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Coral Vue Hydros

Clean Up Crew ideas


ihglifelol

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ihglifelol

HI, my nano is full of cyano algae and hair algae. my nasarius,chesnut and ceriths arnt doing the job the best.

I am also getting another piece of liverock for more corals.

but i dont want algae. any good clean up crew members. howerer dont need detrius as my nasarius does it well.

have 5 gallon. 2 corals 2 shrimp (got one as a hitchiking larvae, harmless member of detrius). 4 snails. and clear harmless pod eating flatworms.

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Did you replace your light?  Seems like from a past topic your light was for freshwater planted and we recommending it get replaced as it will only help algae grow.  If it is replaced can you tell us the brand and model and show up pics of your tank?

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Playapixie

Fighting Conch love cyano. LOVE.  But you need a sand bed for them to live in, and enough real estate to keep them fed, and unfortunately 5 gallons isn’t big enough to keep them from starting.

Can your corals tolerate higher flow? Cyano doesn’t tend to build up if you have adequate flow, but of course you can’t do more flow if your corals can’t tolerate it.Can you increase flow?

Cyano usually comes with high nutrients.  How is your nutrient export working out?  How’s your nitrate?

If you have good tank hygiene and have addressed nutrient problems and flow and still have cyano, I have had great success using ChemiClean. I’ve rehabbed 2-tanks with it, no problems.  Follow the directions exactly.

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mndfreeze

5G definitely too small for a conch.  

 

Trochus snails are my favorite snail for algae.   They don't climb out of tanks, can right themselves if they fall upside down into the sand, and are eating machines.  Ceriths are also good but much slower, but they get into the sand a bit and under rocks and stuff.

 

You might just need to cut back on feeding, and do more frequent water changes.

 

Cut your light cycle down a few hours as well if need be.  Also nasarius snails don't eat bacteria or general detritus. They are carnivores that eat dead rotten meaty things.  

 

You might want to check out reefcleaners and look at their different snail options.  There are some very small snails like periwinkles that will compliment some bigger ones like the trochus I suggested.   They also have different cerith species (large florida and the dwarf, both excellent when paired with other snails)

 

 

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ihglifelol
7 hours ago, Playapixie said:

Fighting Conch love cyano. LOVE.  But you need a sand bed for them to live in, and enough real estate to keep them fed, and unfortunately 5 gallons isn’t big enough to keep them from starting.

Can your corals tolerate higher flow? Cyano doesn’t tend to build up if you have adequate flow, but of course you can’t do more flow if your corals can’t tolerate it.Can you increase flow?

Cyano usually comes with high nutrients.  How is your nutrient export working out?  How’s your nitrate?

If you have good tank hygiene and have addressed nutrient problems and flow and still have cyano, I have had great success using ChemiClean. I’ve rehabbed 2-tanks with it, no problems.  Follow the directions exactly.

there is a high flow aria and then low. the high is nic for acropora but then it slows so my lps can get food without spotfeeding

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mndfreeze

both a sand sifting star and a conch will starve to death in a nano.  Stars can many months to waste away and you won't ever know until its too late and its arms start falling off or holes and disease appear in it.  The conch will most likely just up and die one day.  You are probably over feeding and need to cut back drastically on food input.

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  • 2 weeks later...

You can throw some red legged or blue legged hermits in there as well.  They also will eat algae and cyano, as well as fish food bits that are leftover from feeding fish/corals.

 

I find the best CUC is a large variety of different things.  I use a mix of species of snails, hermits and other oddballs I can get my hands on that are safe for my lifestock.

 

Those micro brittle stars (NOT the big ones you buy in the store, but the hitchhiker ones that stay around the size of a quarter) are also good for getting into nooks and crannies and cleaning out detritus, etc.  Pods also help with it, spaghetti worms and fan worms will also all help.

 

The key to a healthy reef is not bringing in to many nutrients, doing water changes on a regular basis, and having a good food web/chain to break down all sorts of different sizes of material in different states of decay stages.

 

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