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Any recommendations for clean up crew? I want to get cerith snails but my fish store did not have them.I urge you not to take any chemical approaches to this, i've spent over 10 years with several thousand of these animals, there is no species that I am more comfortable giving advice on. It does not need to be difficult, raise phosphates and nitrates and if that does not help, we will consider other options. patience is key.
A large clean up crew will outcompete the algae stripping the system of key nutrients - this would be the first step, followed by focusing on raising po4 and nitrates. Often dosing them directly will give a more immediate effect, but through heavy feeding to the tank (and cleaners on algae) you will receive the same effect.
Check out reefcleaners.org and get the package for 1/2 your tank sizeAny recommendations for clean up crew? I want to get cerith snails but my fish store did not have them.
I have not dosed anything ever and my salt is aquaforest.Mine change sizes during the day and usually shrink up a bit at night when the lights start lowering intensity. They don't shrink up to the point where they don't have anything sticking out, although I have seen that before. By morning, they are about mid size and late in the evening they'll usually reach about 10 inches depending on where they decided to get in the flow that day.
Do you have a pic of how big they get at times? If they are getting big during the day and just closing up in the evening, I wouldn't worry about it terribly.
I'm not sure if it's nitrates and phosphates. I could see how that might slow down growth or something like that, but I think something else is making them unhappy to close up that much - depending on how they look in the middle of the day.
I think it's your alk. Is there any reason why you have your alk so high? Also your calcium and mag is high as well. I mean in addition to alk being high, you get diminishing returns on it. Meaning the higher alk you go, the more dosing it takes to get there.
If you are dosing alk, calcium and mag, stop immediately. I'm not sure what salt you use, but I would suggest doing a 20% water change a few times, like every other day. I would drop that alk down to about 8.0-8.5. I aim for 8.3ish which lets me stay within that range pretty easily. I don't know of any coral/organisms that struggle in that 8.0-8.5 alk range. Once your levels return to normal, then you can start dosing again. Although from the pics, it doesn't seem like you need to dose. The anemones don't need or benefit from high alk and cal. Mine are both generally low in my anemone tank. Some coraline algae crops up and uses up alk and cal, then stops growing. I won't do a water change for a few months and it doesn't at all matter to them.
Ok thanks I will check it.Check out reefcleaners.org and get the package for 1/2 your tank size
Mine still open a little bit during the day, but for months after I got them they were really big and nice. Then they started to move and have not been as big since.Mine change sizes during the day and usually shrink up a bit at night when the lights start lowering intensity. They don't shrink up to the point where they don't have anything sticking out, although I have seen that before. By morning, they are about mid size and late in the evening they'll usually reach about 10 inches depending on where they decided to get in the flow that day.
Do you have a pic of how big they get at times? If they are getting big during the day and just closing up in the evening, I wouldn't worry about it terribly.
I'm not sure if it's nitrates and phosphates. I could see how that might slow down growth or something like that, but I think something else is making them unhappy to close up that much - depending on how they look in the middle of the day.
I think it's your alk. Is there any reason why you have your alk so high? Also your calcium and mag is high as well. I mean in addition to alk being high, you get diminishing returns on it. Meaning the higher alk you go, the more dosing it takes to get there.
If you are dosing alk, calcium and mag, stop immediately. I'm not sure what salt you use, but I would suggest doing a 20% water change a few times, like every other day. I would drop that alk down to about 8.0-8.5. I aim for 8.3ish which lets me stay within that range pretty easily. I don't know of any coral/organisms that struggle in that 8.0-8.5 alk range. Once your levels return to normal, then you can start dosing again. Although from the pics, it doesn't seem like you need to dose. The anemones don't need or benefit from high alk and cal. Mine are both generally low in my anemone tank. Some coraline algae crops up and uses up alk and cal, then stops growing. I won't do a water change for a few months and it doesn't at all matter to them.
Right now I am feeding a lot once a day do you think I should up it to two times a day?I urge you not to take any chemical approaches to this, i've spent over 10 years with several thousand of these animals, there is no species that I am more comfortable giving advice on. It does not need to be difficult, raise phosphates and nitrates and if that does not help, we will consider other options. patience is key.
A large clean up crew will outcompete the algae stripping the system of key nutrients - this would be the first step, followed by focusing on raising po4 and nitrates. Often dosing them directly will give a more immediate effect, but through heavy feeding to the tank (and cleaners on algae) you will receive the same effect.
It certainly wont hurt!Right now I am feeding a lot once a day do you think I should up it to two times a day?
Thank you for the help I will update periodically.It certainly wont hurt!
As others have mentioned I think it would be wise to also work on lowering your alk/mag/calc a bit as well.
8-8.5 alk 350-400 calc 1150-1250 mg for nems
Looks good to me, although those dwarf ceriths are so small and cheap I like to get A LOT of them, maybe bump those up to 25 or 30, you will only see them at night and they are super tiny.I think I am going to order some clean up crew from the site mentioned earlier, this is what I was thinking about getting. Need to order before Tuesday. Any suggestions?
I strongly recommend you fight the urge to feed, especially shrimp. As crazy as it sounds, just watch it and see what happens. Foot looks strong in the recent picture, and the nem looks OK at this time.I tried spot feeding again with a syringe and both of the anemones did not grab nor eat the shrimp. When they were more open they would grab the shrimp and eat it. They also seemed to get really flat after I just tried to feed them.