Best algea eating snail?

[krisalexander]

I have some astrea snails. they are tiny but they work...and margirita snails..i just had a algae outbreak my self with the full cycling of the tank..and they took care of it..

[saltwatermaniac]

I have had a major algae breakout and the snails i used were mexican turbos which will have it cleaned up within a few days or less.

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

I have several different types of snails. I've been running an expt with one reef tank full of snails (turbos, astrea, etc) and one that has tangs. The snails tank has the back glass covered with hair algae & the other tank is spotless. I think I'll be getting another tang for algae control (I'm also a fish nut, not a snail nut).

Anthony

[Tarolisol]

Originally Posted by SeaHorse_Fanatic

I have several different types of snails. I've been running an expt with one reef tank full of snails (turbos, astrea, etc) and one that has tangs. The snails tank has the back glass covered with hair algae & the other tank is spotless. I think I'll be getting another tang for algae control (I'm also a fish nut, not a snail nut).

Anthony

I agree fish are a bit nicer to look at then snails. My yellow tang its the algea pretty well but theres only so much he can do, ill have another tang coming in a few days, maybe that will help.

My snails keep my glass pretty clean but theres only 5 or so turbos, ive never seen a snail on the rocks yet. Ive heard astreas so maybe ill try some of those. Thats if i can find some

[reeferaddict]

I'm actually a little surprised at how few clean up crew the respondents so far seem to keep. I must have close to 75 snails... 10 quite large Turbos, 30 or so Astreas, 7 sand sifting snails, 4 rock snails, and at least a couple of dozen Ceriths that I can recall off hand... they all seem to go everywhere, though the Ceriths hide in the sand until the lights go out. Sometimes keeping corals in place is a challenge, but epoxy helps. I'll not forget to mention I also have dozens and dozens of hermit crabs and other detrivores to keep things clean. My recent bout with hair algae was more about high nitrates & an old test kit, I could only imagine how quickly the tank would have been overgrown without these guys on constant patrol! Oh yeah... my mini Tang school keeps most surface algae in check too...

[revgeoff]

On the fish front...my lawnmower blenny used to do a great job until he became fat and lazy.
Have you ever tried a Sea Hare?

[Farrmanchu]

If you wanna get a super fast grazer, and will spend the $, Trochus snails are best IMO. They move many times faster than an Astrea, and they look really nice.