[canuckreef]

i have an algae problem..and from what i have found out..maybe i should add some snails to my tank...

i have 55 gal reef... and all my water parameters seem ok..but i have a hair algae prob..

i was wondering...

1)how many snails i should put in...?
2)what kinds.. i was told either turbos or astrea..but i want to know what the difference is..and what each does..in terms of eating algae..
does one get bigger than the other...??

3) how to acclimitize them once i get them home..i have heard several things and want to do it right..

thanks..

[scubadude]

I just had an outbreak of hair algae in my 220 tank and took some ceriths out of my 90 and they did a great job...just wasnt enough of them to kill it all....I went to the LFS and bought a fairly large Lawnmower blenny and 12 astreas I put most of the astreas in the problem spot area and within 24 hrs the problem spot area was almost wiped out Im not real fond of astreas (thats why I only got 12 of them!) but it was the only option of snails i had at the time and it DID work....I would choose trochus or turbos any day over astreas! astreas cannot right themselves up if the fall over, and just sit there and die unless you flip them back over. My LFS was selling the astreas as turbos and i said to them where are the turbos? they said right here and pointed to the astreas...and I said arent those astreas? they said..."same thing" neway there is a difference between the two! I think the norm is around 1 snail per gallon

Astrea


Turbo


Trochus


Cerith

[icemark]

I am rather partial to Ceriths and Turbos myself. Ceriths are cool in that they will dig down a little into the substrate (as long as it is reasonably fine).

Turbos to a great job on green algaes, like on the glass.

A good mix of both is what I would recommend with at least one snail per 2 gallons, and if you have no other clean up crew then a snail per gal.

[chromis]

I think its a good idea to get snails that breed, that way the # you have is determined by the amount of food.

In my 55 reef I have:

40 nassarious
7 turbo
6 trochus
6 nerite
hundreds of stomatella varia snails
many strombus snails
1 queen conch
1 fighting conch


I would say that I like the big turbo snail I have the best, he is always moving, can wipe out a large portion of algae in minutes, and is neat looking.

I might try some cerith snails, I was trying to do a Pacific tank, kinda screwed that up by adding nassarious snails. Oh well...

HTH
Andrew