Algae

[Gryz]

In my 12g Nano I recently bought some zoos attached to a peice of a sea shell.

It must have had some hair algae on it because it has taken off in my tank. It is growing in the glass and on the substrate.

I use RO water also.

What can I do to get rid of it?

[Sugar Magnolia]

Manual removal is your best bet at this point. When you do your next water change, scrape it off the glass and syphon it out. What do you have in the tank for a clean up crew?

[Gryz]

I don't have a clean up crew....what do you recommend?

[Sugar Magnolia]

Ah...that would be the problem. You'll want to get a variety of snails and hermits to help keep the algae in check.

For a 12 gallon nano, I'd recommend 4-5 nassarius snails to help stir the sand bed and clean up uneaten food and detritus. 2 cerith snails to help stir the sand bed and keep the glass clean. For algae removal on the rocks and glas surfaces, you can go with either 1 turbo snail (they love hair algae), a couple of astrea or a couple of margaritas, or a couple of nerites. Maybe 1 of each, but if you go that route, skip the turbo. Keep in mind that turbo snails are big and can bulldoze any loose frags, loose rocks. Strombus and trochus snails are also a good choice.

Hermits...it's up to you. The blue legs seem a bit more aggressive than the red legs. I prefer mexican red legs or scarlett reef hermits.

[Gryz]

Hermits...it's up to you. The blue legs seem a bit more aggressive than the red legs. I prefer mexican red legs or scarlett reef hermits.

Agressive against what? fish, eachother? I have no fish in my reef tank nor will ever.

RO water or RO/DI water. There's a difference. Phosphates aren't touched by RO filters....it's only when they hit the DI filter that they are affected and P is what normally causes undesirable algaes.

[Gryz]

It is just RO, but I tested it and no PO4

With the Hair Algae growing your going to have a extremely low Phos. reading cuase its busy using it up! Once you have it all removed and siphoned up I bet you will find that its measuarable again. SM is right on the snails and I rreally dislike the Turbos for the reasons mentioned as good a job as they do, the fact that you have such a small tank makes all the more reason not to add one unless you just like them that much. In a Nano I would very much more prefer a varity of the others that SM mentioned though....

[Sugar Magnolia]

Agressive against what? fish, eachother? I have no fish in my reef tank nor will ever.
Aggressive against each other and snails. If you do get hermits, be sure to toss in plenty of extra, larger empty shells for them to move into as they grow.

[Gryz]

So don't mix snails and hermits?


I just don't understand clean up crews...I put a snail I had in my Nano which did a great job cleaning the algae off the glass, but now he is pooping everywhere!
Clean Up crew are supposed to help keep your tank clean, but they themselves make waste at the same time....so what do I do...add something to eat his poop or just siphon it out during water changes?

[Geoffrey3029]

pooping.. hmm Ive never seen a snail poop.. Ive seen one lay eggs on the glass before tho... Hermits can be aggressive. meaning they can and will attack snails to take their shells if they want them... My Red Scarlets hermits dont do this often but my florida Blues get a permenent timeout in the sump when I catch them in the act. Circle of life thing..

[FishinInTheDark]

The snail is just pooping more because it's getting lots more to eat now. Hermits, worms, etc. should help clean up the excrement.

[Doctor_Reef]

Ditto's with Conni!!! :)

[MikeS]

Don't overdo it on the cleanup crew...you are better to err on the small side than too many janitors. Even with a perfectly balanced cleanup crew, you are only realistically going to see maybe a 10-15% reduction in the total nutrient level in the tank. The best approach is to control the total amount of nutients in the atank in the first place, by skimming, water changes, carbon, ect...

On the crabs...crabs are oppritunistic scavengers. This means that many things may end up on the menu, depending on the enviornment in the tank. In a 12 gallon tank, I would add only one hermit, no more.any more than that, and they may exhaust their food supply and start going after other things, like coral polyps, snails, ect. (side note, IME when a crab kills a snail, he does it ususally because he wants the shell....) IME the most reef friendly hermit is the scarlet reef hermit.

On the RO filter....RO alone WILL reduce phosphates. The water going into the filter in the first place has a big impact on the end product. If your local water is naturally low in phosphate to start with, you may be ok with RO alone. But a DI stage is always a benefit, as it tends to remove the remaining crud the RO didn't get...hard to go wrong with both RO and DI.

Mike

[Gryz]

Thanks everyone for the help.

[NaH2O]

RO water or RO/DI water. There's a difference. Phosphates aren't touched by RO filters....it's only when they hit the DI filter that they are affected and P is what normally causes undesirable algaes.

Nitrogen will also play a roll in undesirable algaes.

In regards to the statement about phosphates not being touched by RO filters, I disagree. For sure, some will pass the RO, and the DI is great for polishing it off.

Here are a couple of websites showing different rejection rates - take a peek at the phosphates:

>>>Rejection Rates by AquaFX, Inc<<< (http://www.aquariumcity.net/RO-Filters/filters/RO_Rejection_Rates.htm)
>>>Reverse Osmosis Rejection Rates<<< (http://www.h2oinstruments.com/Reverse_Osmosis_Rejection.htm)

Here is a recent article put out by RH-F. Very well written: >>>RO/DI Systems to Purify Tap Water for Reef Aquaria<<< (http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-05/rhf/)

Certainly, RO/DI is hard to beat, however, if your water quality is great, you can get away with RO. My water is horrible, so I have to use RO/DI. We have really high chloramines in our water, so I added an additional DI to my unit. As indicated by the article, chloramines are among the worst contaminants to aquarists.


It is just RO, but I tested it and no PO4


Just as an aside, have you tested the PO4 content of your pre-mixed salt water? Or is the PO4 test you performed on the tank water?