Coralline

Are there any snails or other creatures that clean the coralline algae off the glass? Its tough cleaning it often! It takes lots of scrubbing and arm power. My tank is only 29G and apparently Ive put too much live rock in my tank so its really hard manuvering around the rock trying not to hurt myself on them.

 

urchins

 

For a glass you can use a razor blade, but yes an urchin will eat away at coraline, excretion the waste later, spreading it in a sense. Your new coraline will most likely be on rocks though

 

Urchins are by no means the answer to coralline clean up – as mentioned a razor blade is basically the best avenue of approach. But preventative maintenance is a better answer. Use your mag-float scrubber every two days and coralline can not get a foot hold and you will not need to scrape.

 

I don't own one of those mag floats, but now that i know they are helpful in preventing coralline I will definately invest in one. I usually just scrub the glass by hand with one of those blue glass scrubbers. I had heard about urchins, but they arent reef safe are they? I have corals as well

 

Reef safe depends on your livestock. I also mean to say that, yes they will remove that coraline, but will spread it too, in it's waste, as I mentioned above.

 

Be sue to glue down corals/rocks so urchin doesn't plow them down/knock them over.

 

How do I glue down my corals? Do they sell stuff at pet stores?

 

You can use any krazy glue or super glue labeled "contains Cyanoacrylate", or use an epoxy putty that you can buy at Home Depot, Lowes, or your LFS.

 

I have used razors in the past, but since I bought a algae scrapper w/ plastic handle with stainless steel blade from petsmart for $3. its 4" wide and it a heck of alot easier to use.