best snail to clean film algae?

What variety of snail is best to clean up the film algae that builds up on the back wall of my aquarium? It is just a pain in the neck to clean that back wall, since I can't use my mag float. And I don't like the look of letting the back wall go green. I currently have astrea and cerith (and some nassarius) snails, but perhaps not enough. They keep the rocks spotless, but not the glass. Any suggestions?

 

I'm not sure if you have any local fish stores close and if you do they may not carry the snails you want. The ones you have are good for your tank but the nass. will def. not clean the glass and the ceriths will stay in the sandbed and the astreas will do some of the work. I would not be talked into margarita snails as they are temperate and can not handle the warm water of the saltwater tank and do better in tanks that are cooler (70 degrees or so) even though they can right themselves if they fall off the wall. In warm saltwater tanks it will be slowly torchering them to the death lol But anyways, turbo snails are fine and will take care of the problem as they are heavy grazers but beware that they also cant right themselves if they fall off and soem of the bigger turbos can move rocks and even corals so be careful if there is loose rock or coral in your tank. As far as I'm concerned I have had great luck w/ nerite snails. They may not be able to right themselves but they can sure stick to the glass really well and I havent really had any fall off the glass in my nano or 90 gallon tanks. I went through quite a few snails before finding these nerite snails thanks to John over at Reefcleaners.org

 

IME, nerites and dwarf ceriths do a good job with the glass. Neither replace mag floats...

I was in your shoes on having a hard time cleaning the back glass. I eventually gave up. The snails kept it alright, but it was never even close to as clean as the mag floated sides/front.

That was a year ago. Since then the back has covered with coralline and there is no algae on it... long term, I wouldn't worry about it. short term, the snails mentioned above.

 

I actually like astrea snails, they are better then nerite snails at cleaning the glass than nerite snails IMO, I've had both. They also get larger, but not nearly as large as turbo snails. I suggest getting more of them. But as previously said, they won't get it like a mag float.

 

ive had great luck with mexican turbo snails theyve even eaten hair algae in my tank =] but yes i also like nerites

 

why not just get a lawnmower blenny , i had mass buildup in my tank after the cycle and the lmblenny cleared the back of the glass in a matter of say .. 2 days lol it was fun watchin her mow it down lol

 

I like ceriths too, they cover the whole tank, sand, glass and rock.

 

Currently I have astrea snails and they do a pretty good job. But I've noticed they spend a lot of time hanging out at the water line, which isn't very helpful. Maybe if I had more they would clean faster.

 

Lawnmower blennies are great algae eaters, but tend to starve in most tanks due to lack of sufficient algae. So I don't want to go with one of those - I'd rather do snails. But it seems the general consensus here is that even with more snails I'd still need to break out the squeegee every so often to clean the back wall (not fun!).

 

also, i don't think lawnmowers eat film algae (???)

anyway, if you want coralline to cover the back wall one day - i wouldn't use a mag float on it... a mag float will slow that process way down.