I have had the tank for a few years, but long story short I currently have zero CUC. The DT is 120 gallons, 4ft x 2ft and has a shallow sand bed made up of black sand and live rock is present, but only about 65 pounds. I have a MarinePure block to give surface area for bio filter. The block alone is enough to carry the tank, so the rock is purely ornamental and to provide the fish room to hide. Since I have had no CUC in a while, the maintenance has been on me to perform and I'm just getting quite sick of scrubbing rocks to be honest. Phosphates are reading 0 on Hanna and nitrates are reading 0.75 on red sea so nutrients are quite low. I'm still getting golden slime on the rocks every few weeks so I need some snails to keep it clean for me.
I don't want any crabs or shrimp as I've had them in the past and don't want them again for various reasons. I've read the article on CUC selection and I think my mind is made up on Turban Snails (Tectus fenestratus) for algae removal on rocks and glass and Nassarius Snails (Nassarius distortus) to eat anything that makes it to the bottom as well as to keep the sand stirred up. I am just not quite sure on the numbers.
Since turban snails breed in captivity and can flip themselves, they are my choice. I don't want egg laying snails such as Ceriths or snails I have to flip over all of the time or snails that leave the tank on their own. I was thinking maybe 5x Nassarius Snails and 20x Turban Snails. What does everyone think of this? Also, am I missing something critical here that these two snails don't take care of? If I have a particular nuisance algae that is not common then it is of no concern as I will tackle that when the time comes, but I am just trying to rebuild a basic CUC to handle the day to day algaes and slimes that would otherwise build up.
I don't want any crabs or shrimp as I've had them in the past and don't want them again for various reasons. I've read the article on CUC selection and I think my mind is made up on Turban Snails (Tectus fenestratus) for algae removal on rocks and glass and Nassarius Snails (Nassarius distortus) to eat anything that makes it to the bottom as well as to keep the sand stirred up. I am just not quite sure on the numbers.
Since turban snails breed in captivity and can flip themselves, they are my choice. I don't want egg laying snails such as Ceriths or snails I have to flip over all of the time or snails that leave the tank on their own. I was thinking maybe 5x Nassarius Snails and 20x Turban Snails. What does everyone think of this? Also, am I missing something critical here that these two snails don't take care of? If I have a particular nuisance algae that is not common then it is of no concern as I will tackle that when the time comes, but I am just trying to rebuild a basic CUC to handle the day to day algaes and slimes that would otherwise build up.
