Cleanup Crew?

[slambrecht]

How is this for my first cleanup crew.

I have a 29 gallon BioCube. I am hearing mixed things about stars.

One peppermint shrimp
Two emerald crabs
One serpent star
One sand sifter star

[wasupdavey]

I don't really know about starfish but I hear they recommend 1 hermit crab per gallon or so. I also heard it really depends on how serious your condition is. By this meaning how much algae you need to get rid of. Hermits and snails will do it. Cleaner Shrimps are also really good at cleaning.

I have a 29 gallon tank also but still in cycling process. Planning on getting about 5 hermits, 5 snails 1 cleaner shrimp and 3 emerald crabs.

[Bebo77]

get some snails.... cerths or astreas...

[Illuminati]

Emerald crabs can be monsters. I would not start with them as a member of the cleanup crew. If you develop a bubble algae problem I would get 1 *** only 1*** then.

A local guy had one that tore apart his zoa's and they can go after fish if given the chance.

2 stars in a small tank like that is a bad idea. They will strip the life out of the sandbed in no time an starve. Again, if you feel that you have to then get one.

Cernith snails are a good cleaner for nano's as are Nerite snails, hermit crabs and Stomatella snails if you can find them.

[NanoReefWanabe]

in my 20 i have:

12 narsarius snails, 2 astrea snails, 1 turbo snail, 2 blue legged hermits, 2 white legged hermits, 2 zebra snails, and one black brittle star (i enjoy watching him follow my turbo around cleaning up his messy azz...)

these guys kinda keep up, so you may want to consider some snails for your tank..

also in such a small tank i too would avoid the sand sifting star as they will sift out the fauna of your sand and then die..

[mobert]

slambrecht,
[welcome]

IMO, serpent stars are way cool to look at but in my 240 gallon tank, I had three (yellow, green and black/red). Very cool to look at but after a few years, they got to be 24" across and small fishes started disappearing in the night. So I removed them when I had the chance. Emerald crabs are good for algae control but as previously stated not so good for zoos and some of your corals. Peppermint Shrimps are good for aiptaisia control so I tolerate them ripping food from the mouths of my corals. In a nano I would only keep a variety of snails for clean-up. All the other critters you mentioned are very interesting to watch but do not always play well with other inhabitants. Snails are the least problematic. It depends on what else you may want to keep.

[kool-cat]

If you start having Hair algae pull off long clumps with a glove and rinse in a bucket of water. Then buy golf ball turbo snails to and put them on top of the trimmed algae and they should take care of the hair algae.

Scarlet hermit crabs are good.

I also have nassarius vibex snails that eat decaying or left over food and help turn the sand
Cerith snails that clean the glass below the sand and help turn the sand.

Nerite snails are also great.

[slambrecht]

How about this:

20 astrea snails-

20 dwarf blue leg hermits

5 scarlet reef hermits

10 cerith snals

10 black turbo snails

[LNell]

I would totally scrap the hermits. They're kind of cool to look at but they will kill all of your snails in their search for bigger shells. Snails are much better scavengers for your tank. Get some nassarius snails instead and save yourself some trouble. Also, I would go with more cerith and maybe some nerite snails instead of the astreas. Astreas, when they fall off the rocks, can't turn themselves over and will die. That many turbos will starve in your nano. You can scrap them too. Good luck and let us know what you end up getting.

[Illuminati]

I would also ditch the blue leg hermits but keep the 5 scarlet.

Instead of 20 astrea snails maybe get 4-5 of them and 10 nassarius, nassarius are great for the sandbed.

10 Cernith is fine.

Instead of the 10 black turbo's I'd get the nerite.