Red Algea?

[moryan86]

Is this red algea starting to form on my dry rocks?

 

[Bucs20fan]

Its diatoms, harmless. Beginning part of the uglies stage. time to get snails now.

 

[moryan86]

Ok I have two so how many should I have is it per every gallon or gallon and a half?

 

[Bucs20fan]

How large is your tank?

 

[AydenLincoln]

Its diatoms, harmless. Beginning part of the uglies stage. time to get snails now.

Yes! They will come and go very quickly and for future reference you have to post photos under white light! Your phone camera can’t pickup the blues and it makes it really hard to see/identify things.

 

[moryan86]

Ok it’s a 70 gallon tank

 

[moryan86]

Should I be adding copapods into the tank to also control this?

 

[Bucs20fan]

You will need more than two snails in a 70 gallon. Try to do a mix of astrea, cerith, trochus for algae control. And then nassarius for the sand bed. Very valuable members of a CUC. You can do hermits if you so wish it as well. Copepods are a great addition to any tank. They are the smallest cuc member and feed lots of species as well as eat algae and detritus.

 

[Bucs20fan]

Having snails to eat diatoms certainly makes the tank look nicer, but you wont have diatoms more than a couple weeks. They are feeding off of all the silicates from your rock and sand. Once they consume it all, they will die off on their own. But they grow really fast and its helpful to have cuc to manage them before they die off.

 

[moryan86]

Ok just so I am clear this is brown algae correct? Now my nitrates read 10 ppm, phosphate is at 0 and I have done weekly water changes since the tank was cycled fully. I ordered a cuc for my 70 which consists of 66 dwarf ceriths, 24 Nassarius vibex, 28 Florida ceriths and 20 nerites. I am uncertain if this is overkill but it is what was put together for me from reef cleaners.com. Thoughts if this will work.