cleaning up reef

[hookedonreefs]

I starting to have an algae breakout. Most of my sand is covered and a large part of my rock is covered. I was going to buy some hermits, but after doing some reseach on these boards, I've found they can be problematic. Could anyone advise weather I should lean towards more snails? I was thinking of getting:
1 cleaner shrimp
10 pep. shrimp
10 turbos snails
20 cerith snails
Do you think that will be good enough, or should I replace the cleaner shrimp with 20 more ceriths or 20 more turbos?

 

[cboyfan2020]

those will all be good. Cleaner shrimp wont clean the algae but it will be like a car wash for your fish. Fish will pull up, insert some tokens, and the shrimp will clean any parisites and such from the fish. Conches and cucumbers clean the sand very well, but the real question is what kinda algae do you have?Color?Texture?

 

[hookedonreefs]

Started as a light green. It has moved to a darker brownish color. My theory is that it started as some regular green algae on the rocks. Then this weekend I bought some corals and the LFS threw in some coral food - frozen blue/green, zooplankton and phytoplankton -(sp?). I fed it to my corals on Sun morning. Monday morning the algae got darker and there was much more. Yesterday there was alot of brown "algae". I hadn't yet hit a diatom bloom that I've read about, so I think that's the cause of the brown stuff. The dark green is probably a response to overfeeding the corals. Now I just want to start cleaning it up. None of my lfs's have any macroalgae for my fuge, so it's up to a cleanup crew. Read bad things about hermits, and the two clowns I bought last night have Ick. I have them in QT until it clears up, but I'd like to have a cleaner shrimp for them when they get in their new home. All the rest of my purchase will be for the algae.
Does all this sound right?
Oh, and do I need to put some tokens in the tank for the fish, or do they already come with them? lol

 

[cboyfan2020]

You can buy macros online in the classifieds section or do a web search. I am guessing it is diatoms which if it is you pretty much just wipe it off over and over and over again untill its used up its food source which is silicates in the water. Easy way to tell is if you can wave your hand back and forth over it and it comes up it is prob. diatoms. Then comes green algae which macros will compete for their food so if you have a fuge, definately buy some macro's. Are you using RO/DI water? Also if possible check your phosphate levels and maybe get some phos-ban or something. Phosphates and nitrates are a big food source for algae. HTH

 

[hookedonreefs]

Yes, I am using RO/DI water. I guess I have to get some macro from somewhere. Thanks for the help yet again!

 

[hondo]

I would definitely add more snails and fewer shrimp. Cleaner shrimp are great to have in your tank to look at but don't add any algea cleanup value, neither do pepermint shrimp (mostly for aptasia control).
Add about:
10 trochas snails
10 stometella
10 nassarius (they don't eat algea but Are great sand sifters and detrious eaters)
And you might want to rething the hermits and get 10 scarlet reef hermits. They are great algea eaters and won't bother the snails. remember for a really good cleanup crew diversity is best so go with many different types of snails.