green hair algea on snails

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You could pick them up and just scrub it off. Take a small bucket of tank water to do the scrubbing in, keeping them under water as much as possible. Did they have it when purchased or did it grow on them in your tank? If it has grown while they were in your tank you should start doing more water changes, less feeding, less light, ect so you dont get a hair algae outbreak in the tank.
 
Your snails are growing it on purpose to make them look bigger to predators and to look seksi to the female snails.

I would just pull them out and clean them off
 
They grew it in my tank, my tank is only 5 weeks old and my lfs guy said after adding the snails, clowns and hermits to let things settle in for a few weeks doing only minimal w/c and keeping eye on water quality. He also said to scrub then dip just shell in fresh ro water, is the right thing to do?
 
Wow that is backwards logic. He's asking you to maintain water quality by not doing water changes? And no freshwater will probably not kill all the algae. Get your parameters in control and it should go away on its own.
 
Well the LFS guy was right to let it settle as in adding no fish for awhile but i would not recommend minimal water changes. What tests are you using? If there is hair algae growing in the tank then that means there is an imbalance in the water quality and more changes are needed.

I don't see much harm in dipping just the shell in fresh water if the water was the same temp as the tank...I would personally only scrub it off in the actual tank water though...less stressful for the snail I'd think
 
But my parameters all look alright using both a quick strip daily for nitites, nitrates, ph and twice weekly with API liquid kit. ( master test for saltwater)
 
I don't trust my lfs or the next closest thing as Iive in a rural area and the science and selection is lacking...............aka Indiana and not Indianapolis
 
The test kits are not always accurate plus the algae could be consuming some of the nitrite/nitrate making the tests look lower than they actually are. If the algae is growing it means there must be extra nutrients. I'm sure water changes will help. You do not want to chance an algae break out...trust me its hard to get rid of once its grown. Cutting back on lighting and feeding will also help (you shouldn't be feeding much or at all anyways since you have no fish...and no corals means you wont need much light either)
 
Brine shrimp is not nutritious to the fish at all, I have heard people comparing it to us living off of potato chips. It is okay for the odd treat now and then but i would suggest you get mysis shrimp. I feed my tanks a variety of mysis, blood worms, flakes, and a small amount of brine sometimes. When you feed do you use the whole cube? If so that is way too much and would definitely encourage algae growth. Feeding every other day is actually recommended for saltwater fish (unless you have something like a seahorse which needs multiple feedings a day), feeding every day is unnecessary.

Also when feeding with the cubes you should thaw the cube and rinse the shrimp before adding it to the tank. The gunk the shrimp are frozen in will pollute the tank more. I use a small cup with some water in it to thaw the shrimp then either tweezer the amount i need out or use a net to strain it out.
 
There is quite a few things you can do to prevent or kill off an algae outbreak. For you i would start mainly on some water changes using RO/DI water (tap can have minerals/chemicals that throw off the tanks balance)

FantasyReef Databases-Viewing item "10 Step Plan for Nuisance Algae Control"

This list is very useful...mostly everything i said is in it actually lol

I hope your algae doesn't get worse. I'm still fighting an outbreak in my nano...its SLOWLY getting better :)
 
Kms907 I will read the list , when I feed. I thaw the cube in ta nk water in a cup the with a spoon put three or four in at a time without water so they can eat before hits ground. If not brine shrimp then what?
 
Just like humans a varied diet is best. Pelleted, frozen and even dried food soaked in a vitamin like Selcon is great for your fish. There are lots of choices out there.
PS: Welcome to AA!
 
Mysis shrimp is very nutritious and it comes in frozen cubes just like the brine does. They are larger than the brine but you can get mini mysis which are about the same size as brine. There are a lot of different frozen cube options actually. (squid, variety packs which is like mysis algae and brine all mixed together, blood worms, ect)

and yes a varied diet is definitely best...I feed flake when im in too much of a hurry to thaw out shrimp haha
 
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