Turbo snail / green algae

[inspire0522]

I have a few turbo snails that will soon be going over to my new tank set up. Green hair algae has grown on there shell and I'm wondering if this will seed my new tank with this algae? Last thing i want is to get off to a bad start. Any way to clean them up or should this be nothing to worry about?
This leads me to another question. Once all my live stock has been transferred over to the new tank this will leave me with a nice empty 10g tank. I was thinking of using it for a QT or maybe to house some seahorse ( maybe ). Should i kill the lights and leave everything else running to help control the green hair algae? I want to take advantage of dealing with this problem now that it will be empty. Thanks

 

[dskidmore]

It is likely that you will bring over some of the hair algae on your rock. It wouldn't hurt though to try scrubbing the shells with something lightly abrasive before transfering the snails. (Plastic scrubbie, or algae sponge maybe.)

To really do a number on the algae, not only kill the lights but put a few blankets over the tank for a week, to keep it absolutely dark.

A QT is a good thing. If you don't have one yet, I vote you use the old tank for a QT.

 

[tecwzrd]

Hopefully you are doing a fishless cycle on the new tank. You can scrub the algae of the shells as dskidmore suggested but I’m more concerned why they have excessive algae on them in the first place.

Seeding your new tank with algae from the shells isn’t the issue since a properly maintained/stocked tank will not grow algae just because algae is introduced to the tank.

po4, high levels of no3, & old lighting are the main reason algae grows in tanks. Usually overstocking/overfeeding is the reason for high levels of no3/po4 and I would make sure you are doing neither.

How large is the new tank and what stock do you currently have in the 10 gal? Do you use ro/di water or know what levels of no3/po4 are in your tap?

Keep in mind that your new tank will still go through “new tank syndrome” and have a mild algae breakout no mater what you do. Keeping the lights off during the cycle will help keep it to a minimum and a decent clean up crew should take care of it within a couple of week/months.

Since you don’t have a qt tank now I would use the 10 gal as a qt tank or better yet get a 20 gal long depending on the size of the new tank. You should shoot for a qt tank about 40% the size of your main in case you have to qt your entire main tank for a couple of weeks.

 

[inspire0522]

tecwzrd this is absolutely a fishless cycle...thanks for the tip dskidmore... As for the algae... well it was my first sw tank and i think i was just being a noob about it, over feeding, lights on to long did not keep up with PWC, using well water =/. No more of that. I'm now keeping up on pwc with RO/DI and lights stay on 8hr a day or sometimes a little less. Trying to get into the swing of things for the past month or so. The algae seems to brush off the rock if i use a tooth brush something it would never do before. But water becomes really cloudy so i think i will wait until my live stock is in my new tank to do the rest. I will brush the snails today and see how that comes out.
Stocking in the 10g includes 1 maroon clown, 2 bubble bee snails, 2 turbo snails and 8 hermits. New tank size is a 51g 3rd week into the cycle. When should the clean up crew be added?

 

[tecwzrd]

All sounds good You can add the clean up crew once nh3/no2 is 0 and no3 is <10 ppm. I’d drip acclimate them to the new tank for 2 hours so they have time to adjust.

You can clean the rock off in a bucket of aged SW to help avoid the mess and then place back in the tank.