best deal on a clean-up crew?

[freelancing]

I've never bought livestock on-line before... just equipment, and not too much of it.

I'd be interested in any warnings, suggestions or horror stories anyone might have concerning acquiring a good 100+ gal clean-up crew, whether it be on-line or an LFS.

Also, I'd like to get opinions concerning the best species for the job.

Shrimp are out... my wrasse would finish a cleaner shrimp off in no time.

I've got the following inhabitants in my tank:

greenbird wrasse (no sense reccomending that I get rid of him... he's my favorite fish and he stays)
blue velvet damsel
2 mated oscelera clowns (false percs.)
blue damsel
yellow tail damsel
neon dottyback
royal dottyback (bi-color psuedochromis)
big honkin' black cucumber (about 11")
pencil sea urchin (I've heard these are not good for an immature tank like mine, but I haven't been able to fish him out yet)


I'm new to cucumbers, but I've heard they are great sand sifters and don't strip away all the good cooties in the sand like the sand-sifting star I just sold to the LFS... he's been in the tank for about 12 hours and thankfully, my wrasse totally ignores it.

I still need to add sand... I've got nearly 4" in some spots and just bare glass in a few spots where the velvet damsel and the wrasse have built night-time sleep nests. Sand consists of about 40# of southdown on top of 40# live "bio active" sand mixed w/ 40# of pink Fiji arragonite sand.

I had a green/emerald mithrax crab for about 3 months. I found his little exoskeleton in the substrate so he might have been preyed upon while moulting. My arrow crab suffered a similar mysterious fate. I don't think I'll get an arrow crab again (he was great at eating detrious, tho') since they can't really hide if the wrasse gets in the mood for stuffed crab. The emerald crab seemed to be a good little hider, but I'm open to suggestions here. I know that the wrasse went right after the sally-lightfoot a split second after she was introduced to the tank and I had to get rid of my sally light-foots... it was evident they wouldn't have a chance. I've heard that wrasses love crustaceans and I can give up ever getting a clam. :) I simply adore that fish, though, so I'm willing to live w/ not having certain things. I can always get another tank in the future. :D

Previous to finding this board and DFWMAS, I was on a listserv for an Austin group for a while. They talked heavily on the benefits of cerith snails. Certainly their tiny size makes them able to get into nooks & crannies to clean stuff.

Other than the appearance of their shells and the sheer size of their cleaning pathways, I don't know the difference (if there is any) between the effectiveness of turbos, margarita snails, cerith, tapestry, astrea, etc.

I've got all sorts of types of algae growing in my tank and I'm not experienced enough to be able to identify the different types. I do know that w/ the exception of tiny patches on some live rock, I have none of the good pink stuff... it's all gunky or hairy and obviously doesn't belong. I do know I don't have any bubble algae.

I know bumblebee snails are out. My wrasse is very attracted to those colors and still plays soccer w/ the empty shells whenever he gets bored (he tosses them up, spits them across the tank, smacks them with his tail... I'm not kidding).:rolleyes:

I've heard that red legged hermits are only good short-term and they will attack the pink (good) stuff after all the bad stuff is gone... are there similar problems w/ the blue legged hermits?

I see that they've got a decent-sounding "reef relief" cleanup crew at
http://www.ffexpress.com/cleanup.htm , but I've never dealt w/ this company (I heard good things from the listers on the Austin group, however) and I'd prefer to spend less if it is possible.

Thanks in advance for any tips/warnings you can offer!

-ShellEy

[Brad Ward]

Shelley,

I have had great luck with my Queen Conchs ( Strombus gigas) eating filamentous algae. You know, the hairy gunky stuff.:D

I would imagine the Ceriths might make a good snack for your Green bird. I would also recommend a tang or two or three oft the same species for clean up on the algae as well.

hth,

Brad

[freelancing]

Thanks for the tip, Brad. I would like to get a kole tang... the expressions on their faces crack me up... would a kole tang be kosher to tackle the green hair? I also have some brown gunky fuzzy (not hairy) stuff growing on the blue plastic.

Would I need to put a seaweed clip up right away, or just after all the hairy stuff is gone?

I've seen kole tangs at World Down Under, so I'd probably pick one up there unless you think the kole tang is inappropriate for the job.

Where would I find queen conch snails? How many would you recommend? Did you find a good deal on-line for them?



Thanks,
ShellEy

[Brad Ward]

Shelley,

I have not had a Kole tang before but from what I understand, they are a tough one to keep. I believe this is because they like a certain kind of algae that is called "turf" algae. That said, maybe someone out there has had one and been successful with it over a period of time and will speak up.

I really like the Pacific Blue Tang because they seem less picky and are sometimes available as larval raised fish. They are collected as larvae in the ocean and grown out to about 1" in captivity before sale. I have seen them before at a already mentioned store as well as the Queen Conchs.

Brad

[freelancing]

I'll check out the pacific blue tang. I first saw a kole tang at the house of someone from who I bought a coral frag... I'll try to find his e-mail and ask him about it. Thanks for the tip!