2 months into my tank setup, not enough algae for snails?

[bimbom]

My 10g tank is just about 2 months old now.

 

Nitrates have been steady at 5-10ppm and I have not done a water change yet.

 

CUC:

- 1 trochus snail

- 2 cerith snails

- 3 nassarius snails

- 2 scarlet reef crabs

 

PLANTS:

- Caulpera P.

 

I did have a Damsel fish for several weeks, but gave him to LFS because he'll be too aggressive with the other fish I'd like to get.

 

 

This is what I've noticed:

 

I had my two large base rocks completely covered in diatom algae for a few weeks, but now they are nearly spotless. Either the snails cleared it all off (the trochus particularly likes the rocks), or it died off. Is this normal?

 

Now I am a little worried there's not enough algae in the tank to sustain the snails. I have no tank light on and the only light comes from filtered sunlight throughout the day. The Caulpera has been growing steadily even without a tank light, and I'm wondering if that's perhaps keeping the production of algae down.

 

The trochus snail today even came out of the tank up the HOB filter, right up to the baffle where the water comes out of the filter. Looking for food?

 

The two scarlet crabs I haven't seen in 2-3 days. I don't see the shells either, so I suppose it's possible they have buried for molting? The sand bed is barely 1" deep.

 

I've been feeding some fish flake food I have leftover, every so often, but wondering if I need to get some dried seaweed for these inverts.

 

I also have some "green dot" algae on the black silicone edges of the end of the tank that gets more light. It is not on the glass but only on the black silicone edges - I'm not sure what kind of algae it is but the snails don't seem to touch it much.

[markalot]

Start feeding heavy, coral food will work if you have no fish. Get the nutrients up and grow some algae. This will also help greatly with coral coloration. If you're not providing food to the tank everything will starve. Reef Roids is my favorite coral food, but in a pinch (pun intended) grinding up pellet food into a fine dust works as well.

 

I've heard of people feeding algae discs, like those made for freshwater, when an algae source was needed.