Can I add a lawnmower blenny or am I overstocking?

John A!10

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So I have a 30-gallon tank with plenty of live rock and sand. My filtration is a 10-gallon sump with lots of bio balls and chaeto. I do 5-gallon water changes every other week and don't run a skimmer.

My stocking:
-2 percs
-1 firefish
-1 diamond goby

They are all living peacefully together and was hoping I could add a lawnmower blenny without overstocking my tank. I've been getting some algae on the glass on the back of my tank which is very difficult to reach I was hoping a lawnmower blenny could help me. I've added about 10 snails over the course of the year my tank has been running, but they all seem to die after about a month. This could be from my 5 hermits.
 

Sosuke

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My lawnmower blenny won't eat anything but algae and picks at rocks so he does a great job cleaning but its a hit or miss whether yours will clean algae. +1 An urchin or chiton could work too.
 

ScottR

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Lawnmowers aren’t really good at taking care of film algae on glass. They will peck at the glass but not take care of a problem. Scraping is the best tool for the job. 5 hermits in a 30g might be a bit much depending on who you ask. If snails are dying but all other inverts are doing well, perhaps there’s not enough food?
 
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John A!10

John A!10

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And I’d ask: what kind of snails? They don’t all share the same diet.
Turbo snails. They just die idk why. I added one to the sump with so much hair algae but It died 2 weeks later. Maybe a discussion for a different thread.
 
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John A!10

John A!10

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I wanted to add a royal gramma but after seeing the algae on the glass I switched. Now I think I will get a royal gramma and an urchin. Will a royal gramma fit? Which urchin will stay relatively small?
 

ScottR

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Turbo snails. They just die idk why. I added one to the sump with so much hair algae but It died 2 weeks later. Maybe a discussion for a different thread.
What kind of algae do you have? I just saw your build thread and it’s a new tank. Perhaps you have a diatom bloom. I think newer reefers see algae as a bad thing. It’s actually normal and common. There’s an old saying: if you can’t grow algae, you can’t grow corals.
 
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John A!10

John A!10

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What kind of algae do you have? I just saw your build thread and it’s a new tank. Perhaps you have a diatom bloom. I think newer reefers see algae as a bad thing. It’s actually normal and common. There’s an old saying: if you can’t grow algae, you can’t grow corals.
I've been reefing forever this is common algae but isn't growing on rock only algae. The algae growing in my sump is hair algae for sure. (I could send pics later). I know it wasn't starvation because they were eating the algae before dying. The tank was set up 1 year ago. The build thread was started a year ago.
 
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John A!10

John A!10

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What kind of algae do you have? I just saw your build thread and it’s a new tank. Perhaps you have a diatom bloom. I think newer reefers see algae as a bad thing. It’s actually normal and common. There’s an old saying: if you can’t grow algae, you can’t grow corals.
You probably saw February 2020 and thought it said 2021.
 

ScottR

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I've been reefing forever this is common algae but isn't growing on rock only algae. The algae growing in my sump is hair algae for sure. (I could send pics later). I know it wasn't starvation because they were eating the algae before dying. The tank was set up 1 year ago. The build thread was started a year ago.
Are you running a fuge?
 
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John A!10

John A!10

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Let's try to stick to the algae eater and fish stocking. I'll start a different thread later to figure out what is going on with the snails. Which urchin do you guys recommend, and how fast do they clean.
 

ZoWhat

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Forget the lawnmower and get an short spine black urchin is you're serious about removing rock algae

20210407_112533.jpg
 
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John A!10

John A!10

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Ok, so I'm going to try to get an urchin. Also, how about a royal gramma will that be overstocking or will it fit?
 

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