Avoiding the ugly stage?!?

[Exotrezy]

You ever seen a snail fight? Lol.... yes you start small and add to it as needed.

LOL, Ok Perfect

 

[Exotrezy]

If you are looking for stuff to eat your algae/diatoms then you need to buy snails for that... as I said... nerite, cernith, and trochus will do that. They all behave a little different.

Cerith go under the sand during the day and come out at night and will eat algae but also move the sand a bit.

Nerite will go on rocks and glass but also like to hang above the water line and will climb out if you don't have a lid

Trochus are all around good algae cleaners and can flip themselves over but more expensive.

There are many others...

Margaritias eat a good amount of algae but are cold water species and will die prematurely in our tropical tanks.

Astraea snails also algae eaters, common, cheap, but if/when they fall off the rock and land in the sand, they can't get up and if you don't help them flip, the hermit crabs will consume them.

Mexican turbos are great for hair algae but they are also cooler waters and life span may be shorter, they eat a lot and can starve if you don't have enough algae for them. They grow fairly big.

Nass snails will move in the sand but don't eat algae, they will eat left over fish food and anything that is sick or dying in your tank.


Better to buy less and have to add more than end up with too many that starve.


Pick out snails actively moving in the tank or are on the glass. Sometimes if they are just sitting on the bottom, they may be already dying or sometimes LFS will grab an empty shell (not check) and then you pay for an empty shell lol I usually just ask for the ones on the glass.

You ever seen a snail fight? Lol.... yes you start small and add to it as needed. I am just giving you an idea of what diversity and size is needed for a cleaner crew once the tank is established. It's part of a healthy ecosystem.

The tank look ok. You do not need to panic. Shout down the light until you get a CUC large enough. Its difficult to advise how large but if it had been my tank - I had started with around 10 algae eating snails and 5 hermits and started my light the day before introduction.

Sincerely Lasse

Can I keep my blue light on low for my coral?

 

[Lavey29]

Can I keep my blue light on low for my coral?

If you're gonna have the light on low initially run blue and UV spectrum

 

[Exotrezy]

If you're gonna have the light on low initially run blue and UV spectrum

What is UV spectrum? My light is a blackbox 165w light, It has 2 options a turn knob for white and one for blue. You can turn it on for white and blue to make purple and other similar colors.

 

[Lavey29]

What is UV spectrum? My light is a blackbox 165w light, It has 2 options a turn knob for white and one for blue. You can turn it on for white and blue to make purple and other similar colors.

If you have coral with that light then I would just stick with blue at low intensity. As you add more corals increase intensity slowly and add a little white for viewing pleasure.

 

[Exotrezy]

If you have coral with that light then I would just stick with blue at low intensity. As you add more corals increase intensity slowly and add a little white for viewing pleasure.

Oh ok

 

[Chenko]

People were recommending a Clean up crew

Copepods are part of the clean up crew :)

 

[Lasse]

I does not matter which wavelengths you use - its the intensity that matter but there is one advantage with the blue light - you don't see the algae and therefore don't panic ;)

If you want to learn about different spectra influence on corals, algae and other photosynthesizing organism - please read this thread

Natural light spectrum.. Why do we use these so much blue lights?

Good morning everyone. Below are some photos taken by a friend (yesterday and the day before yesterday) in the tropics while snorkeling.. (1 - 3 meters deep) As you can see the light spectrum in the Reefs is completely different from that of more than 90-95% of the event in our aquariums. Our...

www.reef2reef.com

Sincerely Lasse

 

[Subsea]

I does not matter which wavelengths you use - its the intensity that matter but there is one advantage with the blue light - you don't see the algae and therefore don't panic ;)

If you want to learn about different spectra influence on corals, algae and other photosynthesizing organism - please read this thread

Natural light spectrum.. Why do we use these so much blue lights?

Good morning everyone. Below are some photos taken by a friend (yesterday and the day before yesterday) in the tropics while snorkeling.. (1 - 3 meters deep) As you can see the light spectrum in the Reefs is completely different from that of more than 90-95% of the event in our aquariums. Our...

www.reef2reef.com

Sincerely Lasse

@Lasse
My brother,
I hope the New Year brings peace & health to you & yours.

“but there is one advantage with the blue light - you don't see the algae and therefore don't panic”

I see this as the new mantra of the techies that want to control and are not interested in understanding the ecosystem under their stewardship.

C’est La vie!

I am a Laissez Faire reefer as I emulate nature!

 

[Exotrezy]

Copepods are part of the clean up crew :)

I will buy those soon.

 

[jabberwock]

I bought the DI brand new in October from BRS and I haven't used it too much. Just to fill up my tank and top if off a couple times. Since I had to a fallow. I am getting 1 blue leg hermit crab, 1 red leg hermit crab, 2 nassarius snails, 1 mexican turbo snail, 2 bumblebee snails, and 1 trochus snail. Is that good?

I don't do Hermit crabs. If it's got claws, it breaks laws. They are snail killers.
Especially don't mix a red and a blue. That will be a fight for sure.

 

[Exotrezy]

I don't do Hermit crabs. If it's got claws, it breaks laws. They are snail killers.
Especially don't mix a red and a blue. That will be a fight for sure.

Are you sure they will fight?

 

[jabberwock]

Are you sure they will fight?

Absolutely

 

[Exotrezy]

Absolutely

Ok, so I will just get 3 blue hermits.

 

[jabberwock]

Ok, so I will just get 3 blue hermits.

Better, but they will attack the snails (for their shells).

 

[Exotrezy]

Better, but they will attack the snails (for their shells)

Well I need snails so what can I do?

 

[Exotrezy]

Better, but they will attack the snails (for their shells).

Can I add other shells or something?

 

[Chenko]

Plenty of snails survive, while some will become pray.

 

[jabberwock]

Can I add other shells or something?

You can, it might help. I did it, but there is something about a shell that is swaying back and forth that hermit crabs love...

You need snails, but do you NEED hermit crabs?

 

[Tamberav]

Extra shells help. My hermits always fight till there’s 1 so now I just keep 1 because he is fun to watch. They are opportunistic so will kill a snail if the snail looks helpless.