# algae control?



## austinroberts23 (Jan 25, 2012)

I have what seems to be algae growing over most of the rock that came with my tank. What's the best way to deal with this? Here are a couple pics


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## Fishfirst (Jan 24, 2005)

some snails should clean that right up


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## austinroberts23 (Jan 25, 2012)

I have a hermit crab and two emerald crabs right now. not a big fan of snails but going to try some shrimp this weekend


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## Fishfirst (Jan 24, 2005)

shrimp aren't going to do anything... urchins snails and hermits are what you need.


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## austinroberts23 (Jan 25, 2012)

Alright. also found out my water was way out of wack. nitrate were reading around 160-200ppm. fighting that then will see how it sets. after that ill try the crabs and a star for clean up


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## Ladayen (Jun 20, 2011)

Not much of a saltwater guy, but wouldn't the crabs eat the star?


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## funlad3 (Oct 9, 2010)

Nope, most of the ones that are sold are perfectly fine with stars, not that stars will do much of anything. If you need a good algae control crew, try:

http://reefcleaners.org/

Good luck with the algae, and keep us up to date on that tank, it looks like it'll be a great nano!


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## austinroberts23 (Jan 25, 2012)

Great site. looking at the quick crews its showing about 40 snails..are that many really needed? Could i substitute hermits in for them and be good?


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## funlad3 (Oct 9, 2010)

Try this one:

http://reefcleaners.org/index.php?p...ategory_id=20&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=34

There aren't any hermits, but you should be more than fine.


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## austinroberts23 (Jan 25, 2012)

That just seems like a ton for the small area of the tank. id prefer some hermits too. My wife likes them!ill see what i can figure out. maybe like a 20-25 crew and a few crab and a star or two


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## finnedfish123 (Oct 26, 2011)

I don't recommend snails as they investate the tank and are hard to get rid of when you have had some in your tank.


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## S-hag (Jan 8, 2012)

You could also try reducing the hours your light is on per day. How often do you feed your fish?


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## funlad3 (Oct 9, 2010)

Light most likely isn't the problem, as algae is usually a problem with newly set up tanks. Two or three days of complete blackout usually kills almost all algae. Also, snails in SW aren't like snails in FW. They don't often reproduce in a SW tank to plague proportions, and just a few hermit crabs will bring down their numbers if they do.


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## bmlbytes (Aug 1, 2009)

Increasing your purple algae will help too, as it will use up the nutrients that the green algae uses. Try a product like PurpleUp to help you get your tank filled with good purple algae.


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