenty (that rhymes)...a couple sand sifting stars will help too