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Clean up crew for this Bare Bottom situation?


stash98

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My last BB was 10 years ago in a mini bow front and I threw some cerith or astra snails in there because, thats what you did.Well it worked pretty well but one snail ended up dying and nuking my tank, so I'm a little gunshy on getting them now.

 

I also read that snails prefer lower temps (i run my tank at 78) and once they eat all the algae in a BB, there is not much left for them.

 

So here is what I am dealing with - it was tough to capture the hair algae on my one piece of live rock, but there is a substantial amount. Plus I have growth on the bottom of the tank.

 

I also seem to wake up to amounts of detritus every AM even though I have no fish in the tank, just 3 corals. I do have a lot strong flow so that is probably dislodging some stuff.

 

Any suggestions on a clean up crew (or not) are appreciated. This is an 11.5 gallon.

 

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i'd say no cerith because they like sand. I've heard margarita snails are more for cooler water, so avoid those - but Nerite (if you have a lid) really like glass and my turbo is always on the rocks and i've physically seen it CHOW long hair algae - red and green , which should be fine for you.

 

also Trochus tend to shy away from sand so that might be a good choice too >>> according to reefcleaners (snail expert)

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excellent thread.

 

live rock produces, not removes, detritus.

 

 

all animals produce, not remove detritus. adding snails will add to detritus. its only removal is your siphon actions, or stirring it into the water and letting a filter catch it, then you clean the filter. some choose to let this rot break down in the tank and uptake it with plants.

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Yank out the hair algae so that it's short, get some banded trochus or mexican turbos (just two snails though; that's likely all you'll need), and improve mechanical filtration. You may need more flow (or more strategic flow) to keep detritus suspended so that it'll be caught by filter floss, and then you can replace the floss every day or two.

 

Heavier things (slivers of rock, broken duster tubes, etc) will settle to the bottom of the tank and need to be siphoned out during water changes.

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Ok thanks everyone. So maybe a Turbo snail or two or Trochus will do it?

 

The good news about my flow is all the detritus settles right in the front of the tank and the the rest is in the water column due to flow. So I will just siphon out as I have been doing.

 

My mechanical filtration is strong. I use an AC70 with an Intank Media filter and floss covering the entire intake side. I also have carbon and ChemiPure elite as well.

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