What is eating the coralline algae?

[MistyDaze]

Hello! So I posted a while back on my coralline algae covered tank. I added in more CUC to my little 3 gallon and discovered a whole chunk of coralline gone. I was trying to get rid of the coralline but I didn't intend by doing that with the new critters. But... It would also be great if they kept eating it

The previous inhabitants was a hermit crab w/orange legs (idk what he is) a smaller red tip hermit (I think) and several margarita snails and I think 1 Astraea snail. These guys never touched / dented the coralline.
Here is a list of critters I added - who did it??

Emerald crab
Astraea turbo snail
Nerite snail
White cone tip cerith snail
Nassarius snail
Dwarf blue hermit
Yellow tip hermit
Red tip hermit


Before

After

 

[fishywishy]

Either one of the snails or its just going away by itself for some reason.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

asterina stars eat coraline.

 

[Sleeping Giant]

brownish stuff looks like cyano not Coraline

 

[kevgib67]

My prime suspect is not on your invert list! My tuxedo urchin loves coralline algae.

 

[MistyDaze]

brownish stuff looks like cyano not Coraline

It's not brown it's a nice pink/purple color. I've seen cyano before in my brothers tank and I've seen coralline. This is coralline.

 

[MistyDaze]

asterina stars eat coraline.

Oooh I'll try to ask my lfs if they have any then. Ty

 

[MistyDaze]

My prime suspect is not on your invert list! My tuxedo urchin loves coralline algae.

My LFS has a lot of them but idk if it would be a good idea in the long run as this is only a 3g. Do you think it would work?

 

[chip shop]

Why don’t you just scrape it off

 

[kevgib67]

My LFS has a lot of them but idk if it would be a good idea in the long run as this is only a 3g. Do you think it would work?

Probably not.

 

[MistyDaze]

Why don’t you just scrape it off

Honestly I really could but I'm planning on making a 40G and I'm putting rock in this tank to transfer to the 40G when set up. So just seeding I guess? I want as much "good stuff" growing on this rock and I'm afraid if I start scraping it off it won't grow back or something idk. I've never seeded a tank using existing rock/items so I'm not sure if this would help or not.

 

[kevgib67]

Honestly I really could but I'm planning on making a 40G and I'm putting rock in this tank to transfer to the 40G when set up. So just seeding I guess? I want as much "good stuff" growing on this rock and I'm afraid if I start scraping it off it won't grow back or something idk. I've never seeded a tank using existing rock/items so I'm not sure if this would help or not.

It would definitely help.

 

[Planted Reef]

I'm so confused

 

[MistyDaze]

I'm so confused

what exactly?

 

[danreef55]

If you were to scrap off the coralline and leave it in the tank. You can be assured that your will get great coralline growth on all you rocks

 

[MistyDaze]

If you were to scrap off the coralline and leave it in the tank. You can be assured that your will get great coralline growth on all you rocks

Oooh so If I just scrape and don't vacuum it, it should grow what it falls on?

 

[danreef55]

Oooh so If I just scrape and don't vacuum it, it should grow what it falls on?

put the scraping in a high flow area and spores will find their way to your rock