need more cleanup crew?

[Tentacles]

quote from my pico thread i cant get anyone to respond to:

 

so i still have alot of algae in the tank and the 2 snails- turbo and astrea arent really doing much about it, the hermit-dwarf zebra (wanted a blue leg but the lfs didnt have any then- blue legs any better?) isnt really doing much about it, and the peppermint shrimp isnt really doing much about it- he hangs out on the backside of the rock out of site and eats there i suppose I got you guys to clean it not be lazy! so any ideas for another tank mate to get crackin on the algae, actually most my rock except for 2 large pieces and the tank walls and sand is clean, they just dont ever go there, ever, and the stuff is growing.

 

hear emerald crabs do a good job but the downside is- theyre emerald crabs-whats so bad about them? is there some sort of strange fish that can thrive in a 2g that will eat stuff?

 

also got some greyish pipe/tube looking things all over my sand now, will that get eaten, i have no naussarius snails since the lfs didnt carry any at the time, should i get a few?

 

thought: the piece of rock with the most groth on it is right under the ac20 outflow, which has some growth on the edge of it as well- clean it off? perhaps the current is too strong for anybody to be able to clean off it.

 

final question, i have random patches of red- not hairy, smooth like its been painted on- starting to appear on the glass, let the snails take care of it? its been there for a few days now.

 

so any help on cleanliness in the tank, what acreatures are good, and so on.

thanks much!

 

edit: the ac20 refugium has alot of growth on the rock in it. i have it filled with lr. no light on it, no creatures in it, could that have anything to do with it?

[absolutfailure]

How long has it been since you added the CUC?

[MGXsport]

you need some nutrient export like macro algae in the fuge. Hair algae is really difficult to get rid of if it gets longer then peach fuzz because all the snails will do is bulldoze up where it is connected too.

[Tentacles]

been about a week

 

so get macro then? its much longer than peach fuzz they just sit on it and move to cleaner pieces of rock and the shrimp and hermit avoid it completely

 

im putting the hermit in the fuge for the night tho, see if he can clean it up a bit

[Duncan]

if you are feeding the CUC, most probably they won't be too interested about their jobs anymore.

 

or you can try the electric blue-leg hermit. they are hyperactive and 24hr non-stop munching on hair algae. but the problem with them is that they love to renovate your aquascape.

[Tentacles]

i dont feed them anything

 

i suppose ill go for a blue leg as well