Identification + help

[SergeantStatic]

Hello I have had fluval evo 13.5 set up for nearly 2 months now , and recently I have had algae problems. I have been told this is just normal but I kinda want to get rid of it.

Please can any of you guys help 🙂

 

[mcarroll]

Lack of cleanup crew?

 

 

[Tamberav]

+1, I do not see any hermits or snails?

[SergeantStatic]

15 hours ago, Tamberav said:

+1, I do not see any hermits or snails?

I have one nerite snail and a skunk cleaner shrimp I thought mixing snails and crabs was a bad idea , also what do you recommend in terms of cleanup crew . 

[Tamberav]

1 hour ago, SergeantStatic said:

I have one nerite snail and a skunk cleaner shrimp I thought mixing snails and crabs was a bad idea , also what do you recommend in terms of cleanup crew . 

oh my.. that is not enough! Nothing wrong with mixing snails, sometimes a hermit crab will kill a snail for their shell but I still keep hermits cuz they are entertaining.

 

I would get a mix of snails. Can you buy them locally? Maybe 2 Trochus, 2 Cernith, 2 Nerite, 2 Nass and 2 tiny hermits (if you want them) and see how it goes. You can start with less if you like and just add more as needed. I do tend to go a little heavier on my snail load since I end up feeding heavily. 

 

People generally end up with a 'favorite' type of snail they like. Trochus is probably the most popular overall. 

 

I have:

Trochus - fast moving algae eaters, can flip themselves over if they fall, can shake hermits off. More expensive but have a lot of perks. 

Cernith - bury themselves in the sand and come out mostly at night to eat algae

Nerite - hang out on rocks and glass, they are intertidal snails and will sometimes hang above the water, will climb out of the tank if you don't have a lid.

Nassarius - don't eat algae but will hang out in the sand bed until they smell food, they eat left over fish food. 

Hermits - can get in places snails can't like the tops of gorgs. They also do a better job on the sand bed than snails since they can scurry across it easy. Eat algae, food, whatever they can find, sometimes kill a snail or kill each other. Faster moving and tend to find algae or food quickly. 

 

Others just to note:

Astraea snail: good for algae but can not flip themselves over if they fall (which they will). So you need to put them back on the rocks before they perish or a hermit eats them.

Fighting Conch: cleans the sand bed eating algae, may not be appropriate for a tank as small as yours.

Tuxedo urchin: eats a wide variety of algae including the tough ones snails can not like macro and coralline, stays fairly small but will need to be supplemented with nori once you run out of algae. I would only have one in a small tank if they are of interest for you to watch. They also will pick up anything not glued down and carry it around from snails to frags. 

Mexican turbo: grows large, algae eating machine, probably too large for a 13g. Could foul the water if it dies in a small tank. 

Bumble bee snails: eats microfauna, decorative but not very helpful. 

 

There are many beneficial hitchiker snails but they are not readily available to buy so I didn't go over those. 

 

[mcarroll]

Even the larger snails could be fine if that's all you had available, as long as you aren't adding too many all at once so that you overshoot the available algae supply.

 

I would recommend keeping the non-algae eating snails and crabs close to zero.

 

If I were in your shoes I might do one or two blueline hermits and probably no other non-herbivorous critters.

[SergeantStatic]

58 minutes ago, Tamberav said:

oh my.. that is not enough! Nothing wrong with mixing snails, sometimes a hermit crab will kill a snail for their shell but I still keep hermits cuz they are entertaining.

 

I would get a mix of snails. Can you buy them locally? Maybe 2 Trochus, 2 Cernith, 2 Nerite, 2 Nass and 2 tiny hermits (if you want them) and see how it goes. You can start with less if you like and just add more as needed. I do tend to go a little heavier on my snail load since I end up feeding heavily. 

 

People generally end up with a 'favorite' type of snail they like. Trochus is probably the most popular overall. 

 

I have:

Trochus - fast moving algae eaters, can flip themselves over if they fall, can shake hermits off. More expensive but have a lot of perks. 

Cernith - bury themselves in the sand and come out mostly at night to eat algae

Nerite - hang out on rocks and glass, they are intertidal snails and will sometimes hang above the water, will climb out of the tank if you don't have a lid.

Nassarius - don't eat algae but will hang out in the sand bed until they smell food, they eat left over fish food. 

Hermits - can get in places snails can't like the tops of gorgs. They also do a better job on the sand bed than snails since they can scurry across it easy. Eat algae, food, whatever they can find, sometimes kill a snail or kill each other. Faster moving and tend to find algae or food quickly. 

 

Others just to note:

Astraea snail: good for algae but can not flip themselves over if they fall (which they will). So you need to put them back on the rocks before they perish or a hermit eats them.

Fighting Conch: cleans the sand bed eating algae, may not be appropriate for a tank as small as yours.

Tuxedo urchin: eats a wide variety of algae including the tough ones snails can not like macro and coralline, stays fairly small but will need to be supplemented with nori once you run out of algae. I would only have one in a small tank if they are of interest for you to watch. They also will pick up anything not glued down and carry it around from snails to frags. 

Mexican turbo: grows large, algae eating machine, probably too large for a 13g. Could foul the water if it dies in a small tank. 

Bumble bee snails: eats microfauna, decorative but not very helpful. 

 

There are many beneficial hitchiker snails but they are not readily available to buy so I didn't go over those. 

 

Ok thanks for the advice , next time I go to my LFS I will look into buying some of those  

[ReefAdoRe]

What type of filtration do you have? I a also battling with GHA and have tried a number of things except for adding filtration like: phosguard and chemipure elite. I am trying this now - it may help you as well (but it’s way too early for me to give advice on this). A cleanup crew will work wonders for a larger tank, IMHO, but you probably want to stay away from having such a large cleanup crew in a small one. 
 

 

[SergeantStatic]

17 hours ago, ReefAdoRe said:

What type of filtration do you have? I a also battling with GHA and have tried a number of things except for adding filtration like: phosguard and chemipure elite. I am trying this now - it may help you as well (but it’s way too early for me to give advice on this). A cleanup crew will work wonders for a larger tank, IMHO, but you probably want to stay away from having such a large cleanup crew in a small one. 
 

 

Hello , I modded my fluval evo stock filter so it’s now just some filter floss as first layer , activated carbon , bio media and phosguard . I also run the stock protein skimmer .

I will look into a cleanup crew 

[ReefAdoRe]

2 hours ago, SergeantStatic said:

Hello , I modded my fluval evo stock filter so it’s now just some filter floss as first layer , activated carbon , bio media and phosguard . I also run the stock protein skimmer .

I will look into a cleanup crew 

Stock slowly on the clean up crew 😉 if you buy them and it’s not enough, continue to add slowly. Take as much as you can out manually every day if you have to. 

[CoralCapture]

Read every single reply on this! Everyone has great answers!

[GetPsyched2124]

It would be a good idea to get some copepods from some place like algaebarn as well.