My saltwater prep corner

Here is the corner where I prepare Saltwater. I mix new water with salt right after a water change in the tank so I always have some available if needed. Can mix up to 50 L at once. I have a small heater and pump in the blue mixing container.

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Added more folk to the cleaning crew

It has been a while since I last replaced the dead hermits and snails of the cleaning crew.  Today I got 5 snails and 5 hermits to repopulate the team. I hope these last longer than the previous batch, which died off pretty quickly in the "hermit wars" than happened after they were added.

The lack of sufficient cleaning crew members might be one of the reasons it has been hard to keep the green hair algae under control.

Valonia cleanup

Valonias have been very successful in my tank.... too successful.  It is hard to imagine that only 6 or 7 months ago I saw the first valonia bubble.  Now they cover large sections of rock, in layers...

So, I've been fighting against them, in parallel with fighting the green hair algae.  Bringing NO3 to zero, PO4 as close to zero as possible through the use of Vodka dosing and PhosGuard, reducing food so that there is less left to decompose, changing photoperiods, increasing Mg level, doing periodic water changes,  etc...

Sounds like a lot of work?  It isn't.  Spend very little time doing the stuff above, most of it is done once a month, a few done every two weeks and another few daily routines that don't take 5 minutes summed up.

Today I did some manual removal of green hair algae and valonias.  Here is a few pictures of me removing valonias from a rock:

(click to enlarge)

After the removal they are put back in the tank upside down, so that the GHA and valonias don't grow back.  I'm sure it works because the bottom side of the rocks were white, with no algae at all.

Today I did the whole lot:
- Manual removal of green hair algae, green valonia and red bubble algae.
- Cleaned skimmer cup.
- Changed activated carbon.
- Scraped the glass.
- Cleaned the MP10 pump (which was already half-clogged with hair algae and valonias)
- 20L water change (10%)

What I want now is to get a Mithrax crab.... they can be dangerous to some corals, but it seems like they eat valonias.... I just need ot find someone selling them....

Snorkeler