Feel like I just had an epithany in my lifelong battle against algae

John08007

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feel like my entire reef life has been a battle against cyano, gha, chrysophytes, and bubble algae. My current battle is gha, my nitrates test 0. I tried to add chaeto to my sump thinking that the nitrate is testing 0 because the gha is using it up asap. I've always bought 1-2 emerald crabs, my lfs now has them for $6 so I've bought 8 for my 75gal cube. Overnight these guys have scrapped some rocks clean.

I am thinking now that I have these guys I can get my nitrate up to grow chaeto. Going forward the chaeto will absorb the nitrate to the point that the gha will be so minor that the clean up crew will handle it. Seem reasonable? Never realized these guys were so important.
 
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John08007

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And snails - 3 per gallon

I have about 10 of the astrea ones along with probably 10 blue leg hermits that have been in there for yrs. How many emerald crabs do you think? Is there anything that would consume the tan detritus that accumulates in the spots with minimal flow? I try to blow it around with a baster.
 

codycolina707

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feel like my entire reef life has been a battle against cyano, gha, chrysophytes, and bubble algae. My current battle is gha, my nitrates test 0. I tried to add chaeto to my sump thinking that the nitrate is testing 0 because the gha is using it up asap. I've always bought 1-2 emerald crabs, my lfs now has them for $6 so I've bought 8 for my 75gal cube. Overnight these guys have scrapped some rocks clean.

I am thinking now that I have these guys I can get my nitrate up to grow chaeto. Going forward the chaeto will absorb the nitrate to the point that the gha will be so minor that the clean up crew will handle it. Seem reasonable? Never realized these guys were so important.
sea hare for gha i have a massive outbreak and this guy is mowing it down pretty good
 
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John08007

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Get a small army of dwarf ceriths. The are by far the best thing I added to my clean up crew. I’m about ready to boot my emeralds as they keep crawling over corals and stealing food.
How long do they live for? They're only .17 on real cleaners, I could get 100-200 of them very cheap. How many do you have and what size tank?
 

X-37B

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I had to remove several emerald crabs that constantly pick at my acros.
Still have a few small ones though as they are hard to remove.
Best results when I had gha was 1/2 dose of fluconazole and after it was beaten back and 90% gone I added 40 astrea snails to my 120. Just added 15 more yesterday and no visable algae any where.
I added about 15 3 weeks ago to my 45 frag system that had gha on the rocks but it was very short.
Still a small amount left as I added 10 more yesterday.
I have around 10 turbos in the 120 but the astrea rock the gha!
Scarlet leg hermits, around 10 in my 120 help too.
 

Sticker shock

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How long do they live for? They're only .17 on real cleaners, I could get 100-200 of them very cheap. How many do you have and what size tank?
I have a standard 75 gallon tank. No idea how many I have as they are all over the place. Got a starter pack from reef cleaners a year ago and they are still going strong. I'm going to estimate that I got about 50-75 (might have been more) in that pack and they are still out and about every night. And because they are so small I had no issues with them knocking over frags. My Trocus on the other hand keep knocking everything thing over.
 
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Sticker shock

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Should also add the my stomatellas do a good job as well. And I have seen them spawning in the tank. So also worth considering some of these.
I went from lots of algae to diatoms to cyano to basically no algae at this point. Didn't happen over night for sure, but I'm happy with it right now.
 
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