Saltwater aquarium cleaning

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amyconnor

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Jul 16, 2009
Messages
4
I was wondering if I could use vinegar instead of bleach to clean brown algae off my coral pieces or rock. Every time I use bleach I need reseed live rock. Does anybody try vinegar and will live rock be killed from it? What kind of vinegar is the best for this purpose. Should I dissolve it in water and in what proportions .Thanks!
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Vinegar, like bleach, will kill anything living on the live rock. Bacteria, good coralline algae... everything.

Why not just get some snails and let them do the cleaning for you? If it's a brown diatom bloom (rusty brown powder) that's covering the rocks, that's a fairly normal beginning stage for a tank that will eventually go away on it's own. Astrea and trochus snails will help eat it up too. If it's slimy algae, or hair-like algae, then that implies you have too many nutrients in your water or too long of a lighting period.
 
Vinegar, like bleach, will kill anything living on the live rock. Bacteria, good coralline algae... everything.

Why not just get some snails and let them do the cleaning for you? If it's a brown diatom bloom (rusty brown powder) that's covering the rocks, that's a fairly normal beginning stage for a tank that will eventually go away on it's own. Astrea and trochus snails will help eat it up too. If it's slimy algae, or hair-like algae, then that implies you have too many nutrients in your water or too long of a lighting period.

Thank You so much Kurt! I was never told about this method. I'll try snails definitely. Thanks again.
Amy
 
Trochus Snail

Trochus Snail are so cute. Sales person told me that I'll need one snail per gallon. But I purchased only ten for my 25 gallon tank. Hope they'll do the job. The guy also told me that Hermit crabs are great for cleaning, but I Google it and it appears that they will only eat what is on the rock and sand. Because I have lots of algae I'll stick with the snails.
Thanks again Kutr.
 
Those are some excellent looking corals you have there. Its nice to see corals of that caliber in a smaller tank.

.. if that is your tank, which i hope it is lol
 
Nassarius snails are great for stirring the sand. Trochus snails need to be uprighted if they fall on their shells, so keep an eye on them. I like nerites and margiritas as well.
 
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