Red slime.

Clean up crew was a waste of money. Had about 80 snails and half were DOA and only about 20 are left. The bigger ones basically stay on the glass and do nothing. Ever now and then ill see one on the rocks. Scrubbed the rocks in the water change water last weekend and only run my light about four hours a day and I can already see the red coming back. Ordering new ATI bulbs next week and going to get a hermit crab pack from reefs2go. The crabs seem to do more than the snails do. Also am going to get a test kit for Cal, Alk and Mag. Want to try some corals again. The one time I put some corals in it didn't go so well. I'm using Coralife T5 bulbs. Corals never opened at all. Couldnt test the big three because I didn't have any test kits for those. But was told there wasn't anything in the tank to use those up so shouldn't need to test it yet. See all these new tanks with corals and mine is 6 months in so hopefully I can get some going soon. Also thinking of getting another power head for more flow. But right now the two I have moves sand around and they are not pointing down very far. Where would be a good place to put the third power head.

 

FYI Nassarius, Nerite, and Cerith snails are basically nocturnal. Nassarius will come out whenever food is introduced, but otherwise wait until night to come out. The others barely move at all during the day, but very active at night.

 

Yeah I know. They do get to work at night a little. Most have died or were DOA though. I'm thinking a good crab pack from reefs2go and a couple Conch will do better.

 

Go with reef cleaners. Little to nothing will be doa. Tell john I sent you

 

That's who I went with when I ordered the first CUC.

 

Did you contact john in regards to it?

 

No I didn't. Once I saw how small the dwarf snails were I didn't think they were going to do much anyways so I didn't bother. These things are small as the seeds inside sunflower seeds. Just figured I'd go with crabs instead.

 

Here is the idea with the dwarf ceriths: Big snails need ALOT of algae every day, so there is a greater chance of die off. Little snails need a small amount of algae everyday, and can fit into tiny places easier.

I used to think i got alot of dieoff with reefcleaners too, so on my last order I put all the snails in a tupperware on my sandbed and all but 3 crawled out.... and there were like 5 sneaky hermits that got sumped. This was an order of hundreds of snails.

 

I think the problem here is and I may be wrong, probably am wrong, but those CUC members your talking about will do nothing at all in getting rid of red slime.

 

When I ordered them it said on the website that they eat cyano. The bigger snails actually do from time to time get on the rocks and will clean a nice section of the slime off. Problem is most of the time they are on the glass. But at night who knows what they are up to. My tank is about 6 months in so I think I'm just going through what most go through at the beginning. Hopefully it will all balance out sooner or later. The red slime is nowhere as bad as it was. Manual removal and weekly water changes have helped a ton. Also added some Phosguard and now have no detectable phosphates. Just can't seem to get the nitrates below 15 or 20 ppm.