melev

The return assembly going into my reef enters at the right end of the tank, but touches nothing that would allow the clean up crew to get to the plumbing. I designed that portion to be removable so that section's occasional soaking would be relatively easy. However, a couple of weeks ago I decided to park a snail on one return and let it get a meal. Within two weeks, that return is nearly completely clean, while the other shows a striking difference. I'm thinking about putting a second snail on the second one, and let these two 'do the rounds' so to speak.

Here's the top down view. The penductor closer to the front panel is still dirty, while the one in the back is black with specs of coralline. That check valve in the center is installed backwards. It stays shut with the pump is on, but when the pump turns off the flapper within swings open and instantly breaks the siphon. More info here: http://www.melevsreef.com/node/122

Fuzzy penductor:

Snail-cleaned penductor:

You can kind of see the difference in this shot, although I was actually aiming at the mandarin.

The snail of choice? It's an astrea.