Reef Cleaners?

[TropicalRespect]

How important is it to have reef cleaners and sand sifters like , snails, hermits, shrimp? I dont have any yet and i was wondering if that would lower my nitrates and phosphates?

 

[Bifferwine]

Very important. The clean up crew is not going to lower your nitrates and phosphates, but they will reduce algae and detritus build up in your tank.

To lower nitrates and phosphates, your best bet is to do water changes with RODI water, don't overfeed, and don't overstock. Adding some macroalgae will also lower them. But I don't know if that's practical in a 3 gallon tank.

 

[SeaBee]

My friend has this green macro algea that looks like little trees in his 12 g. Looks nice, and serves the purpose.

 

[TropicalRespect]

oh ok, im gonna pick up some snails and a hermit tomorrow at the fish store. Also, im using Reverse Osmosis water, does it need to be RODI? Thanks

 

[little_fish]

Reverse Osmosis is RO in RO/DI. The DI is for de-ionized which is usually another stage in the filter.

 

[TropicalRespect]

Ya, but deos it need to be de-ionized. Im just using plain reverse osmosis

 

[SeaBee]

If you want to get as much crap out of the water as possible. Deionized water is a type of purified water with mineral ions (salts) removed. These mineral ions include sodium, calcium, iron, copper, chloride, and bromide.

 

[parrotchute]

I highly recommend DI water - it gets out a lot of the stuff you really don't want.

Serpent stars are great, but for a 3 gallon I think it'd be a little crowded.

Give the hermit crab a few extra shells so he won't attack the snails for them. Also, Nassarius snails are wonderful for stirring up the sand bed and keeping it clean. And they're really cool.

 

[TropicalRespect]

ok thanks, but I can get the RO water very easily from my water purifier and it would be a pain to have go to the fish store every week to get RODI water. Ive been using just RO water since ive started my tank and my tank hasnt been doing to well. Could it be because im not using RODI water???

 

[little_fish]

That doesnt sound like real RO water. A real RO water filter is going to have lots of waste water to RO water output. Are you sure you arent just using a filter? If so then you arent removing the stuff from the water and that is probably what the algae is feeding off.

 

[TropicalRespect]

its a filter used to filter drinking water. It says reverse osmosis on the the purifier, and the purifier is pretty big

 

[little_fish]

Do you get a bunch of waste water?

 

[TropicalRespect]

its hooked up below the sink and it comes out of a purified water outlet next to the sink. so im not sure if it produces waste water, i think its all done automaticly.

 

[little_fish]

Ok, i see. Yes, that should be RO unit. But that still leaves in all sorts of salts, which might be where your issues are coming from.

 

[guarda]

got a model # or pic of it?

 

[Bifferwine]

How long has it been since you changed the filters? If the filters are old, the water it's producing may be bad.

 

[parrotchute]

In addition to the filters, it simply just may not be as efficient as other RO/DI filters - your best bet is to test the water coming out for nitrate/phosphate and see what the total dissolved solids level is. I think you'd be better off buying a separate RODI system for your tank.

 

[little_fish]

+1 'chute

 

[SeaBee]

Just test you fresh water with a TDS meter, it will tell you if the water is clean or not.

 

[TropicalRespect]

My dad usually changes the filter when it needs to be changed and keeps it clean. And the filter is made by Eco Water Systems model number ERO-392.