In aggressive tank what will eat algae off of glass????

[amp123dime]

I have a dogface puffer and some emerald crabs and I have bought lots of snails everyone of them turned into dinner. Cleaner shrimp are a nice treat for the puffer. And I had a sea urchin meet his demise from the killer crabs and evil puffer.( Questionable whether or not the poisinous urchin died from the tank mates or just stress from the trip home) what else in thel world of saltwater can munce down some algae on the tank glass without death.???? any input would help

 

[pinkie]

You should be able to keep a lawnmower blenny. I have one in with a dogfaced puffer, spiny box puffer, volitan lionfish, and even a 18" eel and none of them have bothered the blenny at all. The best thing to do though it to just keep algae growth to a minimum by restricting your lighting and not overfeeding the tank.

 

[timbo2]

Mag-Floats and Razor Blades....

 

[amp123dime]

reply

My lighting schedule is like 8am to 8pm when I go to work and when I go to bed Too Much??? and I dont really overfeed the puffer eats every ounce of meal worm and frozen krill I feed him and my damsels get the rest of what the puffer doesn't eat.. He is a pig I even fed him part of my pork chop from dinner a week ago and the puffer shredded it.

 

[melosu58]

Instead of getting animals to take care of this problem lets figure out what is causing this. Getting animals is just a bandaid solution to the problem. Here are two links with some good info to help you get the nuisance algea under control.

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/article_view.php?faq=2&fldAuto=14

http://www.fantasyreef.com/database/index.php?p=getitem&db_id=11&item_id=5

 

[Sadielynn]

The only thing that is safe is a guarded hand and a mag float. I have heard of folks using hermits with LOTS of scattered shells to confuse the residents . The one thing that we take for granit in our reefs is our clean up crews . With an agressive tank you will need to increase your water chages to about 30 % per week or heavy skimming. Also try to cut the lights to something like 10 am to 8 pm (we shortened ours and increased water changes to help when we had puffers ) They are very messy eaters that will pollute the water quickly so feeding them daily is a sure fire way to kick off algea insted try feeding 2 times aweek watch thier bellies tho if they start to sink increase feedings to 3 times a week and so on till you find the "right " schedule for you .

 

[Devilishturtles]

Try reducing your lighting period to more like 8 hours a day a see if your algae problem lessens. It'd be a good idea to look at the articles that melosu58 posted as well. Else I agree a mag cleaner might be your best investment because whatever you put in the tank is just going to become a snack.

 

[amp123dime]

The lady at the fish store told me that new tanks a lot of time have that issue and that it will go away and sometimes come back??? my tank has been established about 10 weeks is this maybe new tank syndrome if so how long does it typically last on avg??// And why is this an issue for a new tank is it because the bacteria are still baby's and not capable of handling the bioload??? forgive my lack of expertise and dumb questions still a newby.

 

[Sadielynn]

You are correct that it is common in new tanks because A: there are alot of nutrients in the tank that your bacteria is not at maxium capacity yet .. B: there is a new stress on the current bacteria , C: possibly due to novilty of the new tank and keeping lights on longer than really needed or the "right" ammount/time of light ..
PS no question is ever dumb , just the answers We were all newbies at one time or another !

 

[seaham358]

10 weeks!!!! Take things slow and try not to add any new critters. Only bad things happen fast in this hobby.
What does the algae look like? brown, green, dusty like or grass?
Urchin is not the answer not all eat nuisance algae some need a mature tank with coraline algae.

 

[amp123dime]

it was a brownish semi-green algae Yesterday I changed 50% of the water and scrubbed everything down for like an hour and changed my carbon filters and rinsed my filter media in old tank water.. I added some of the tetra EasyBalance with Nitraban. My tank is crystal clear now and the extreme fishy ocean water smell is not as extreme. I have never used the EasyBalance did I do the right thing what exactly does the chemical do??? Also an unrelated question my puffer I have noticed changes colors quite often when he is up dancing and playing around he is a lighter solid color. And when he is taking it easy and just chilling by the rocks he gets brown stripes like camoflauge. How does a fish exactly change his color (never understood it with iguanas either) what in their skin gives them the ability to do that.