I know this is an extremely controversial post. I've been running a 340 gallon mixed reef for about 2 years now. Prior to this I ran a 220 and a 125. I've battled all types of hair algae briopsis and so much more over the years.
My Tank is algae free. Currently has a Cyano outbreak that is from a nitrate spike but I'll have that cleaned up within a couple months. My CUC has been very minimalistic. I've had 3-4 mexican turbo snails for most of the two years. I don't honestly know where they came from, I never purchased them, but, may have come in on a couple pieces of rock I got from a friends tank and/or hitchikers on coral rocks from others. The only CUC I intentionally bought was a few Nessarious snails. (Maybe 10 or so). Which, every now and then I see an antenna sticking up that tells me they're somewhere in the sand or one might sneak up on the glass at night here and there, but, it's very rare.
I think the nitrate spike was from the death of 3 turbo snails. My Dragon Wrasse got more and more agressive with them, kept constantly flipping them over. I couldn't keep up with him in terms of flipping them back and I think they died of starvation.
So, that said, I have no intentional CUC other than the nassarious snails I may or may not still have. However, my rocks have grown their own filters. I have yellow and clear sponge growing all over the place. The tank is filled with tubes sticking out of the rocks everywhere. I now have a small colony of asterina starfish growing on my glass. None of these were purchased nor intentional.
My choice for CUC is to let nature decide what's best to filter my reef and stop feeding my dragon wrasse snails. My Dragon wrasse constantly stirs the sand and anything he misses hopefully the nassarious snails get.
I know many would disagree with no CUC, but, given I have a couple fish agressive towards CUCs do others go without CUC and have success?
P.s. I run an oversized skimmer, a algae turf scrubber, purigen with a Nu-clear 25 micron cannister filter for polishing the water, and do 2 water changes a week at 12% per water change.
So, far this has worked for me, I did have an outbreak of briopsis that took about 6 months to win but it's permanently gone and nothing coming back in it's place.
to CUC or not to CUC?
My Tank is algae free. Currently has a Cyano outbreak that is from a nitrate spike but I'll have that cleaned up within a couple months. My CUC has been very minimalistic. I've had 3-4 mexican turbo snails for most of the two years. I don't honestly know where they came from, I never purchased them, but, may have come in on a couple pieces of rock I got from a friends tank and/or hitchikers on coral rocks from others. The only CUC I intentionally bought was a few Nessarious snails. (Maybe 10 or so). Which, every now and then I see an antenna sticking up that tells me they're somewhere in the sand or one might sneak up on the glass at night here and there, but, it's very rare.
I think the nitrate spike was from the death of 3 turbo snails. My Dragon Wrasse got more and more agressive with them, kept constantly flipping them over. I couldn't keep up with him in terms of flipping them back and I think they died of starvation.
So, that said, I have no intentional CUC other than the nassarious snails I may or may not still have. However, my rocks have grown their own filters. I have yellow and clear sponge growing all over the place. The tank is filled with tubes sticking out of the rocks everywhere. I now have a small colony of asterina starfish growing on my glass. None of these were purchased nor intentional.
My choice for CUC is to let nature decide what's best to filter my reef and stop feeding my dragon wrasse snails. My Dragon wrasse constantly stirs the sand and anything he misses hopefully the nassarious snails get.
I know many would disagree with no CUC, but, given I have a couple fish agressive towards CUCs do others go without CUC and have success?
P.s. I run an oversized skimmer, a algae turf scrubber, purigen with a Nu-clear 25 micron cannister filter for polishing the water, and do 2 water changes a week at 12% per water change.
So, far this has worked for me, I did have an outbreak of briopsis that took about 6 months to win but it's permanently gone and nothing coming back in it's place.
to CUC or not to CUC?