Good Clean up crew

[dstall]

What is a good clean up crew for a 90 gal reef? Also quanity

[rjrobert]

new tank?

50-100 Snails
Queen Conch
2 stars
1 Cuc

That would be my starting team

[dstall]

The reason I ask is that I have neglected my clean crew in my tank and my tank is over a year old. But I see very few snails or crabs in my tank now and feel that I need to get a new crew to work. I’m betting I have less then 10 snails or crabs in the tank. Just didn’t know what or how many I needed.

[rjrobert]

I probably have more than I need but my sand is white / The rocks are clean and the walls are clean so it works for me. I have about twice what I recommended but I'm running a 215g

[dstall]

what type of snails?

[rjrobert]

astros mainly

[dstall]

i have bad things about Cucs and dieing and wrecking tanks?????

[rjrobert]

I'm in no way an expert but from the last 5 years I've kept a few of them with limited concern. Only issue I ever had was that my blenny thought a new cuc looked tasty and walla I had one less Cuc

[MattG]

I would look at maybe 20 astreas and 20 ceriths. I also like hermit crabs and emerald crabs but many don't. A serpent star is also a good addition IMO.

All to often people add huge clean up crews that quickly take care of the algae but then slowly starve over the next few months.

[zotzer]

I take trochus over astrea, as they will less likely perish if they fall down.

You say your CUC is thin. How does your tank look? If you feel you need to beef up the CUC, just add a few at a time and see how it goes.

Have fun!
Tracy

[HABS#1]

Sorry to thead jump but I will be starting a new 75 soon and was wondering what I should start with? I started with 8 Trochus and 4 ceriths and 10 blue legs in our 31 and was thinking I would just up those numbers by about 6 of each.