ewelch
Aquarium Advice Regular
I have a 30 gallon tank that is just finishing its cycle and I have a brown algae bloom going on . What do I add after my water change for a clean up crew? Any suggestions. I heard turbo snails. How many?
Clean up crew?
- Thread starter ewelch
- Start date
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aznbob
Aquarium Advice Regular
Get some snails and hermits. For a 30 gallon I would go with about 15 of each, maybe even more.
ewelch
Aquarium Advice Regular
Thank you for your advice.
Snails and hermits will help with the algae? I really hate this stuff. It is not that bad yet but I want to get rid of it before it is. 30 is a good #? There is nothing in the tank right now except liverock.
Snails and hermits will help with the algae? I really hate this stuff. It is not that bad yet but I want to get rid of it before it is. 30 is a good #? There is nothing in the tank right now except liverock.
Yeah, 30 sounds good..
Keep in mind they take a little bit of time to get the initial fallout of algae, so don't look at the tank after a couple days and say you need more...
You'd just end up starving the excess in the long run..
Keep in mind they take a little bit of time to get the initial fallout of algae, so don't look at the tank after a couple days and say you need more...
You'd just end up starving the excess in the long run..
ewelch
Aquarium Advice Regular
THank you. I am so anxious to get some real life into the tank. I watch my live rock continuously. Just tonight I noticed a 'new' tiny circular looking brownish yellow thing. It is small but looks cool. Just need to get rid of the algae. These cleaners won't hurt the tender new live on the live rock will they?
sdellin
Aquarium Advice Addict
You will get an algae bloom with a new tank, but shouldn't that die out after it's cycled and broken in?
I'm not a fan of adding large numbers of snails and hermits. I have a 55G tank, with four turbos, 2 nassarius' and one hermit. If you add a bunch of snails and the bloom dies off, the snails will starve. They are cheap, but they are still living things.
Congrats, ewelch, on your new tank. Take your time adding life slowly to avoid losses. Good luck.
I'm not a fan of adding large numbers of snails and hermits. I have a 55G tank, with four turbos, 2 nassarius' and one hermit. If you add a bunch of snails and the bloom dies off, the snails will starve. They are cheap, but they are still living things.
Congrats, ewelch, on your new tank. Take your time adding life slowly to avoid losses. Good luck.
ewelch
Aquarium Advice Regular
Thanks I will take it slow. The bloom is not out of control. It is on the rock and spotty on the substrate. Maybe I will add 3 or 4 critters to my tank to start. I appreciate the responses. I guess I can always add more if need arises. My lfs (if you want to call it that) is 40 minutes away. I like to get what I need when I am there.
By the way this forum has been the best source of information I have found. Thanks to all.
By the way this forum has been the best source of information I have found. Thanks to all.
sdellin
Aquarium Advice Addict
One other thing I found when I first got started...
I had live rock and my tank was all set up and cycled. Then a friend gave me a bunch of rock, just rock, not live rock, from his freshwater tank. I called my lfs and they told me I should be able to use it since it's fish-safe. Well, I found out later that when you add dead rock, it has to get populated and go through the diatom algae process. Well, don't add too much dead rock all at once. I had another rather large diatom bloom! It corrected itself in a relatively short amount of time, but it was rather ugly during the process.
Later, I asked the lfs about this and they said, "Yeah, you can't add a lot of it at once." THANKS GUYS for giving me ALL the information I needed BEFORE I needed it! NOT!
I had live rock and my tank was all set up and cycled. Then a friend gave me a bunch of rock, just rock, not live rock, from his freshwater tank. I called my lfs and they told me I should be able to use it since it's fish-safe. Well, I found out later that when you add dead rock, it has to get populated and go through the diatom algae process. Well, don't add too much dead rock all at once. I had another rather large diatom bloom! It corrected itself in a relatively short amount of time, but it was rather ugly during the process.
Later, I asked the lfs about this and they said, "Yeah, you can't add a lot of it at once." THANKS GUYS for giving me ALL the information I needed BEFORE I needed it! NOT!
DragonForce
Aquarium Advice FINatic
I personally think 1 snail for every gallon really helps out. In a 30g I would go with 10 nassarius snails and 20 astrea/margurita snails. I also like having 1 hermit for every 2 gallons. Snails and hermits are a great addition because they help keep algae down, they eat leftover food that your fish don't eat, they stir up the sand bed, and if one of your animals die they will clean up the body in a matter of hours before the carcas can foul up your water.
DragonForce
Aquarium Advice FINatic
I personally think 1 snail for every gallon really helps out. In a 30g I would go with 10 nassarius snails and 20 astrea/margurita snails. I also like having 1 hermit for every 2 gallons. Snails and hermits are a great addition because they help keep algae down, they eat leftover food that your fish don't eat, they stir up the sand bed, and if one of your animals die they will clean up the body in a matter of hours before the carcas can foul up your water.
http://www.fantasyreef.com/database/index.php?p=getdb&db_id=1
Click on the link that says "good all around cleaner" and about 3 pages of items will show up. I think it is good to get a variety of items.
Click on the link that says "good all around cleaner" and about 3 pages of items will show up. I think it is good to get a variety of items.
