snails in fuge?

[shuguley]

I am considering putting some snails in my fuge to eat all the crap that builds up there.

My fuge is a seperate 5 gallon rubbermaid type tub that sits above my sump and drains into the sump return section. I've got a ball of chaeto that has doubled in size in the last 2 weeks, and I have about 10 lbs of rock in there. My DT looks great, but my fuge looks terrible, lots of diatoms on the walls, a little hair algae and a bunch of waste on the bottom.

I know you want algae to grow in the fuge, but I don't want the walls to become so dark I can't see in there and so dark that they keep light from getting to the chaeto.

I was just wondering if snails would harm some of the life in the fuge, like chaeto, pods, bristle worms, etc., or if it is ok to put them in there to keep it tidy.

 

[tanker]

I have snails in my refugy.

 

[rf]

My fuge sounds similar to yours other than mine is 15 Gallons. I have 2 astrea snails and a red-leg hermit in mine and it hasn't done much to keep it much cleaner. But the purpose it too keep that junk algae out of the DT so I don't mind it as much.

 

[crvz]

snails won't hurt anything, but I'd sooner recommend siphoning the detritus out of the bottom of the fuge when you do water changes. Anything left to rot will cause algae problems, and snails arent going to eliminate the detritus (they may eat it, but then they're going to poop it out).