Reef nutrition

Avoiding bringing in pest algae from inverts?

kinetic

kinetic

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Is it possible or futile to try to avoid pest algae completely?

I've had some luck in the past, where I never introduced "live" rock/sand, always removed frags from frag plugs, always cleaned any used equipment with vinegar etc., and even scrubbed invert shells. But alas, I got some pest algae after awhile.

For my next tank, I'm wondering if I should go to great lengths for this again, or just maintain a tank with it using proper nutrient export, diverse biome, and grazing fish.

For snails/hermits, I was thinking: Scrub shells, add to a clean bucket of newly mixed saltwater, bubbler + heater. Repeat for 3 days. (no light)

For three days, the inverts probably won't starve, and changing a small bucket of water out every day should rid of any other algae. But of course, I'm sure algae can somehow survive that. Should I just give up on this?
 
Personally, I would never try to do this.

You can't culture an appropriate biome without any algae at all. It's the bottom of the entire food chain (excluding light an nitrates etc.).

When algae does get in it will explode with no bugs to eat it. This WILL happen, no if about it. Snails and tangs won't eat everything, you need the unseen guys.
 
CaptainB said:
Personally, I would never try to do this.

You can't culture an appropriate biome without any algae at all. It's the bottom of the entire food chain (excluding light an nitrates etc.).

When algae does get in it will explode with no bugs to eat it. This WILL happen, no if about it. Snails and tangs won't eat everything, you need the unseen guys.
Click to expand...

You're right for sure. If I were to be more specific, I'd want to avoid certain algaes, like hair and bubble algae as the pest algaes I'd like to avoid.

In my current system, I have avoided hair algae successfully, but I did get bubble at some point more recently.
 
kinetic said:
Is it possible or futile to try to avoid pest algae completely?

I've had some luck in the past, where I never introduced "live" rock/sand, always removed frags from frag plugs, always cleaned any used equipment with vinegar etc., and even scrubbed invert shells. But alas, I got some pest algae after awhile.

For my next tank, I'm wondering if I should go to great lengths for this again, or just maintain a tank with it using proper nutrient export, diverse biome, and grazing fish.

For snails/hermits, I was thinking: Scrub shells, add to a clean bucket of newly mixed saltwater, bubbler + heater. Repeat for 3 days. (no light)

For three days, the inverts probably won't starve, and changing a small bucket of water out every day should rid of any other algae. But of course, I'm sure algae can somehow survive that. Should I just give up on this?
Click to expand...
Eradication, or pre prevention, of stuff is really hard. Three days is not enough. To be effective you likely need several tanks to transfer animals to, for at least several weeks each.
I don't think the juice is worth the squeeze, and mors people that qt for stuff like this don't squeeze effectively. YMMV
 
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