Adding the Clean-up Crew

[Rgwiz11]

Tank finally looks like it is just about done cycling. Ammonia and nitrites have been at 0 for about 3 weeks now, and nitrates are continuing to drop (at about 10ppm right now). My roommate and I decided to give the tank another week or so and throw in another water change before we added a clean-up crew. From what I've been reading, we should be shooting for approximately 1 snail per gallon and about 1 crab per 4 gallons. Obviously, not adding them all at once.

Anyway, here's a list of the clean-up crew I'd like to have in the tank and wanted some input. Tank is a 75g, has about 100-120lbs of LR.

First addition:

10 Astraea Snails

3 Blue-legged hermits

3 Scarlet hermits

5 Turbos

1 Peppermint

Total Crew (eventually):

30 Astraea Snails

15 Turbos

15 Nassarius

7 Blue-legged hermits

7 Scarlet hermits

1 Emerald Mithrax

2 Peppermints

Think this will be enough to keep the tank clean? More/less? Also, will everything get along OK? I know that the crabs will likely attack the snails if there aren't enough shells or food for them, but hopefully that problem can be avoided. Any other suggestions for some things I may be missing or haven't thought about?

EDIT: Forgot to mention a cleaner shrimp as well

Edited October 28, 2009 by Rgwiz11

[muddybluewater]

15 turbos seems like a lot they can knock over a lot of things, I would add 15-20 cerith and 6-7 trochus, with the turbos you already have. JMO

[Rgwiz11]

Most of our rock is pretty well secured in there. Will the turbos detach corals and nems?

Being the ceriths are burrowers, is it better to wait a couple of months to add them? I've noticed with a lot of sifters that it's suggested to add them later in the life of your tank to allow the substrate to develop the material needed. The trochus look good though. Maybe more off them if the turbos are going to cause problems.

[Zarathustra2]

Ceriths aren't diggers. Narsarius are probably what you are thinking of. I have both dwarf and florida ceriths in my tank and they are always out on my rock.

For my tastes I would go with some dwarf ceriths, skip the crabs and get a tiger tail or a urchin or something. The dwarf ceriths are awesome as they will breed in the tank to meet your bioload and they can get into almost any little nook or cranny. I do like emerald crabs for eating bubble algae but they can get mean later in life.

I also am very partial to the fuzzy chitons that I got from reef cleaners. They do a great job of really just clearing out an area of anything green. They look just absolutely pre-historic. And, lets face it, it's fun to say fuzzy chiton.

[Rgwiz11]

And, lets face it, it's fun to say fuzzy chiton.

LOL

It was Narsarius that I was thinking about

I agree, Fuzzy Chiton is fun to say, but to me, they look like cockroaches.

I like the look of hermits, and I could watch them eat with their tiny little claws all day. Maybe I'll cut back on their numbers and get a blue-tux urchin. Love the look of those.

I'll definitely look into the ceriths though, and maybe decrease the astraeas.

Tiger Tails look great too, and I didn't think about getting a cucumber. Something more to think about.

Thanks for the input.

Edited October 28, 2009 by Rgwiz11

[Zarathustra2]

I've just had some bad luck with hermits killing off snails. They really are great CuC members, just a bit too carniverous for my tastes. Your milage may vary.

I've also had a lot of luck with my serpant star as a primary detritus collector. You have to make sure he gets fed tho or (in my case) he goes after my feather dusters.

[+capty99]

my peppermints were the attackers in my tank, and took out a hermit. i thought they were just all going to get along .

I had no idea that cleanup crews required such big populations per tank. Good to know. (My picoreef knowledge is not directly transferable to the big tank)

[Zarathustra2]

On my 90 G i have

50 dwarf ceriths

25 florida ceriths

25 nerites

10 zig zag periwinkles

10 fuzzy chitons

10 dwarf nerites

2-3 halloween hermits (came in some live rock)

I am going to be adding:

2-4 peppermints

10 astrea

2 emeralds

a tiger tail cuke

[Rgwiz11]

First batch is in and look to be doing OK so far. The hermits are scavenging over my rock, peppermint is hiding in a cave, and I've lost the emerald in the back somewhere

Thanks a ton Laura! Was great to meet you.

[Laura]

First batch is in and look to be doing OK so far. The hermits are scavenging over my rock, peppermint is hiding in a cave, and I've lost the emerald in the back somewhere

Thanks a ton Laura! Was great to meet you.

AWESOME!!! It was a pleasure to meet you also...I'm glad someone was here to keep the math in check

[NonSequitur]

I hated the hermits in my 12g, they were forever bulldozing things. In the 55 they have more room to move, so they don't seem to do as much damage, but I think my favorite has to be the nassirius snails.. I love watching them pop out of the sand like zombies whenever I feed. The tuxedo urchin doesn't seem to do much to keep the tank clean, but he sure is cute and the pink pincushion urchin seems to only eat coralline algae. Pretty soon I'm going to add a brittle star or two, since my chocolate chip star only seems to eat nori (or snails and soft corals if I forget to feed him).

[PeeperKeeper]

Zig zag periwinkle is much more fun to say than fuzzy chiton.

I didn't know emerald crabs got mean. I just added a couple to my tank to help with the bubble algae. What do I have to worry about them picking on? Fish, corals or other CuC members?

[Derry]

The bigger emeralds have been known to take out small fish from time to time.

[Zarathustra2]

I have never heard of emeralds taking down a fish and really can't imagine how they would. I have had problems with one of my emeralds eatin on a feather duster and have seen them munch on some zoas before but never a fish. Maybe it was munching on a fish that had passed on from other causes?

[Derry]

It hasn't happened to me personally, but I used to have one that would grab at my perculas, and RC is full of warnings from people who have lost fish.

[doktorstick]

The bigger emeralds have been known to take out small fish from time to time.

What's is "bigger"?

[Derry]

Full adult size, as opposed to the smaller ones.

[JEN H]

We have a long spine urchin in our 210 gallon tank. (Mr. Stabby). He was literally the size of a silver dollar when we got him, and he is bigger than a softball now.... He does a better job keeping our tank clean from algae on the glass then any snails we have ever had. Plus....we don't have to worry about him flipping over and dying while we aren't at home (we lost many a snail to this predicament). We have some other type of urchin that have really short spines in our other tank (with corals). They are pretty small and don't grow quickly. They are slow too....but they munch on the algae as well. However, the sand tiger conchs we got chow down on the algae in our 29 gallon biocube... We had some hair algae that I actually liked on the back wall and they mowed through it in a day. I hope they don't starve now!

[+KeeperOfTheZoo]

I concur with hermits getting themselves into trouble. My tank came with a GIANT (2" shell and he needs a bigger one) common gulf coast hermit. It has now been banished to the sump for getting into trouble. Also have a little gulf coast hermit that disguised himself as an astrea snail in a batch of snails we got from Laura. That little guy hasn't caused any major problems yet and the handful of little blue leg hermits (also from Laura) don't seem to be causing any problems either. I agree that the hermits are so much fun to watch they are worth having if you have room. I have 7 hermits in a 125g tank. And one rotten giant hermit in a 20g sump. The big guy will climb up in my hand to take food from me and is a real riot. I miss having him in the big tank but he was constantly knocking stuff over or stomping on things he shouldn't. I like him so much though I'm tempted to set up a little tank just for him.

The astreas are algae eating machines and do a wonderful job but they do plow over everything in their path and will knock down anything small that isn't secured (or go over stuff, but not too bad). I have a couple Margarita (black foot) snails, same deal. They're so good at cleaning up algae I can't complain though. My tank had a major green hair algae problem when I bought it. Between the snails and better water quality the GHA is almost gone! I have about 20 snails. I have a banded serpent star too. Not sure how effective it is at cleaning up but it does hang out under my rock and moves around a fair amount. It's fun to watch his arms come out when I feed meaty foods. Very good to know it'll take out feather dusters if hungry! Yikes! Something made a meal of a little clam I had (another hitchhiker), I've been wondering if it was the serpent. The serpent gets fed every other day when I feed my eel. Shouldn't be too hungry! I think the creepiest members of my cuc are the bristleworms. I have quite a few of the pink&black ones. They come out at night. Odd looking critters but supposedly great detrivours. Liz

[Zarathustra2]

The gulf coast hermits are very different from the little guys we generally use in a reef and are definitatly not reef safe. Watch out for them as they will grab fishies, eat polyps ect. ect.