Algae on Snail's Shells...What to Do?

[Reefcorals]

I have about 6 Trochus snails which have copious amounts of hair and bubble algae growing from their shells. I have a 120 which is about 5 months old. Cycled using the Serious Reefs 90/10 method. TBS sand in display and live rock in sump. I am running a refugium with chaeto algae. I change 1.5 gallons each day. I have no corals yet in the display but I do have about 8 small to medium sized fish. My tank rock and sand have almost NO hair/bubble or other types of "uglies." Should I remove the snails? Should I put the snails in the sump or remove them completely? Or will the algae on their shells not effect anything else?

Thanks in advance to all who respond,

-Dave

 

[mmorrison55]

It may not be the best or recommended practice, but I’ve removed snails with heavy hair algae and used a stiff bristle toothbrush and some hydrogen peroxide on their shell. Of course, you wouldn’t want to submerge the snail, and you want to work as quickly as possible.

So far i have not lost a snail to this practice.

 

[mmorrison55]

I will add that if it’s not hair algae and just the green variety, it will eventually turn to coralline.

I actually try and pick out snails at the LFS that have coralline on them. It’s a great way to “seed” your tank if you are trying to get coralline to grow.

 

[slingfox]

It may not be the best or recommended practice, but I’ve removed snails with heavy hair algae and used a stiff bristle toothbrush and some hydrogen peroxide on their shell. Of course, you wouldn’t want to submerge the snail, and you want to work as quickly as possible.

So far i have not lost a snail to this practice.

This is exactly what I would do.

 

[mcarroll]

I have about 6 Trochus snails which have copious amounts of hair and bubble algae growing from their shells.

Sounds like you need more cleanup crew.

I have a 120 which is about 5 months old.

Not surprising about the CUC given the age of the tank....you will need to periodically upgrade your CUC as the tanks bio-load increases.

Cycled using the Serious Reefs 90/10 method.

No idea what this means.

TBS sand in display and live rock in sump.

Good move. Did you get any cool (or evil) hitchhikers?

I am running a refugium with chaeto algae.

Seems like the tank is too young. Are you running it because you saw others doing it or because of something that happened in your tank?? IMO decommission the light and just run a cryptic refugium until the tanks matures.

I change 1.5 gallons each day. I have no corals yet in the display but I do have about 8 small to medium sized fish.

If you intend on having corals, what are you waiting for?

My tank rock and sand have almost NO hair/bubble or other types of "uglies." Should I remove the snails? Should I put the snails in the sump or remove them completely? Or will the algae on their shells not effect anything else?

They are keeping other things clean then....so no don't remove them. You just need more so the snails themselves can get cleaned too. If you gently remove them from the glass and keep them underwater should shold be able to gently remove the algae if you want to. IMO it's not going to hurt anything though.

Don't sleep on upgrading your cleanup crew though. Six trochus snails is anywhere from 4-24 too few for a tank that size. Consider adding 6 turbo snails to the mix, or at least that many trochus or astreas.

Thanks in advance to all who respond,

-Dave

Good luck!