[Frank N Beans]

i have a 125gal reef with a 4" sand bed and around 130-150lbs live rock. it was set up for 4 yrs but i had to move it to a new home in sept. it had alot of hair algie for the last year and when i moved it i noticed alot of detritus under the rocks. i didn`t have a DSB before i moved it either and not too many snails and crabs were left. i thought that part of the hair algie problem was an old RO unit that i could`nt find new filters for.
when i moved the tank i used RO/DI water from a new kent unit mixed with IO salt. i changed the VHO`s and MH`s and scrubbed most if not all the hair algie off the rocks and threw out the old sand for south down. i put in a kit from IPSF and inland aquatics. i have a few nass, turbo and cerith snails in there too.
my alk is around 3.5-4.0, i think i had a small die off from moving cause my phosphate went up but i have phos remover in the sump now.
now the problem, my hair algie is worse then ever. i brushed much of it off and sucked it out with a python no spill clean and fill and had the lights out for 5 days. now the VHO`s have been back on for a week and it`s not making a dent in the algie.
i was planning on placing an order with reeftopia. is this too much, too little or just right? i know you`ll blast me for the 2 crabs but are they that bad for a 125 gal?

12 lettuce nudibranch
1 emerald crab
1 sally lightfoot
100 sm golden snails
100 astrea snails
12 nerite snails
12 certh snails

[eses]

Are your phosphates down at all? Your water quality will make a larger dent in the fight against algae than a clean up crew will. I would get that down before adding alot more, as a clean-up crew won't clean up all of the hair green for you. They do help in preventing it though.

The bigger crabs you mentioned will probably eat your snails over time, if your not worried about this, then they should be okay.

I would ditch the astrea snails and exhange them for some kind of turbo snail. In my opinion, 1 turbo does the work of 10 astrea's. The red-stripped ones, I think from Mexico are awesome. Much faster than your standard astrea, and they can flip themselves back over when they fall behind your rocks.

Still, I would do water changes until you remove the phosphates first. Keep your lights on, but cut the time, and let it go a few weeks. It took all of the green stiff-algae about 2 months to cycle out and die in my system when I accidentally let it grow due to high phosphate.

[Frank N Beans]

my phos and nitrates are 0 and 0.
i placed an order with etropicals.
here it is:
12 tiger trochus
5 long spined urchin
2 abalone
3 sand eating cuc (bohadschia argus)
6 queen conch
4 fighting conch
2 sally lightfoot crabs (i`ll keep an eye on them)
40 nas snails
30 golden astrea (they call them turbo astreas)
30 (turbo) astrea
10 lettuce nudibranch.

[chromis]

you dont mention your filtration, do you have a skimmer? Any kind of nutrient export? I would pull out as much as you can, do a large water change, and add fast growing macroalge to your tank. Adding a large skimmer couldnt hurt either. Maybe even add some mangroves, they are supposed to suck out phosphates fairly fast.


HTH
Andrew

[Frank N Beans]

i do have a large skimer. it`s about 4ft high and always pulling out gunk.