GHA and Bubble Algae

[Filipino Reefer]

Battling for couple months now, I just purchased tuxedo urchin and emerald crab for my 40 gallon two weeks. The tuxedo urchin is doing great on the rockscape and the emerald crab is picky. What are my other natural resources to rid these nuisance gha and bubble?

 

[olonmv]

Mexican turbo snail. Just finished commenting in another thread about my sons GHA that was a huge patch and within a few weeks after adding the snail it was gone and stayed gone. As for the sand bed….a sand sifting invert, like a pistol shrimp (be warned, they’ll steal anything that’s not glued down) or a conch would be beneficial.

 

[Dave Clark]

I read in another thread that a good way to prevent GHA is to encourage the growth of coralline algae on the rock. I know that years ago when I had my first saltwater tank and didn't really know what I was doing, I started dosing kalkwasser nearly right after setup, and I never had much of a problem with GHA. I guess the coralline algae prevents the GHA from getting a foothold on the rock?

 

[Filipino Reefer]

I read in another thread that a good way to prevent GHA is to encourage the growth of coralline algae on the rock. I know that years ago when I had my first saltwater tank and didn't really know what I was doing, I started dosing kalkwasser nearly right after setup, and I never had much of a problem with GHA. I guess the coralline algae prevents the GHA from getting a foothold on the rock?

I have Kalk now. Let's see how it goes. For now I'm just using toothbrush and water change. Since I'm off for a moment I'm planning to do more frequent water changes like every other day...so I brush off the rocks and do water change while siphoning the sanded. Yesterday i cleaned the sump as well .

 

[All_talk]

Your manual removal plan sounds like a good place to start.

How are you fixed for CUC beyond the urchin? 3 or 4 Nassarius snails would be good sand turners for a tank that size.

 

[Filipino Reefer]

Your manual removal plan sounds like a good place to start.

How are you fixed for CUC beyond the urchin? 3 or 4 Nassarius snails would be good sand turners for a tank that size.

2 snails ... forgot the name...1 tuxedo urchin 1 emerald crab...

 

[All_talk]

My opinion you should fortify your CUC a bit...

I would mix and match some more snails like Nassarius, Astrea, Trochus, Cerith and maybe a small Turbo or two. About 10 total would be a place to start. Hermit crabs are a more controversial choice, I have some, but many others would say no, do your research,.

 

[TokenReefer]

Looks to be mostly on the sandbed? I'd use my gravel vac during a water change to grab it all in clumps and create a pile (cuz it won't siphon out attached to the sand) the use a ladel to scoop that pile out... Good luck!

 

[All_talk]

Also, when discussing algae control I like to recommend this video.

 

[Filipino Reefer]

With FFM, hope they have some varieties of snails, another emerald crab and or hermit snails. Don’t ‘hermits eat the emerald ones food runs out then snails?

 

[olonmv]

Touching base here, I borrowed my sons turbo snail for my GHA problem and he’s doing a fantastic job of tearing up the GHA. Seeing parts of my tank that I hadn’t seen in a while due to being over taken by GHA. Manual removal was getting old.