Trying to put together a decent clean-up crew.

kingtoad

kingtoad

New member
I had to quarantine my fish... Angel and Tank. I really underestimated how great housekeepers they were until they were out of my main tank. In as little as a day or two after I took out my Tang and Angel, I started to notice hair algae forming. Now, almost two weeks later, I've basically got an infestation of hair algae, and patches of dark brown algae here and there.

I have two emerald crabs. Two small hermit crabs. A 2" big electric blue hermit crab. And last night I added about 5 nassarius snails. I also have some other misc. snails which I'm unable to identify, one of which is very large and likes to hang onto the rock eating away--he does a great job... but I think they're nassarius as well considering their behavior.

It's a 60 gallon tank, with a pretty bad algae problem right now. Beleive me when I say my crabs and snails absolutely love it in there, but it's definatly not attractive at all.

Given that bit of background info, what would you suggest I purchase for a clean up crew? More snails? Crabs? Or what other type of fish that will do fine in a 60 gallon and loves to eat algae?
 
I'd toss in 30 astreas, 5 mexican turbo snails, 10 nassarius, and 10 ceriths. I'd also get some red legs about 20 of them.

If you are getting hair algae that bad, I would use snails to solve it though. I would find the root of the problem.

Are you using reverse osmosis water?
How often is your water changes?
How many fish? I assume 2.
How big are they?
Do you feed alot?

Just a few things you might want to look into.
 
I avoid hermit crabs these days because I got tired of the predation. They are fun to watch, though. The large one might be worth watching for signs of trouble.

IPSF.com sells a snail kit for a 75g tank that I like, although I'd skip the micro-hermits. If you can buy snails locally, I'd just add a few now and then as the need became apparent. Too many snails just leads to mass starvation. I'd guess you'd need 4-5 Trochus and maybe 5-6 cerith for that size tank, depending on a lot of factors.

Nassarius vibex eat only leftover food, so they won't help directly with an algae problem. More than 5 is probably a bad idea unless you want to add food for them, which is fine, but they aren't really cleanup at that point.
 
I also bought my nassarius to stir the sand. I've also seen them climbing on my rocks? It looked like they were eating algae, but I'm not sure... probably not. When you say 10 nassarius, do you mean 5 more? Or 10 more? Because I already have 5. I'm going to pick up some turbo's and astreas. 30 astreas though? Isn't that a LOT?

jay24k...
Yes, I use RO water
10% water change every week.
5 fish. One bicolor dwarf, one black cap basslet, one true percula, two blue green chromis. I may give up my blue green chromis however.
I feed a quarter cube of mysis shrimp every 2 days.
They are all small fish, except my bi-color dwarf... he's the largest one and he's about 2 and 1/2" long.

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrates: 25
Temps 78 - 82

Bertoni, thanks. I'm going to just keep what I have and probably buy some Astreas and Turbo snails. Besides, I hear they reproduce like crazy. I was also thinking of avoiding hermits, since I already have one large one, and he does a great job! He's constantly eating... the down side is that he's constantly pooping too. Decorating my rocks in his waste. What can I do to solve this problem as well?

I appreciate both of your help. Thanks.
 
Hmm, hermit waste... I don't know, don't the bristleworms deal with it? Maybe some cerith.

Your "Nassarius" might not be Nassarius. Animals often get mislabeled in this hobby. Hard to say, though.
 
Whoops I typoed. I would find the root of your problem, not fix it with snails.

I don't think 30 is alot personally. But it depends on your algae situation.

I just ordered a cleanup crew as I do yearly. I added 80 astreas for my 180 and a slew of other ones. Try 10 more and see if anything changes. I think you should try to find the root like I mentioned as snails mask the problem not solve it.
 
That's a sign of snail starvation, IMO. The snails mentioned have lifespans of decades, in many cases. The yearly restocking is the result of not enough food to go around.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6914726#post6914726 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by bertoni
Hmm, hermit waste... I don't know, don't the bristleworms deal with it? Maybe some cerith.

Your "Nassarius" might not be Nassarius. Animals often get mislabeled in this hobby. Hard to say, though.
Click to expand...

I know Nassarius Snails by the shape of their shell. I suppose other snails could have killed them and stole their shell, that would make sense.

They were not labeled at the fish store. The fish store did not even carry them, they special ordered them for me, and held them for a couple weeks before I picked them up.

The shape of the shells look like this:

143.jpg


Let me say that I'm far from knowledgable, so I'll post a pic for reference. Here is a few just in case the others are hard to see. I cannot find the other snails, they must be burrowed.

1.jpg

2.jpg

3.jpg
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6914738#post6914738 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jay24k
Whoops I typoed. I would find the root of your problem, not fix it with snails.

I don't think 30 is alot personally. But it depends on your algae situation.

I just ordered a cleanup crew as I do yearly. I added 80 astreas for my 180 and a slew of other ones. Try 10 more and see if anything changes. I think you should try to find the root like I mentioned as snails mask the problem not solve it.
Click to expand...

Sorry, this is almost my third month into the hobby, I'm still very new. How do I go about finding the root of the problem?
 
Snails for hair algae? Hmm, never heard people having much luck with that. Worth a try, they're cheap. But you might consider a lawn mower blenny and in the mean time good advice about fixing the problem.
 
Make sure it's turbos (they plow right through it leaving nothing in their wake) and not the astreas, I haven't seen the astreas eat the green algae. A lot of the LFS try to sell the astreas as turbos.
 
What happens when you put your angle and tang back in? Your tank should go back the way it was. I made this mistake a while ago and ended up with a few dead snails and crabs. This continued until the balance of food and the amount of snails and crabs able to consume it balanced. You can definitely add a few sails and crabs and they will be fine, but I wouldnââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢t go overboard. Just something to think about.
 
Ditto like mentioned earlier. If you are having phosphate issues, you can try reduced feedings, macro algae in a sump or hang on refugium. If the tang keeps it in check, that would work but you would know as soon as the tang died or stopped picking, it would come back.

It could be your rock too. Could be saturated with phosphates/nutrients and as it is in the tank it is shredded. Also a nice oversized skimmer can help too.

It's tough but keep diligent and you will win it. I've personally never seen my turbos eat hair algae but I guess it is possible.
 
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