Advice Needed On Different Rock Formations?

[craigybaby37]

as the title of the post says i need a little help of rock formations for my reef.

currently the rocks are set out in the middle of the tank allowing access to all the glass for cleaning etc etc.

what i idealy want to do is change the rocks around so that i have them all in the back left corner of the tank and sloping down towards the middle of the tank. so basicly rocks on left of tank and bare sand on right for some of my corals.

the only thing i am worried about is the build up of algea and waste on the glass behind the rocks as i will not be able to get to the glass to clean it?? will this build up cause things to rise like nitrates etc and mess with my tank stats??

thanks people

 

[AK77]

That's what god invented snails for

If it's behind the rocks, it won't matter because you wont be able to see it firstly. Secondly, it will not go rampant because there will be restricted light, so the amount of algae will be minimal. The best glass cleaning snails I have are astrea. I've never had a problem with them falling off and needing righting. I just added some big-a$$ed turbo snails too, which seem to spend all their time on the rocks and substrate rather than attacking the mass of green hair algae on the rear glass pane

Just another idea, why not position a powerhead inside the rock formation. This will ensure excellent water circulation around the rocks so that there are no dead spots and it will also mean that a lot of the waste will be blown out onto the substrate to be eaten by critters.

 

[craigybaby37]

thanks for the info its just what i needed. i only have 2 turbo snails in the tank and also 6 hermit crabs and thats my cleanup crew for a uk 20g tank. may pay me to invest in a few more snails.

good idea about the powerhead didnt think about that.

will porb tackle the task sometime next week when i have some spare time. will post pics up when i done it all.

 

[1entra]

Yea get a few more snails ie. astrea's, nassarius, cerith, these will help tackle any algae problems that you may get!