I Need A Good Algae Eater!!!

[jbhumphreys]

I am getting lots of green algae growth on all the walls of my tank. Such a pain cleaning it. I have about 20 turbo snails that are not denting it. Anyone know of any other cool critters I could get to help consume the stuff? I have a 55 gallon, about 40lbs of Live Rock and CC substrate. Tank currently has 3 pepperment shrimp, 1 cleaner shrimp, 20 snails, 1 percula clown, and 1 small hipo tang(ragal tang). Also got a urchin that came with some live rock... Should I get it out of my tank. Have hard that they eat my good coraline algae, but have not witnessed it. I don't want anything that will eat up the coraline, just the green stuff on the sides of the glass.
Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[therock0861]

If you plan on growing Coraline algae you might as well take it out now. They love to eat coraline algae and you will have a hard time keeping any with that Urchin in there. As far as the green algae break out goes what kind of water are you using? Tap water, RO?

 

[jbhumphreys]

I will go ahead and remove the urchine next time I see it and put it in my quarantine tank until I can get it back to the lfs.
I use sea water for water changes, but I use tap water to top off. I know that this may contain phosphates. But from what I have read, you can't trust distilled water either. I can't find a source for RO water. Any ideas on good critter to eat the green algae?

 

[salty rick]

Snails have been very successful for me to keep the algae off the glass. However, I got significant reduction of algae on the glass when I cut back my lighting to 9-10 hours. At first I was running mine for 12 -13 hours and was cleaning my glass every two days. Now I only clean about every 5 to 6 days. My phospates stay under .2 PPM.
As far as critters for algae on the glass, I had a Blenny that kissed my glass and left lip prints in the algae on the glass. Otherwise, snails have been the most successful for me.

 

[safaripilot]

Get the Mexican turbo snails from swf.com. I have 15 in my 125 and they keep the glass very clean. I put them in right after the initial cycle and you could barely see into the tank from all the algae and now it is clear only requiring the front glass cleaned every weekend. Also, buy an RO unit. Tap water will contribute to your problem.

 

[von_rahvin]

get more snails. this is the best advise you will hear from anyone. a lawmmower blenny may also help your problem. but this is for algea on the rocks.

 

[lerch]

I would say start adding in a lot of calcium. I had a horrible problem with algea when I started my tank but I started using Kets turbo calcium and it has dramatically reduced my algea, and it is great for my tank. If you decide to use Kents talk to your LFS about it because the stuff is really strong. If your have algea on your rock then I would say get a lawnmower blenny, mine did a grat job on the rocks, but didn't do squatt for the glass.

 

[chevron tang]

stop using tap water. take it from me i'm in the process right now of getting all the tap out and the ro in. i'm surprised your lfs doesn't sell ro water by the gallon. as for other algae eaters, yesterday i purchased 2 orange moon snails and they're great. in fact i'm probably going to go tomorrow after work and get some more.

 

[karlas]

trochus snails really worked in my tank also the lawnmower and the kole tang pick at the glass and rock all day i have kiss prints all over my glass also

 

[oneflysi]

snails, snails, snails. i have been dealing with algae on my glass for a while now and the only thing that does well is plenty of snails. i have 20 astrea and 5 turbos and they cleaned the whole front of my tank off in less than a week <img src="graemlins//eek.gif" border="0" alt="[eek]" /> i also noticed kiss prints on my glass as well....and all i have are 3 damsels and a clownfish...so they will eat it as well.
btw, when you guys clean your glass...do you siphon out the water while your cleaning? i was told to always to that or your just reseeding your whole tank. is this true?
-One

 

[dirtybilge]

Buy a RO/DI unit its worth there weight in gold, that will help you algea slow down, and my sailfin tang loves to eat algea, i think tangs are know to eat alot of algea!

 

[jacksonpt]

Hey... I'm in the same boat. Stinks huh?! Anyways...
Take your water (both tank water and tap water) and have both tested for phospates. Phosphates, along with light, feed most problematic algaes. If you're tap water has phosphates, then that's probably your problem. You can either buy RO water, buy an RO unit to make your own RO water, or you can try a phosphate sponge. Removing the phosphates will get to the root of the problem... preventing algea problems is better than curing algae problems.
You could also try running your lights less during the day... say only 10 or 12 hours vs 15.
Good luck.

 

[sinner's girl]

how long are your lights on for? try having them on less. we got a clean up crew from swf.com and bye-bye algae, not sure if it was the snails, hermits, stars, shrimp or crabs or a combo of all of them...but we no longer have an algae problem.
Ps~the timer wasn't plugged in, lights were on for over 48 hours stright...=algae.

 

[jbhumphreys]

I run my lights about 12 hours per day, but have just reduced it to 10 to see if I can get an improvment. Next trip to the lfs I will ask about the RO water. I buy my saltwater from them, but never thought about RO water. Did not think the top off water would cause any problems. I do think that it is high in Phosphates though, so I will start to work on getting RO water from now on. When I scrape the algae off of my tank, my fish follow along and eat it as it is being scrapped off. Especially the Hippo tang. I can live with the green on the glass, but I do not want it to take over my live rocks. Maybe I should look into getting the bleeny that was mentioned. I have about 20 snails, but they do not even dent the algae on the glass. What should I add to stimulate my coraline algae growth that will not feed the green?
Thanks for all the helpfull information everyone.

 

[rockster]

I found that the red banded snails are more voracious algae eaters than mexicans and they move faster. Try them, I'm sure you'll be pleased with their performance as I did. I got mine free from Anchofish. I dunno why they gave me samples (9 snails) when I ordered for the first time. I have never had algae cleaned faster and more thoroughly.