High Tide Aquatics

Good solution to green film algae on sand and rocks?

kinetic

kinetic

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It's pretty easy to keep my sandbed white, I just take my kent pro-scraper and stir the sand a bit. My rock is another story, super green.

Parameters holding strong at:
Nitrates: 5-10ppm
Phosphates: 4ppb

CUC:
10 ORA Trochus
10 ORA tiny cerith
4 Nassarius (the larger super tonga ones, not the little vibex)

The nassarius do bury in the sand, but unless I have a huge amount, they're really not going to stir the sand much. The cerith are so small, and only come out at night. I feel like I'd need 100+ to do anything, so probably not going to get anymore. The trochus do a pretty good job, but not sure if I should get a whole bunch more, there's already quite a few of them in the tank of this size.

I have a feeling that pods are good for my tank, so I don't want an animal that will stir the sand, but actually deplete my pod population.

I was thinking of maybe 1 Zebra Turbo for the rocks, and maybe a fighting conch for the sand (though will that deplete my copepods?).
 
The green on your rocks is part of the natural progression of algae in the tank and was on mine until the coralline came in. It's like a precursor for it. I'd just leave it be, unless it's the long hair type. I just kept a steady supply of banded tiger trochus for the algae with a couple of mexican turbos.

For reference.
upload_2017-11-6_12-33-41.png


Fighting conch for the sand. They do a good job without depleting anything other than microalgae.
 
Yeah, I'm not as worried about the rocks, just want to do something about the sand that might be more fun than me stirring it manually. I'll look into a fighting conch, they're on sale on LA right now.
 
Ranjib Dey said:
Whats your light setting ? Do you have lot of white/red in there?
Click to expand...

I'm using the SPS AB+ settings that everyone talks about on the forums, plus I cranked the whites up a bit more to keep from having an ultra blue tank. This algae, in my experience, isn't too out of the ordinary. It's not a nuisance, just unsightly on the sand without daily manual stirring. The green rock, well, I'll just let it be for now. Maybe one mexican turbo will help the trochus do the work.
 
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Well I got a fighting conch (strombus), and he doesn't really do much. Super cool invert though, he has a trunk and just picks up one piece of sand at a time, but doesn't do much damage on cleaning up the sand bed.

I guess I could get a few more and maybe they'll work faster. But maybe a diamond goby would be a better idea? I just know that they will eat up all the copepods in the sand?

Also thinking of a sleeper gold blue goby: http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/213/sleeper-gold-head-goby?pcatid=213&c=15+31+213
or
Orange marked goby: http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/2107/orangemarked-goby?pcatid=2107&c=15+31+2107

They're a tad smaller when full grown. Just not sure if they'll be equally good at sand cleaning. Any ideas?
 
A sleeper gold blue goby practically ruined my first tank. It was the true fish from hell. I had to shut that tank down due to that fish -- but damn the sand was clean.
 
ashburn2k said:
What did he do?


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Click to expand...

He was the James Brown of fish. Hardest working dude in the tank. He would constantly grab a mouthful of sand and then rise up into the water column till he was halfway up and then let it all go. It was 24/7 sandstorm in the tank reducing visibility to near zero and covering everything with sand -- corals, rocks,etc. And he was uncatchable!
 
I wonder if gobies would not do well in my tank's small footprint (24" x 20"). If I go for a diamond, would it run out of sand to sift? Would I need to constantly seed with copepods/amphipods? I have no fuge.

I could get 5 fighting conches and maybe 50 cerith snails to see if I can get enough volume to actually clean the sand?
 
I have sand cleaning inverts but I also find manually cleaning the sand with a turkey baster satisfying and effective. It kicks the detritus into the water column to catch in the filter socks and buries any algae starting to grow. It works way better than just moving the sand around with a stick and is less likely to hurt anything you hit by accident.


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