steelerfan's 30 Gallon Breeder Journal/Build

Ace25 said:
In theory, they are supposed to eat hair algae.. reality is, more seem to get quickly trained to eating food you put in the tank vs eat algae. When first introduced they seem to do ok with algae for a month or 2, but most of the ones I have had stop eating algae on the rocks after they realize I feed the tank daily.

I see those come up often on Divers Den.. problem is you have to pay $45 shipping on a $40-$50 fish.
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So true.

Different type of Blenny, but similar eating style... I put an Algae Blenny in my tank early on. Would only touch algae. Finally got him to touch dried algae when I tried Nori (cheaper then the LFS stuff and the fish like it better). Added a Starry Blenny in. He wouldn't touch algae. Doesn't even care much for Nori. Loves anything flake. Now after months of throwing a tantrum and trying to figure out what the Starry Blenny was eating he finally figured it out, flakes are food. He has also recently figured out chopped up shrimp is food. Haven't seen him picking at the rocks/glass since (although he still goes nuts for Nori). :rofl:

It seems it isn't so much that they prefer algae, just that they don't always recognize everything else as food.
 
thanks khemul.

supposedly at divers den the fish have been feeding for a bit and know how to accept the food we give them so i hope thats the case.
 
so i went to lfs today to pick up a turbo snail because i thought i had read that they are big hair algae eaters.

guy tells me they don't eat any hair algae at all and we need to find the source of the problem.

i agree with that but i think the source is pretty much it being a new tank establishing itself.

he thinks it is very high phosphates which i had a friend check last month on his hannah at .03.

my tds reading is 0 but lfs says that doesn't mean anything as far as phosphates go.

is this true about turbos not eating hair algae and about tds having nothing to do with phos?

thanks.
 
Not true, turbos are huge algae eaters.. they remind me of an elephant in the tank eating grass all day. They are picky as to which type of algae they eat though.. I have seen 2 clean up a tank infested with one kind of algae and not touch just a few patches of a different kind in another tank. For the small amount you have though, I would go with Astrea snails over Turbos because you don't have enough algae for even 1 turbo.

True that TDS and Phosphates don't relate to each other, but if your getting 0 TDS there is a good chance your getting 0 Phosphates as well (that has been my experience with testing phosphates on my RO/DI water). I agree with your source, "new tank syndrome" is the term used for it.
 
Ace25 said:
Not true, turbos are huge algae eaters.. they remind me of an elephant in the tank eating grass all day. They are picky as to which type of algae they eat though.. I have seen 2 clean up a tank infested with one kind of algae and not touch just a few patches of a different kind in another tank. For the small amount you have though, I would go with Astrea snails over Turbos because you don't have enough algae for even 1 turbo.

True that TDS and Phosphates don't relate to each other, but if your getting 0 TDS there is a good chance your getting 0 Phosphates as well (that has been my experience with testing phosphates on my RO/DI water). I agree with your source, "new tank syndrome" is the term used for it.
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thanks ace,

do astrea eat hair algae that you know of?

i have ceriths, dwarth ceriths, plantaria, and nassarius and they really dont seem to touch the hair.

i am bringing water by the lfs store as he said he would check it for me but i think like you said new tank syndrome going on.

thanks again
 
I am really curious how a LFS is going to tell "new tank syndrome" from a water test. There are so many factors that go into that term and most common tests will not tell you anything about that, like what the bacteria count is in the tank. EDIT: Oops, I thought you said the LFS was going to "test your tank water for new tank syndome", disregard what I just said since I read that wrong.

The snails you have now are definately not algae eaters, ceriths eat diatoms and nassarious are meat eaters, eat stuff that lives in the sand, food you put in the tank, and dead things. Not sure what plantaria is.. heard of planaria, but those are flatworms, really bad to have. To answer your question, yes, Astrea and Turbo snails are the 2 most common algae eating snails for our hobby.

This site lists what the snails eat when you click on them.
http://www.reefs2go.com/category/sea_life.snails/
 
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Never heard of plantaria either. Astrea will eat HA but a same size turbo will be much more effective. Also astrea snails cannot right themselves so when the fall the depend on you to pick them up. Usually something eats them before you get to them though.

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rs/index.php

At least your LFS isn't trying to sell you miracle cures for your algae or a $2,000 skimmer :). Your on the right track steeler, have been all along. Get a couple of decent size turbos and keep doing what you are doing. The GHA will clear out soon enough.
 
Ace25 said:
I am really curious how a LFS is going to tell "new tank syndrome" from a water test. There are so many factors that go into that term and most common tests will not tell you anything about that, like what the bacteria count is in the tank. EDIT: Oops, I thought you said the LFS was going to "test your tank water for new tank syndome", disregard what I just said since I read that wrong.

The snails you have now are definately not algae eaters, ceriths eat diatoms and nassarious are meat eaters, eat stuff that lives in the sand, food you put in the tank, and dead things. Not sure what plantaria is.. heard of planaria, but those are flatworms, really bad to have. To answer your question, yes, Astrea and Turbo snails are the 2 most common algae eating snails for our hobby.

This site lists what the snails eat when you click on them.
http://www.reefs2go.com/category/sea_life.snails/
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sorry ace,

the snails are planaxis:
http://reefcleaners.org/index.php?p...category_id=4&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=34

will check that list, thanks.
 
greech said:
Never heard of plantaria either. Astrea will eat HA but a same size turbo will be much more effective. Also astrea snails cannot right themselves so when the fall the depend on you to pick them up. Usually something eats them before you get to them though.

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rs/index.php

At least your LFS isn't trying to sell you miracle cures for your algae or a $2,000 skimmer :). Your on the right track steeler, have been all along. Get a couple of decent size turbos and keep doing what you are doing. The GHA will clear out soon enough.
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yeah, i am bad at remembering names greech. they are planaxis snails.

don't think the lfs had any astrea but they did have turbos.

the lfs said a seahare would be best but they didn't have them and i heard they can relese some stuff into water so i would pass anyway.

well, i have a feeling he will be trying to sell me a whole mess of stuff today when he tests my water.

will politely decline on the miracles today and see what kinds of snails they have.

on a side note, ammonia in qt tank after the 2nd dose of ammonia is between 1-2 PPM (tough to read close color) and trites are 0.

think i also need to replace my alert tag as it is only showing .05 when it should be redlined.

question for you and ace as well.

i went to vets for dogs heartworms and spoke to vet about the interceptor for the tank and he could only give me the flavored interceptor as that's all most places carry.

the flavored stuff can't be used to treat the tank can it?

this is just gonna be for qt when i get corals btw, not main tank.
 
Sea hares are another bad choice.. they eat algae about 10x as much as turbo snails... and there are many problems that go along with them (being picked on by fish/crabs, flow issues, release toxins, and require ENORMOUS amounts of hair algae to sustain them. I don't think even a 100G tank infested top to bottom with algae would be enough to sustain a sea hair for more than a few months.

Never heard of "flavored interceptor".. seems odd to flavor a pill that you put inside your pets food. They will eat the pill regardless. While it is good stuff to have, in my experience it is very hard to get a prescription without an actual reason at the time for it. I always had to show current video/photos of a tank with red bugs in order for my local vet to prescribe it. I believe that if you can get a prescription then you can get it filled online at a place like petmeds.com and get the non-flavored variety. Yes, I think it would be a bad idea to use flavored interceptor in a tank.

Oh ya, one more thing, if you have ANY detectable ammonia, do not put inverts like snails or crabs in the tank, they are super sensitive to ammonia. Just throwing that out there... I think your main tank is all cycled so no issues for you with that.
 
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