Adding livestock isn't going to help your algae issues, the excess nutrients are feeding the algae. Get your nitrates down below 5ppm and your phosphates below .05 and you'll starve the algae out. More livestock is just going to add nutrients when your already having nutrient issues. What size tank, stocking, maintenance, using ro/di?
But to answer your question, yes 20ppm is to high for snails too, I would say anything over 10ppm is way to high, 5 and down is the sweet spot IME.
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Right... I KNOW that you're a very passionate believer in pristine water conditions.
But in all honesty.. I'm not looking to keep an SPS dominated tank, I know it won't be perfect or anywhere near perfect for quite a while.
I'm still trying to get the grasp of things.
I've been reading A LOT of threads and message boards on the exact same topic, a huge amount of them contain people who, for the majority of the time, are saying that 20ppm isn't something that they'd even worry about.
I'm not saying that I want to keep it at that level, but for now, the Trates have been spot on 20ppm every time I've tested, at least it's consistent.
Phosphate has been stuck at 0.25ppm but this is using API's test... So god knows what it ACTUALLY is.
It's a 1.5month old 10G, stocked with a single small Perc, multiple Mushrooms, 2 Hermits and a Trochus, (I got the minuscule CUC yesterday).
I've been performing 15-20% water changes every couple days but plan on 1 a week in the future.
I use LFS bought RO (which I've just tested for Trates, it's at 0ppm).
I'm using LFS bought pre-mixed salt (until I get around to mixing my own), they use standard Tropic Marin salt (could this be a cause of Trates?)
Also, one last thing, aren't Diatoms and Algae's one of the signs of a new tank that's going well?
This is again, what I've been told.
Sorry if I've rambled on.
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