Haha I'm winning at last!!!

[Canadoc]

Hello all,

I'm fairly new to the forum as far as posting... been creeping around on here for ages though. I've been fighting a battle with aiptasia and red turf algae for the last 1.5 years in my 29 gal. I'm finally winning, so I figured I'd throw in what I've been doing that has worked/not worked.

Turf algae is impossible to completely manually remove. I used to be able to pick up pieces of live rock by the algae...anyways with the aiptasia, tried lemon juice injections, tried manual removal, none of that worked. Finally got a peppermint shrimp, and one week later there is not a trace of those little #%$#^@!

With the turf algae, it has been harder.
1. Changed from tap to RO/DI water, changed from CF lights to T5's.
2. I do about one 5gal water change every 3-4 weeks (29 gal tank).
3. Also added a 10 gal sump with chaeto and more L.R.
4. Changed skimmers from a Red Sea Prizm (noisy, finicky, innefective) to a Aqua C remora (quiet, simple, and EFFICIENT)

These steps all slowed algal growth, but didn't reverse it... even with manual removal. So....

1. Bought a Lawnmower blenny (algae eating goby). He decided he prefers pellet/flake food. Doesn't even eat green algae.
2. Bought a ton of Astrea snails (vertical cone shaped). These ignore the turf algae and meander around the glass.
3. Bought two mexican turbo snails, with curly turban like shells... these guys are beasts, and are just chomping through the algae thus far. I strongly recommend them.

So, it seems like all the other stuff, is helping reduce dissolved organics, and increase the water quality, but I've found that with biological control (snails and shrimp) it has really ramped up the algae destruction. Just thought I'd throw this out there, this algae particularly has been the bane of my life, and I know other people have some difficulty removing it. Of course this is all just my opinion... feel free to suggest yours too, or tell me I'm completely wrong! .

Cheers for now, will post some tank photos soon!

Eric