rocks and snails, please help

[work765]

My landscape in my tank is very rocky, and i want to purchase some snails. I have read that if one of these snails flips on its back that it will die. It will be nearly impossible for me to reach my snails under all the rock i have. Should i just buy Trochus snails that can flip them selfs over and not waste my money on turbo's or should i buy a few trochus, turbos, and margarita's and put a few hermits in incase one of them dies and i can't reach it? I have a mad Diatom algae bloom all over my rocks and want to get rid of this stuff. On the glass i can wipe it off, but on the rocks its pretty tuff to get off. Are there any critters that eat Diatom off rocks well and don't fall to there deaths?

Oh yea, when setting up my tank i put the rocks down first then added the sand, and i don't quite have enough sand in the tank yet,,, so there are partial areas where its a ton of rock as the bottom,, looks like a snail graveyard just waiting.

Also could some of this algae bloom be from when i top off my system i use filtered tap water without adding the amonia mix stuff to it? I'm not sure if its amonia, but the chemical you add when you put tap water into a salt tank.

thanks again,

p.s. should i forgett the snails and buy more sand?

 

[Anonymous]

Do a search of Deep Sandbeds and diatom/algae/cyano blooms and many of your questions should be answered.

I am not a fan of hermits due to the fact that they will kill snails(not just scavenge dead ones). Turbos,astreas,nassarius,cerith,margarita,and trochus snails all complement eachother. They all tend to prefer different algaes. Cerith,nassarius,and trochus all stir your sand.

For the algae on the rock you should blast it off with a turkey baster.

 

[Anonymous]

Most people can't reach every corner, but the snails will usually be ok for a couple hours on their backs--easily enough time for you to discover and correct.

Big turbo snails do a lot of rock bulldozing--I like astreas instead. I don't know if any of the common snails are very big on diatoms.

Diatoms are very typical for a new tank. If they don't go away soon, then you'll probably continue to have them until you find a better source for water--they are a direct result of having silicates and really nothing else. Get rid of silicates and your diatoms will disappear.

Not knowing what kind of filter you use, I can't say one way or the other if the water conditioner is needed. In that case, it's probably a good idea to use it.

Ty

 

[Anonymous]

I also forgot to mention that tap water usually adds many dissolved organics which also tend to cause algae blooms. Those chlorine/ammonia conditioners do not remove those nutrients but make them harmless to marine life. This does not stop them from being consummed by algaes.