question about turbos

[danielp]

Hi

Guys how many turbo snails would you recommend for 30 gal tank? I have some green algea, are they gonna help me?
thanks

 

[THB]

I have one for every ten gallons. They are like little bush-hogs. Unless you are seriously covered up with algae three is probably enough. I add clean up crew members slowly so they don't eat up their entire food source and then starve.

 

[Chad Vossen]

i have seen some wonderful things done with turbo snails. but they dont really help you solve a problem.

first of all things, ask yourself why you have green algae in the first place.
then concider a skimmer that is rated for double or more than your water volume, and/or think about if you are over feeding your fish.
if you think you need snails, concider a large refugium with lots of chaeto macro algae to suck up the nutrients faster than your hair algae. this way when the snails recycle the nutrients from the bad algae, it gets used by the good algae and is easily removed.

basicaly, a turbo snail will eat most algaes, does a wonderful job at it too, but that plant matter doesnt leave the tank! it gets pooped out, decays and releases the nutrients back into the system. only to fuel more algae growth.

plus turbo snails are able to push your frags around and knock small rocks and coral frags off of your rockwork.

if you upgrade to a skimmer that is rated 2x your water volume and get it going plus a water change once a month, within the first few days your hair algae will show stress and soon after will turn white and die off. thats how i solved my hair algae problem.