do snails really help with algae or just add to the problem ?

[reefer newby]

Do snails really help control algae ? My tank is six months old now. Went thru the diatom outbreak. Now I have brown algae on my glass , that is hard to get off. I have to scrape it with a blade cleaner.

 

[DSP]

Different snails help with different types of algeas.You need to ID the algea then research what snails eat it.Some of my favorite snails for keeping my glass clean are Ceriths and nerites

 

[DSP]

Also you need to find out whats causing the algea.How old are your rodi filters?

 

[Palting]

Snails help, but that's all they do: help. They don't "clean" the glass. They'll leave tracks of clean areas. The only way to keep the glass clean is with an algae scrubber and scraper.

 

[spscrazy]

I have some coraline algae that is a kinda dirty brown/green sounds like you might have the same thing grows the same as the pink/purple coraline ie: starts out in small dots & becomes larger circles if I let it go if it doesn't have fronds, blades, leaves etc, is flat & hard might be same thing

 

[reefer newby]

Yes it does start out as small dots that have to be scraped off the glass with a blade. Hard to get off with a scrubber sponge. Looks like it is also settling on my sand too.

 

[DSP]

Snails help, but that's all they do: help. They don't "clean" the glass. They'll leave tracks of clean areas. The only way to keep the glass clean is with an algae scrubber and scraper.

You got either an algea problem or the wrong snails then lol.I rarely have to clean my glass.if you have algea problems and algea is all over your glass then ya I bet the snails couldn't keep up and would just leave streaks.And if you have those kind of algea problems then you need to figure out whats causing it

 

[Palting]

Definitely brown coralline then. I had them on my tank when the tank was young, hard and crusty, breaks off like egg shells with a scraper. The back wall was pretty much covered in it. Eventually scraped it all off. It's the prettier pink coralline now, and not as extensive as the brown. No type of snail will keep it off. It's more about the tank getting mature, IMO, rather than finding something to eat it. You'll just have to keep scraping it off until the tank gets mature enough. Urchins can clean most of it off your rock, but they won't clean it enough on the glass.

Here's a photo of what I'm talking about regarding scraping it off until the tank matures. Brown coraline all over the back wall with tank about 1 1/2 years old:

Cleaned it all off around the 2 year old mark, and never had to do it again. This is the tank at over 3 years old.