What type of snails eat brown/red slime algae?

[Selski12]

Im currently having a bit of a battle with the unsightly brown/red slime algae. Probably resulted from me not changing the filters in my RO/DI unit quickly enough.

Im looking for snails that can do the job. Preferably big sized ones, so I dont have to worry about them getting through the slits of my prefilter box and plugging up my overflow.

Anybody have any ideas which ones to get? And which LFS carries them?

Or maybe a blenny can do the job?

[JoeMack]

Go to your LFS and buy some Macro Algae and put it in your tank if you dont have a refug. like me. Put it in the sand to hold it in place or between some rocks. It will starve out your Cyano. This is the easy way out. Tell me how it goes

[bronco1500]

My problem is the red brown algae is IN my refugium, coating the macro?

[opihi]

i believe conches eat cyano and other diatoms. TP had some on sunday.

[reefboy1]

Is the red brown algae like cotton that clings to the macro? Or is it a slime than coats it?

I have the cotton ball stuff - it grows like crazy in my refugium and ATS. I have a foxface that eats it and keeps it out of my display tank. None of my snails/hermits touch it though.

[Selski12]

I may incorporate a refugium again if I can find space where to put it. I had a hang-on before. Now that I think about it, I did have the red/maroonish cotton-ball in it and my tank never had an diatom problem.

I dont know if I can put a refugium now because of limited space. So, Im trying to look for alternatives. Thanks for the info so far.

[bayhobbies]

consider trying chemi-clean by boyd-$15.it killed my red slime and had no bad effects on my reef
my2cents

[TIGER SHARK]

I second the conch idea. I picked up a queen and it eats red slime algae. Fighting conchs should eat it also.

[Selski12]

I picked up some medium sized Astrea and some large Tiger Trochus snails. The Astrea hasnt touched the brown stuff yet. The Trochus did in the beginning, but now like the algae that is on the glass. The Trochus are doing a good job at munching the algae though.

I may try a couple of fighting conch if I can find an LFS that stocks them.

[Vincerama2]

Where did you get the tiger trochus from? I've been looking for some in the Bay Area!

V

[Selski12]

Originally posted by Vincerama2
Where did you get the tiger trochus from? I've been looking for some in the Bay Area!

V

I got some from Atlantis Aquarium (http://www.atlantisaquarium.net) in Fremont. They were like 5 for $14. They were 5 big ones too (about 1" big)

[Coral_Geek]

The dynamics of a reef tank are such that each scavenger is specialized in the type of diet (ie algaes and detritus) that they consume. There is no single solution to such problems as a single dive on any ocean reef would reveal. If you are looking for tiger trochus or queen conches or nutrient nutralizers such as chemi clean or marine tank clarifyer I would highly recommend a visit to Natural Life Aquarium :thumbsup: in the Town & Country Village shopping center in Sunnyvale. The owner, Manfred, is a valuable resource for me. He is receptive to new ideas but he is a virtual lexicon of existing reef knowledge. By the way, the last time I was in I saw a huge quantity of very high quality rose anemones as well as scolymia corals. From my years of shopping around northern CA I have found the pricing here to be fair especially considering the very high success rate I have enjoyed with livestock fom this LFS.
Originally posted by Vincerama2
Where did you get the tiger trochus from? I've been looking for some in the Bay Area!

V