Ways to make my tank dirtier?..

[KC2020]

Why don't you occasionally feed the Turbos directly. Hikari Seaweed Extreme Medium Fish Food Wafers provide a pretty good feast and your tank may enjoy them as well.

 

[onlyreefers]

Why don't you occasionally reef the Turbos directly. Hikari Seaweed Extreme Medium Fish Food Wafers provide a pretty good feast and your tank may enjoy them as well.

Good point, and thanks! This is my next try. I tried to push some nori and hakari s pellets in front of them, but they’re so suction cupped and wouldn’t entertain it or another fish zoomed in. I’ll get some snips and try to target feed them some wafers. My clown get G’d up with Hakari pellets, it’s like crack, way more than brine actually.

 

[skilter]

Why don't you occasionally reef the Turbos directly. Hikari Seaweed Extreme Medium Fish Food Wafers provide a pretty good feast and your tank may enjoy them as well.

I feed hakari mysis pellets mixed with veggie extreme in auto feeder and put out a veggie clip with julian sprungs sea veggies maybe once or twice a week. Works great for me and don't any changes in my nitrates or phosphates very steady consistently.

 

[i cant think]

(I have a 90 gallon display and a 30 gallon sump, only run a skimmer for nutrient export, 10% water change every 2 weeks)

I know this may be an unpopular take, or a dumb question, but I have 4 mexican turbo snails (large), a few other snails and crabs, 6 clowns, a diamond goby, and a tang now. I want more algae growth in the display, without a crash. Curious of what can be implemented.

I’m feeding more than I’m comfortable with, yet phosphates and nitrates aren’t skyrocketing. They system is “working”, but I’m concerned that the snails are starving and will die. I did have a hair algae bomb, but now it’s practically bone dry. I can see the little spurs of hair algae wanting to growth, but they don’t stand a chance. I want the tang to be able to graze.

These turbos are absolute beasts, I want to keep them, but maybe the 90 is too small for 4. These things cleaned my gyre 4k off to be brand new (it was flooded with GHA), going out of the water and on top of my return nozzles. Goby keeps the sand spotless, but I’d like to see more life in the sand.

Literal tennis balls on top of each other looking for food.. I use to clean the glass every day, but nothing. I bought a 25W UV for clarity, but figure that’ll be the last nail in the coffin.

How big is the tank?

It sounds understocked to me and my first thought would be to add in another fish of some sort.

 

[Dan_P]

(I have a 90 gallon display and a 30 gallon sump, only run a skimmer for nutrient export, 10% water change every 2 weeks)

I know this may be an unpopular take, or a dumb question, but I have 4 mexican turbo snails (large), a few other snails and crabs, 6 clowns, a diamond goby, and a tang now. I want more algae growth in the display, without a crash. Curious of what can be implemented.

I’m feeding more than I’m comfortable with, yet phosphates and nitrates aren’t skyrocketing. They system is “working”, but I’m concerned that the snails are starving and will die. I did have a hair algae bomb, but now it’s practically bone dry. I can see the little spurs of hair algae wanting to growth, but they don’t stand a chance. I want the tang to be able to graze.

These turbos are absolute beasts, I want to keep them, but maybe the 90 is too small for 4. These things cleaned my gyre 4k off to be brand new (it was flooded with GHA), going out of the water and on top of my return nozzles. Goby keeps the sand spotless, but I’d like to see more life in the sand.

Literal tennis balls on top of each other looking for food.. I use to clean the glass every day, but nothing. I bought a 25W UV for clarity, but figure that’ll be the last nail in the coffin.

Just start feeding the snails dry seaweed everyday.

I have 16 huge Mexican turbos that eat one 8x8 inch sheet of dried seaweed per day. In terms of live seaweed that is a large amount and not likely to be met by growing some algae in the aquarium.

 

[onlyreefers]

Just start feeding the snails dry seaweed everyday.

I have 16 huge Mexican turbos that eat one 8x8 inch sheet of dried seaweed per day. In terms of live seaweed that is a large amount and not likely to be met by growing some algae in the aquarium.

Do you have any recommendations on techniques to target feed them while they’re suction cupped to the glass, or how you go about it? The seaweed that I have, it breaks apart rather quickly and flows everywhere.

 

[Dan_P]

Do you have any recommendations on techniques to target feed them while they’re suction cupped to the glass, or how you go about it? The seaweed that I have, it breaks apart rather quickly and flows everywhere.

Sheets of seaweed can be wrapped over a rock and held in place with several narrow rubber bands. Wrap the bands criss-cross to form a mesh over the seaweed to it keep in place. You will find that the snails can get at the seaweed under the rubber bands. This would be a daily ritual of removing the rock and wrapping seaweed around it.

For my pack of snails, I use a 4x6 inch piece of window glass, place a double layer of seaweed on it and complete the sandwich with piece of plastic mesh that I cut large openings for access to the seaweed. This sandwich is held together with rubber bands. Three of these go in every night and are stripped bare in an hour or two. I determined the amount of food they needed by increasing the amount of seaweed by 25% every day until they started leaving uneaten seaweed overnight. Then I backed off a little. With this feeding regime, the snails have become large and occasionally spawn (a sure sign of proper feeding), but because they are broadcast spawners, this snail does not reproduce in an aquarium.

 

[dadnjesse]

Sheets of seaweed can be wrapped over a rock and held in place with several narrow rubber bands. Wrap the bands criss-cross to form a mesh over the seaweed to it keep in place. You will find that the snails can get at the seaweed under the rubber bands. This would be a daily ritual of removing the rock and wrapping seaweed around it.

For my pack of snails, I use a 4x6 inch piece of window glass, place a double layer of seaweed on it and complete the sandwich with piece of plastic mesh that I cut large openings for access to the seaweed. This sandwich is held together with rubber bands. Three of these go in every night and are stripped bare in an hour or two. I determined the amount of food they needed by increasing the amount of seaweed by 25% every day until they started leaving uneaten seaweed overnight. Then I backed off a little. With this feeding regime, the snails have become large and occasionally spawn (a sure sign of proper feeding), but because they are broadcast spawners, this snail does not reproduce in an aquarium.

How do you keep the 4x6 piece of glass from floating

 

[Dan_P]

How do you keep the 4x6 piece of glass from floating

Glass is heavier than water, no problem.

 

[GrandmaReefer]

Sheets of seaweed can be wrapped over a rock and held in place with several narrow rubber bands. Wrap the bands criss-cross to form a mesh over the seaweed to it keep in place. You will find that the snails can get at the seaweed under the rubber bands. This would be a daily ritual of removing the rock and wrapping seaweed around it.

For my pack of snails, I use a 4x6 inch piece of window glass, place a double layer of seaweed on it and complete the sandwich with piece of plastic mesh that I cut large openings for access to the seaweed. This sandwich is held together with rubber bands. Three of these go in every night and are stripped bare in an hour or two. I determined the amount of food they needed by increasing the amount of seaweed by 25% every day until they started leaving uneaten seaweed overnight. Then I backed off a little. With this feeding regime, the snails have become large and occasionally spawn (a sure sign of proper feeding), but because they are broadcast spawners, this snail does not reproduce in an aquarium.

This sounds like the Innovative Marine Gourmet Gadget Grazer - I use it to feed my tangs, but my turbos and urchins have no problem grazing on it too. Magnetic, put it anywhere.

 

[Mwatts12]

I would slowly manage this. That rock looks white and new. I’m sure it’s absorbing all the po4.

 

[jkcoral]

You can always put nori on a clip for the snails. I have a bare bottom tank, and when there’s a lack of plague I’ll put nori at the bottom of the tank and all the turbos will show up and huddle around it to eat very quickly.

And as someone else said, new rock can be munching your phosphate.

 

[Weaverjay101]

I've used an F2 based fertilizer to increase the growth of algae in my refugium before. It does contain copper, but it's in such a small quantity that it won't harm anything in your tank.

 

[MnFish1]

Yea I know the snails eat more than just algae. They scour everything but the sand, presumably not much food falls on the rock, at least not that the hermits or tang don’t heist. Goby polices the bottom. No death, just proactive thought, shooting for visible food to tackle for them I guess

I don't know why I re-thought about this issue (but I did). I think you might be overanalyzing. If your snails are doing well and your fish are doing well, and you don't have a lot of algae - consider yourself 1 person out of 100 posts here. Most people despite doing what you're doing have a lot of algae, and don't know what to do. I'm going to repeat what I said before - but in a different way - if it isn't broken, don't fix it. If you want to add more food - add it. I would not adjust your skimmer or your filtration - except as others have said - perhaps decreasing your water changes - maybe to every 2-3 weeks. I would not be fixated on a certain nitrate or Phosphate level. In fact - I would aim to keep your parameters exactly the way you have them. As your fish get bigger, they will produce more waste, and you may have the opposite problem to what you're having now. I would not add nitrate or PO4 at this point. I do not believe your snails are in danger of starving. For a 90 gallon tank you have a small bioload (though I guess I'm not sure about your filtration) You will find that as your tang eats, you will have more than enough 'fertilizer'.

Based on the couple of pictures I've seen - your tank seems fairly new (correct me if I'm wrong) - And - believe me - thousands of people here wish they had your problem. You may need to add nutrients at some point as your fish increase and your corals increase in size. For now - I would enjoy your tank - and avoid (as you put it) falling into the reef tank chemistry rabbit hole. Don't get me wrong, reef chemistry is important and interesting. However unless your corals are having problems - I would not change anything except as I said above. Can you post a picture of your entire tank? Sorry - if you have - I can't see it!

 

[VinnyBoy]

I would keep feeding what you are currently and test daily. Nutrients are getting in they’re just being absorbed. Liverock will absorb the phosphates as well until saturated, and then leak back into the water. So you could be experiencing the liverock absorbing.