Triggers and Clean-Up Crews?

[vamaro]

I know I can't be the only guy with triggers that like to kill snails. I am struggling to control the green algae in my tank because my triggers kill turbos within hours of placing them in the tank. What is everyone else using for a clean up crew in a trigger tank?

I am also thinking about pulling out a few bulbs in my light. I don't have corals so I can get away with less lights.

 

[enjetek]

Are you talking about hair algae? If so, then use ro di water and watch for leftover food. If not them get some fish that can eat algae. Oh yea, and you are the clean up crew in an aggressive tank.

 

[vamaro]

Already using RO/DI water. No food is left over in this tank. In the past, I had about 30 snails which did a great job at keeping it clean. I picked up a golden heart trigger a couple of months ago that loves to kill snails. He rips them off the rock and flips them over for a quick meal. I may need to increase my GFO.

 

[enjetek]

Yea if it's hair algae gfo will help. For other algae you can try like a kole tang hopefully you ght isn't too aggressive.

 

[vamaro]

Bulbs are only a few months old.

 

[Wolverine]

You won't have luck with snails. I've had some success keeping small hermits in these tanks. You'll lose a few, but the rest will quickly learn to hide under the rocks until the lights are off.
The problem is that small hermits are not terribly effective against hair algaes.

 

[humaguy]

I have both small and large hermits in my tank...as well as many snails....they learn to come out at night and hide during the day....

 

[zippodcr]

how about brittle stars or other sand-sifters? Any luck with those and the trigger?

 

[EdKruzel]

For a FOWLR you should have minimum lighting, some only put the lights on when viewing the tank or when guests are over. I had regular florescent lighting on a similar set up and cycled the lights for about 6hrs during the time frame we were home. Hopefully you have an efficient and over-sized skimmer. The addition of nightly Kalkwasser (slow drip) and reducing the lighting will help eliminate the hair algae and put a nice thick coat of purple coralline on your rock.