cleanup crew

[onecrzyboi4u]

What does everyone else have in their tank for cleanup crews?



What would be good for a 29 gal tank?

[drummereef]

I have nassarius and cerith snails, a fighting conch, and astreas and turbos for the glass. Only add what your tank needs. You can always add more as the demand goes up.

[SuperNerd]

Try a mix of inverts but don't go crazy on the #s. Using that "1 per gallon" rule can result in some of whatever you add dying from starvation.

[PONCHDOG2000]

i agree with supernerd. only put some in. you can always put more in later. don't put the 1 for every gallon, they will starve. mine did.

[onecrzyboi4u]

i'll do 5 ceriths and 5 nassarous.

[Claeth]

Your best bet is to add them slowly, a few here, a few there, until your algae problems start to dissapear. when that happens, you have just enough, keep a list of what you have, so that you can do head checks and replace them as needed to keep the population of them stable. Inverts are like the canaries in the coal mine for avid reefaholics, if you start to lose them, you have a larger problem growing that will eventually become tank wide.

The kinds of inverts that I recommend for the job are...

1.Astrea snails, for cleaning glass and rock of green algae.
2.Turbo snails, for cleaning glass and rock of green algae, as well as some detrivorus duties.
3. Brittle or Bristle starfish, for detrivorus uses, as well as being good scavengers.
4. Sally Lightfoot crab, for underside rock cleanup and hair algae eating.
5. Lettuce Nudibranch, for cleanup of hair algae problems.
6. tiny Blue-leg hermit crabs, general scavenger and algae eating.
7. Scarlet Red leg Reef hermits, to keep red bugs on sps at bay and algae eating, as well as good scavengers.
8. Emerald Mythrax crabs, as bubble algae and briopsis or other macro algae problems.
9. Peppermint shrimp, as general cleaners, and to remove aiptasia anemones.
10. Coral Banded shrimp, to remove large populations of Bristleworm infestations.

[Claeth]

oops, forgot the Nassarius snails, for sand sifting and detrivorus duties.

[SuperNerd]

I would have to respectfully disagree with adding sally lightfoots, coral banded shrimp, and certain mithrax crabs. All have the potential to eat more than what you put them in to eat in the first place.

I have personally witnessed adult/ full grown sally's stalking introduced fish and inverts. It's actually kind of scary.

Also, depending on the size and type, certain brittlestars will actually attack sleeping fish and eat other animals in the tank as well.

[SuperNerd]

Also, I believe nassarius eat meaty food, not detritus. Although they are indeed good at sifting the top layer of sand.