Good solution to green film algae on sand and rocks?

For those who say conch, what kind are you using? Tiger, queen, fighting...?

 

I have one fighting and one queen, but I don’t think they do a whole lot to clean the sand. I had a couple sea cucumbers that did a much better job.

 

Fighting.

 

I'll try a few more fighting conches and nassarius, but I'm guessing they're not going to do a whole lot unless I got A TON more. I don't think a diamond goby is going to have enough space in my 24"x20" footprint tank, unless I start with a really small one (then I'll have to get a larger tank lol). Are there smaller ones that would be a better fit?

Also, my sand is 2.5mm (Tropic Eden Mesoflakes) so that might be too coarse for the gobies I've read? I saw that it was suggested the sand be 0.5 to 1.7mm.

So my two options I'm considering:
1. More conches and nassarius with manual baster blasting of the sand
2. Diamond goby (or something smaller) + regular addition of copepods (algaebarn subscription?)

 

Fighting conches as well here. If you want to try something different in addition to the conch, try a tiger tail cucumber instead. Both of those kept my sand clean for months during my initial tank break in before the coralline came in. Since you're using mesoflakes, you'll eventually end up with quite a bit of coralline covering your sand eventually.

For reference, here's what the top of my sandbed currently looks like. It's a 50/50 blend of Tropic Eden reef flakes (3mm) and mini flakes (2mm). I no longer employ either the fighting conch (got too big and gave it to my buddy in SoCal; should have kept him for the upgrade) or the cucumber (went to Boun since it was so efficient along with the conch).

 

I have a fighting conch and a bunch of burying snails like nassarius. Plus a bunch of other snails, small hermit crabs, an urchin, and an army of mini brittle stars. They are all interesting and do their respective jobs of keeping things under control, but don’t make everything sparkly white. If you added enough to make everything all perfectly clean then they would start starving down to the point where it wasn’t perfectly clean anymore.

From seeing the photos you’ve been posting, my guess is a CUC will not meet your needs alone. You likely will be manually cleaning also.

 

I have two conchs and about a dozen nassarius in my 30X30. I put them in a few weeks go when the "new" tank algae hit hard. My sand was nearly spotless in about a week. Remember, these guys don't eat a lot of it -- all they do is stir i up to keep it in suspension. So if you're not getting any real benefit from them it may because you don't have enough flow in the RIGHT area.

 

Tons of nassarius and conches haven't done much for me. Sand basically stays pretty much in place. At this rate I would probably need 20 more conches and 100 more nassarius.

Would a tiger tail cucumber survive in my 34g display? The rockwork is minimal, so there's a lot of sand. The sand is made up of Tropic Eden Mesoflakes (2.7mm).

 

I had 2 at a time in my 120 along with two conches. I think they do better than the conches but there’s still nothing better than stirring it by hand. Not that I’ve found at least.

 

Diamond gobies. If you don't have coral on the sand bed and you don't mind your sand being rearranged, they will keep your sand extremely white.

 

But they are jumpers that find the tiniest little crack.

 

2 conchs, tons of dwarf ceriths, 4 sand starfish and 1 diamond goby. Sand is mostly clean (99%). Some spots here and there that they had not gotten to but its usually clean in an hour or so.

 

Just did a quick google on dwarf ceriths and a website that sells them claims they eat cyano. I kinda doubt this, from your experience though.. do they?


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My experience with dwarf ceriths is that they are really too small to be of any use above a Nano system.

 

I agree. I have tiny dwarf cerith snails. They actually look very cool when they come out at night, their shells have really interesting patterns, but they barely make a dent. They also spend more time on rock than on sand.

I think I'm going to go for a tiger tail cuke. Bluezoo says they can select the smallest one for me at 2.5".

 

They did help clear up my cyano.

 

You need a lot of them. I believe I put in over 100 initally.

 

100 in 190g? So about 1 per half-gallon? If I have my 34g display, I would only need something like 17?

 

Looked at the site and looks like it was closer to 170.


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That would explain why 50 in my 240G tank did little to nothing.