I have a realtively new setup. Its 6 weeks old, and will become a 55 gallon FOWLR. I added 60 lbs of base rock from www.hirocks.com (excellent rock BTW). I also added 30 lbs of base rock I already had. I then purchased 10 lbs of live rock from a LFS to seed the tank. The first 3 weeks I just let the tank get started. 3 macro algaes starting growing out of the live rock (2 halemedia, and one unknown), 6-half inch feather dusters were on the rock, and 1-half inch green sponge. The rocks had quite a bit of red and purple coralline on them. Since the LR intro there are also a boatload of amphipods, 2 serpent stars (1 inch and 1.5 inches), lots of bristle worms, spaghetti worms, etc.
So thigns seemed to be going great. I got a diatom bloom and so bought some snails. 3 turbo snails and 5 bumble bee snails. The corraline had become a nice deep red and purple and had grown almost an inch from where it was originally on the live rock. Now 3 weeks later all that corraline is gone and the part that was established on the LR when I bought it is starting to dissappear as well.
Since the tank is going to be a FOWLR it just uses NO lighting for 12 hours a day. Are the snails eating the coralline? I didn't think they did that. Everything else in the tank is positively thriving. The dusters have doubled in size, the sponge has quadrupled in size, the amphipods are like ants in the tank at night, and there are some sort of 1/4 inch starfish looking things on the glass by the hundreds.
So thigns seemed to be going great. I got a diatom bloom and so bought some snails. 3 turbo snails and 5 bumble bee snails. The corraline had become a nice deep red and purple and had grown almost an inch from where it was originally on the live rock. Now 3 weeks later all that corraline is gone and the part that was established on the LR when I bought it is starting to dissappear as well.
Since the tank is going to be a FOWLR it just uses NO lighting for 12 hours a day. Are the snails eating the coralline? I didn't think they did that. Everything else in the tank is positively thriving. The dusters have doubled in size, the sponge has quadrupled in size, the amphipods are like ants in the tank at night, and there are some sort of 1/4 inch starfish looking things on the glass by the hundreds.