Do I need a bigger CUC?

gemini9 · Nov 7, 2014

My 30 gallon tank is about 7 months old with 4x T5s. 500gph powerhead. I find myself having to clean my tank probably more often than I feel I should. I scrape algae off the glass about 3 times a week and stuff accumulates on my sand bed after only a few days after siphoning it off. I don't even know what it is. Detrius? Algae? Diatoms? beats me... but it's brown and shows up 2 days after vacuum. I've got some green fuzzy algae in a few places that my CUC hasn't even touched. The algae on the glass is anywhere from a dark brown to like a dark brownish/reddish color. Quite ugly. I don't have hardly any coraline algae. Maybe some purple on a hermits shell. A few spots of dark green algae here and there. My live rock is brown and but I think that's probably normal right?

My biggest complaint is having to clean the glass so often, and the brown stuff on the sandbed. The green fuzzy stuff on the rocks I can probably pull right off , but it's not bothering anything atm.

Here's what I have in there now:
1 Emerald Crab
1 Scarlet Hermit
1 Yellow Tip Hermit
3 Blue Leg Hermits
3 Red Leg Hermits
a few unidentified hermits

1 Florida Cerith (Had ordered 8 but 7 didn't make it for some reason)
5 Nassarius
Over 100 Dwarf Ceriths (I ordered 20 and they sent me 120) I think many have died tho... or are maybe buried in the sand
5 or so Nerites

1 Cleaner Shrimp

Other livestock:
2 Clowns, 1 Yellow Tailed Damsel, 1 Firefish

1 Small cluster of Xenia corals

Is my CUC too small? Am I missing something?

3Twinklets · Nov 7, 2014

A photo would be great. It could be diatoms or it could be cyanobacteria.
Check your Nitrates and Phosphate levels.

gemini9 · Nov 8, 2014

I'm 7 months past my cycle. Diatoms should be long gone. Doesn't look like diatoms tho. It's some kinda algae. I'm thinking I need a larger CUC, and may order some more stuff, but I'm wondering, is it possible to overstock a CUC? They produce waste too, don't they?

NanaReefer · Nov 8, 2014

Yes it is possible to overstock a CUC. But only as it pertains to their survival. Most wind up starving to death. They add very little to the bio-load, so that's never an issue. Less is more and best when it comes to our CUC and the proper type especially.

Curious, any chance you have in the past or still are dosing phyto or zooplankton?