How effective are snails?

[CEverii]

I'm fighting an everlasting battle with algae. I have maybe 3 snails in my tank now. It's a new setup so I know algae will be present, but it feels like every two days I've got to scrub the caked on algae off the glass. Just wondering if I bought say, 20 more how much help they would be.

[fishboy444]

what kind of snails?Might wanna get some more.

[CEverii]

Originally Posted by fishboy444

what kind of snails?Might wanna get some more.

Not sure. They came with the LR. Was looking into some Turbo Snails

[austinsdad]

What are your phosphate and nitrate readings? There's something casuing algae that heavy if that bad in only 2 days I think.

How long are your lights on too? And also tell me if the tank is near window light. Last question. What are you feeding and how often?

[Kurt_Nelson]

Originally Posted by CEverii

... but it feels like every two days I've got to scrub the caked on algae off the glass. ...

Are we just talking about the light green or brown coating that covers the glass? Or are we talking hair algae, or something with some type of "leaf" to it?

You're going to have to scrub the glass every couple days... that's just part of keeping a tank. The snails will make cute little tracks across it, but they won't keep it clean. That's what cleaner magnets are for.

[ryshark]

Originally Posted by austinsdad

What are your phosphate and nitrate readings? There's something casuing algae that heavy if that bad in only 2 days I think.

How long are your lights on too? And also tell me if the tank is near window light. Last question. What are you feeding and how often?

We need to know this info above. To me it sounds like you have too many nutrients in the water and probably have the lights on too long causing algae to grow faster than normal. If it is that "caked on" then the snails wont make enough of a difference.

[austinsdad]

Heavy algae on the glass is not good IMO. Light, soft, green stuff is expected. However, I can say that when I was really into water changes, up to date lighting, and low phosphate habits (feeding cuations, RO/Di for top-offs and PWC's, etc) my front glass seemed to stay cleaner a lot longer. I think you'll have to find your culprit it its that bad.

[CEverii]

Originally Posted by austinsdad

What are your phosphate and nitrate readings? There's something casuing algae that heavy if that bad in only 2 days I think.

How long are your lights on too? And also tell me if the tank is near window light. Last question. What are you feeding and how often?

Not sure about my phosphate readings. My Nitrate reading are good. Usually a constant 0. My lights are on for about 10 hours a day. For food, im feeding 1/2 cube brine shrimp for my scooter blenny, and about a pinch of flake for my clouns/peppermint shrimp/hermits daily.

[CEverii]

Originally Posted by Kurt_Nelson

Are we just talking about the light green or brown coating that covers the glass? Or are we talking hair algae, or something with some type of "leaf" to it?

You're going to have to scrub the glass every couple days... that's just part of keeping a tank. The snails will make cute little tracks across it, but they won't keep it clean. That's what cleaner magnets are for.

For the most part its just a thin layer of green algae that if left alone long enough start getting some purple spots. Sometimes after a week w/o a scrub it looks like little plants. However on my powerheads and overflow box which I have never scrubbed, there is some nice think long wavy thread like hair algae growing off of it. Not too long, but theres a lot of coraline (spelling?) algae growing over/around it, so I havent touched it.

[austinsdad]

OK, check the phosphate levels when ya can. Frozen shrimp cubes and flakes are notorius for adding phosphates to a system. Gotta rinse those cubes off in FW and consider tyring something other than the flakes so regularly.