Brown algae driving us crazy!

[bpeitzke]

I see. I'll get some next trip to LFS. But we have no cleanup crew. Puffer would just eat any shrimp or hermits. Might not bother large snails - we tried some but they died, not from puffer. I think some snails are better than others, and do have some notes on that. Think we should try some? I've heard that Turbos, Astrea's & Cerith's can't right selves, so they're out. What about Nassarius, Nerite, Bumblebee, Margarita, Trochus? Any other cleaning critters that puffer wouldn't eat?

BTW we have a CC substrate, >= 2". Wonder if sand would be better. Obvously changeover would take time.

Thx,

- Bob

 

[tecwzrd]

A puffer’s natural diet in the wild consists of snails so I wouldn’t try any personally. As a side note most snails have a hard time righting themselves IME but mine usually stay right side up. I think they learn over time not to just let go of the rock/glass causing them to end upside down in the first place.

CC would help limit waste build up but as long as you keep your no3 below 20 ppm I wouldn’t worry about it.

 

[bpeitzke]

So no hope of a cleaning crew while we have puffer. He may outlive us (sigh).

I take it the CC is as good as sand.

 

[tecwzrd]

Sorry, I meant to say replacing the CC would limit waste build up.

In your case since a clean up crew is out of the equation I wouldn’t change it out unless you have a hard time keeping your no3 below 20 ppm.

Aragonite sand is much better then CC if you can have sand shifting inverts to keep the bed healthy and stirred up.

A sand bed of 4+” depending on grain size will generate oxygen deprived bacteria that convert your no3 to nitrogen.

Using CC can trap waste more easily (since inverts can’t get to it) and limits sand stirring inverts/fish (neither of which you can have)

As long as you vacuum the CC on a regular basis it should be fine.

P.S. Some puffers live to be 20+ years old.

 

[bpeitzke]

Our NO3 has been running ~ 15.

I didn't know about the possibility of anaerobic bacteria to break down NO3. But if we stirred the DSB wouldn't that introduce O2 & kill them?

With our CC base we've been vacuuming as best we can (not very well) and stirring it up by hand.

I suppose puffer would eat a starfish too, and anyway I think they're only compatible with sand, not CC.