[tanksalot]

Everything has been going on cruise control, if you will. Starting to get a lot of brown algae on substrate floor and hairy purplish growth on live rock. Please advise if this presents a problem. Tanksalot!

[rlcline76]

Brown algae are diatoms. Certain snails will take care of that. It will also grow on your rock and glass. Hairy purplish growth? Is it slimy? If it is, it is probably cyano. There should be a word about it in the New to Hobby Forum labelled Sticky at the very top of the forum.

[tanksalot]

Thanks, thats great help. Do you know the names of the type of snails I should try?

[blind1993]

turbo snails will take care of that and also a yellow eyed tang will just love eating those

[blind1993]

i had some and i just stoped letting sunlight in the house after a week most of it was gone

[rlcline76]

Tanks,
Blind is right, too. Several factors will figure into a good algae problem. Indirect sunlight is a major pain! I have my tanks set up for 8 hours of light, no more than that. For my diatoms, I purchased nerite snails. For when we had a green hair algae outbreak, I picked up a few turbo snails. To keep my substrate tidy, I picked up a few nassarius (super tongan variety) snails. I like those a lot! They work on the fish crap and everything else, plus keep my bed nice and well sifted. If you have a good relationship with your LFS, you might be able to talk the owner into ordering snails for you, that way you can cut out the shipping cost. I've ordered from Pet Supplies, Dog Supplies, Cat Supplies, Pet Meds & Pet Products: Drs. Foster & Smith Pet Supplies, as well. It is always a useful site to browse when you need particular details of what you are looking for.
Have you gotten a cleaning crew yet?

[blind1993]

hey is an arrow crab a good idea

[rlcline76]

I don't know much about them. I hear they are good for keeping bristleworm populations down, but as they grow, they can be a problem for the fish. That can be said for many invertebrates, though. With these forums, the more you read, the more you realize everything is hit or miss. It sounds like most people have very few problems with their clean up crew choices, only a 10-20% chance that you will end up with a bozo.