How to Increase Diatom and Green Algae Growth?

[BloopFish]

Hello R2R!

I currently have a 13.5g fluval tank mixed reef that I want to keep as many different types of snails as possible for collecting purposes. Currently this is the only tank I can keep right now.

My CURRENT livestock is as follows:
1 Exquisite Firefish
2 Porcelain Anemone Crab
2 Trochus snails
2 Nassarius snails
3 Astarea snails
2 Fire Shrimps

I desire to add even more snails to this tank, however I don't think my tank is dirty enough (in terms of algae) so I am trying to figure out how to grow more algae. I've increased feeding to perhaps 2-3x of what I normally do and I don't see any significant increase of desirable algae growth. Last week I have undergone a dino bloom, which has gotten much weaker now. I don't want my nitrate to get crazy high (100s) if it barely increases algae growth. I have noticed when I feed my custom frozen food blend (oyster, shrimp, mussels, and squid) it does increase algae growth, but I'd prefer to use dry food that I can use with my auto feeder. I feel as though this is attributed to high phosphate in the food blend?
My future goal is to facilitate snail growth and spawning.

Here's a few novel thoughts:

I've thought of dosing silicates to grow more diatoms - this seems like a nice idea to me because I also want to keep sponges in the future. Any thoughts on this?

I have thought of buying nori and algae wafers to supplement the diet of my snails - has anyone done this before?

Increase feeding even more? Dose phosphates (currently don't have a phos kit, only nitrate)?

 

[Ling_Thing]

My snails in my frag tank love a piece of nori at night on a clip, gone the next morning every time guaranteed

 

[BloopFish]

My snails in my frag tank love a piece of nori at night on a clip, gone the next morning every time guaranteed

That's what I like to hear, I'll definitely try that. I know people use blanched veggies to feed their freshwater snails, I might even try that if I find the nori to not be enough. My only problem with nori is that I end up eating it more than my critters lol.

That definitely would help the burden with keeping the adult snails, but ideally I'd also have a thriving microalgae population for potential larval snails - like trochus snails.

My biggest issue is this: how can I increase the growth of desirable microalgae like diatoms and green algae and not run into an infestation of something like cyano?

 

[Wayne P.]

Wow, That's the complete opposite of what I want, out dang algae!

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

Apparently you can just let me run your tank for a few weeks if you want.

I would just supplement feed them instead of inducing chaos. algae waffers?

 

[BloopFish]

Apparently you can just let me run your tank for a few weeks if you want.

I would just supplement feed them instead of inducing chaos. algae waffers?

Yeah I was thinking about algae wafers too, not sure which brand - maybe hikari?
I still want to induce some extra algae growth, since I want tiny algae eating critters - like juvenile or larvae - to be able to have sufficient resources. I'm of course not looking for a crazy algae infestation - just enough to sustain extra clean up crew. I plan to have enough CUC for more than double the size tank.

 

[jurgenph]

crank your white lights

J.

 

[BloopFish]

crank your white lights

J.

I run an AI Prime HD on my fluval 13.5. At peak the whites are at 80%, any more and I'm afraid I might bleach some of my corals - my zoas don't look too happy when I run it any higher, I could try to acclimate them for an even higher intensity? I also run a relatively long photoperiod, 10+ hours. I've only been tweaking the white settings since green would do basically nothing, red is said to be harmful to corals?, and my blue & violet is already at max.

I've also heard that changing the spectrum of light (warmer vs cooler white) does not really affect much algae growth as long as the intensity is high enough, so I'm not sure if it'd actually do much.

 

[jurgenph]

I run an AI Prime HD on my fluval 13.5. At peak the whites are at 80%, any more and I'm afraid I might bleach some of my corals - my zoas don't look too happy when I run it any higher

AH!

i assumed you were running a dedicated dirty snail tank, without corals


J.

 

[Dine]

I would just feed them with nori and wafers and not bother with growing the algae. Seems easier and def prettier

 

[Dan_P]

Hello R2R!

I currently have a 13.5g fluval tank mixed reef that I want to keep as many different types of snails as possible for collecting purposes. Currently this is the only tank I can keep right now.

My CURRENT livestock is as follows:
1 Exquisite Firefish
2 Porcelain Anemone Crab
2 Trochus snails
2 Nassarius snails
3 Astarea snails
2 Fire Shrimps

I desire to add even more snails to this tank, however I don't think my tank is dirty enough (in terms of algae) so I am trying to figure out how to grow more algae. I've increased feeding to perhaps 2-3x of what I normally do and I don't see any significant increase of desirable algae growth. Last week I have undergone a dino bloom, which has gotten much weaker now. I don't want my nitrate to get crazy high (100s) if it barely increases algae growth. I have noticed when I feed my custom frozen food blend (oyster, shrimp, mussels, and squid) it does increase algae growth, but I'd prefer to use dry food that I can use with my auto feeder. I feel as though this is attributed to high phosphate in the food blend?
My future goal is to facilitate snail growth and spawning.

Here's a few novel thoughts:

I've thought of dosing silicates to grow more diatoms - this seems like a nice idea to me because I also want to keep sponges in the future. Any thoughts on this?

I have thought of buying nori and algae wafers to supplement the diet of my snails - has anyone done this before?

Increase feeding even more? Dose phosphates (currently don't have a phos kit, only nitrate)?

It would probably be easier to maintain a clean tank and add snail food. Trying to juggle water parameters and light level to get the needed level of algae growth to sustain snails might be optimum if you could not afford to buy snail food.

 

[Magellan]

Just feed reef roids. I wouldn’t try to overdo it, as long as you have visible algae your snails will have plenty to eat.

 

[BloopFish]

Again, I will do that but it doesn't solve the issue with growing enough algae to support the larval stage of snails such as trochus snails - I don't even think reef roids would be a suitable diet for the larvae.