New tank, just cycling, is this beneficial brown algae?

[cvonseggern]

For algae consumption, nothing seems to beat having a whole horde o' turbo snails. Maybe a bunch of nassarius to keep the sandbed free of detritus, too. Fishwise, I recently added a lawnmower blenny and he seems to be making quite a dent in the hair algae. I've never seen him eat it, but I have come downstairs quite a few mornings to find a bunch of new places where the rocks have been scraped clean. Remember to be thinking about detrivores to consume uneaten food & fish waste so it doesn't fuel the algae problem, as well as critters to actually eat the algae.

[GaryP]

Nerite & Cerith snails
Mexican dwarf hermits.

If what you have is cyano, the hermits are about the only thing that will eat it. A lot of other people will tell you that hermits will kill your snails. IMO they scavenge the snails that turn over on the sand and can't get turned back over. My Astrea snails have a hard time flipping over in my sugar fine sand. I just check my tanks every day and fli over that get flipped.
There's a pretty good source of info on various algae grazers of the GARF website.

Gary

[brianK]

So I can add these after the tank does it's first full cycle right? I can't add any of these before
the tank cycles right??

Brian

[GaryP]

Yes, wait. Snails in particular are very sensitive to Ammonia and Nitrite spikes. And remember that just because you are getting a 0 value when you test, there may be spikes between tests that you aren't seeing, so be paitent.
Also remember that the test kits we use aren't necessarily the most sensitive. There may be levels that you are not detecting that could be harmful.

Gary

[brianK]

Witch are the better Test Kits? At present I'm using the Red Sea Kits...and testing for

Ammonia, PH/Alk, Nitrates, Niitrites,Calcium and Phosphates...


Brian

[GaryP]

Salifert are the best, but as I said, regardless of the kit, they are not all that sensitive. Accuracy has a lot to do with user technique. Just make sure you run the test the same way every time.

Gary