Need clean up crew

[dugthefish]

125g, made some mistakes, lost virtually everything several months ago. Have left tank alone other than sporadic water changes, two half-hearted "deep cleanings" with a toothbrush, and heavy skimming. Three small fish have survived on zero feedings in weeks. Theory was to just let it cycle itself and get stable.

Am loaded with hair, slime, and bubble algae and who knows what else covering everything but the few live corals in the tank. Growing in thick tufts and whispy webs, sometimes looks like the sandbed and rocks are covered in dust.

Help me clean this mess up. What can I put in here that will mow this down? Current clean up crew is a few scarlet hermits, emerald crabs, and some random snail's. Estimate 50-75 animals total. Lost all grazing fish, plan to introduce a new rabbit fish and tang or two in the future.

 

[Frais]

Turbo grazers. They knock out the algea in no time flat.

 

[MJ in Boise]

Trochus, zebra turbos, scarlet hermits, emerald crabs.

 

[LxHowler]

Mexican Turbo snails will eat very fast and help but can knock stuff about. Emerald crabs should help with bubble algae. My main clean up crew consists of banded trochus snails and astrea snails, they eat well and quick aswell as breed in the tank. I also love nassarius snails, they will bury themselfs and turn over the sand bed. I also have redleg hermits that will pick up uneaten food from the sand bed.

 

[Silver14SS]

Saltwater Algae Eater Invert Kits

Buy saltwater algae eaters for your aquarium at Pacific East Aquaculture. Our invert kits are carefully curated to offer species that will rid your tank of many types of algae! Learn more about algae eaters for sale online at Pacific East Aquaculture today.

pacificeastaquaculture.com

Lots of helpful critters here and a great vendor.

 

[ReefGrammie]

The addition of a good CUC will help, but have you considered dosing Vibrant? You'll find all sorts of threads about Vibrant, and will find plenty opposed to it. I can only speak for myself. Long story short, I was going to tear down my tank after considering a move/downsizing, but we decided to stay and keep the tank. I went through a horrible algae outbreak last fall, and pretty much had no coral at the time, some fish, some snails and hermits. I started dosing for a dirty tank, which on my 90 was 10 ml twice a week. It took several weeks to see changes, but the algae finally started to die back. After I had it mostly under control, I backed off the dose to once a week, then once every two weeks, then stopped it altogether. My disaster was about 8 months ago and my tank looks great now. Anyway, just a different perspective. @reefcleaners also has some nice CUC packages, and John is great to work with!

 

[El_Guapo13]

The addition of a good CUC will help, but have you considered dosing Vibrant? You'll find all sorts of threads about Vibrant, and will find plenty opposed to it. I can only speak for myself. Long story short, I was going to tear down my tank after considering a move/downsizing, but we decided to stay and keep the tank. I went through a horrible algae outbreak last fall, and pretty much had no coral at the time, some fish, some snails and hermits. I started dosing for a dirty tank, which on my 90 was 10 ml twice a week. It took several weeks to see changes, but the algae finally started to die back. After I had it mostly under control, I backed off the dose to once a week, then once every two weeks, then stopped it altogether. My disaster was about 8 months ago and my tank looks great now. Anyway, just a different perspective. @reefcleaners also has some nice CUC packages, and John is great to work with!

+1 on a cuc package from @reefcleaners

https://www.reefcleaners.org/aquarium-store/cleaner-packages-with-free-shipping

 

[dugthefish]

The addition of a good CUC will help, but have you considered dosing Vibrant? You'll find all sorts of threads about Vibrant, and will find plenty opposed to it. I can only speak for myself. Long story short, I was going to tear down my tank after considering a move/downsizing, but we decided to stay and keep the tank. I went through a horrible algae outbreak last fall, and pretty much had no coral at the time, some fish, some snails and hermits. I started dosing for a dirty tank, which on my 90 was 10 ml twice a week. It took several weeks to see changes, but the algae finally started to die back. After I had it mostly under control, I backed off the dose to once a week, then once every two weeks, then stopped it altogether. My disaster was about 8 months ago and my tank looks great now. Anyway, just a different perspective. @reefcleaners also has some nice CUC packages, and John is great to work with!

Vibrant is what nuked my tank. Had a massive BA outbreak, literally could not manually remove it all without total tank breakdown. Dosed Vibrant by directions for like 2 months. Finally started to kill the BA. Dropped back to half does for a month. BA almost eradicated. Everything died a week after stopping Vibrant. Almost overnight. Doubt I would try it again.

 

[ReefGrammie]

Vibrant is what nuked my tank. Had a massive BA outbreak, literally could not manually remove it all without total tank breakdown. Dosed Vibrant by directions for like 2 months. Finally started to kill the BA. Dropped back to half does for a month. BA almost eradicated. Everything died a week after stopping Vibrant. Almost overnight. Doubt I would try it again.

Oh wow, I'm so sorry to hear that! Like I said, I can only speak from my own experience with Vibrant. I hope you can get your algae issues resolved. I know how frustrating it is!