Down to 10 snails!
that's the major reason for the problem algae. Feedings and
water changes, yes, water changes, are constantly feeding algae. The
only real defense is to have enough animals to eat the algae while it is
still a tiny sprout on the rock. Once it gets long and out of control, it's a
bigger hassle to remove. (It's not impossible, but is more trouble.)
The reason changing lights worked for a while is that along with other things you probably did like temporarily reducing light and trying to reduce nutrients, the algae that had grown under blue-white PC's had been beat, temporarily. But over time the algae has changed and when it was overfed for a week, it flourished again.
This tank doesn't appear mature enough to me, to have the size of Stomatella and
Collinista snail populations that would be required to keep algae under control. Plus, the
Six-Line Wrasse is eating the algae eating bug population and would eat any baby snails being produced. The only herbivorous fish, the Coral Beauty is not enough to keep up with the algae growth. Not that another algae eating fish is needed, but it would certainly help.
Snails are the ideal algae control.In the wild, in the surf and tidal zones which our tanks most closely approximate, snails and other herbivores are everywhere, like one every 3-6 inches.
We are fortunate to have a source of modestly priced Astrea and Cerith
Snails here in SLC. On this forum "Chad" is the name and snails are his game. Contact Chad about getting 70 Astrea Snails, 20
Cerith Snails and 10 Hermits. You may be pleasantly surprised at the price. When they have done their job, it's easy to sell or trade a few of them here on the MB. This is recommended so they don't starve in your newly cleaned tank.
Adding the 100 snails and hermits is actually step #2. Here is a list of the other needed actions:
1. Stop feeding for 5 days and feed only half as much from then on. Fish and the entire tank does much better with less supplemental food.
2. Add
and keep replenished sufficient numbers of snails, typically one/gallon depending on the need.
3. Stop the weekly water changes and from now on just do monthly 5 gal water changes. New saltwater feeds algae. Monthly 10% water changes are all that's needed if you know about Alk and Ca. Many of us do less than monthly water changes.
4. Use PO4(Phosphate) remover for the next month. It doesn't matter which kind. Neither one is harmful. PO4 remover should only be used periodically, not continuously.
5. Place some kind of additional algae in the tank. Algae is awesome. There are some beautiful Macroalgae species. Chaetomorpha is ugly but cool because it does not attach to anything and can be placed in a holder somewhere near the light so it eats up pollution before other algae can eat it. Feel free to look at different Macroalgae in other hobbyist tanks to see which ones you would like to try.
6. If necessary, to kill really long hair algae, use the lights out procedure mentioned in the links below.
In the end, the control of nuisance algae means less maintenance work not more.
Did you read the link posted earlier about my
Ugly Green Haired Mermaid? Other good readings about algae control are in the Tips and How To's section of the thread linked below.
Please feel free to call and come visit to see my coral farm and Clownfish Nursery and to learn more about keeping nuisance algae out of your tank.
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Mark Peterson wrote: