Cleanup Crew recommendations for a 120g

[JWan]

So here's the scoop. I've got a 120g tank with live rock piled about halfway up the tank. I've got somewhere between 20-30g of water in my sump, with a container full of macroalgae down there. Current inhabitants:

2 Ocellaris Clowns
3 Chromis
1 Lawnmower Blenny

Eventually I will populate my tank with a few more fish, some soft corals, and an anemone or two.

As of right now, the skimmer does a pretty good job of getting some nasty gunk out of the water. However, I do have to clean it out twice a week, and I know I need a cleanup crew before things get out of hand. I have little to no nuisance algae in the tank, except for a couple small areas on my power heads.

I've got maybe 1.5-2" of Seafloor Select as my substrate, so this is not a DSB.

A very knowledgable friend of mine recommended getting some hermits (maybe 1-2/gallon), some stars, and some cucumbers. I wanted to stop bugging him every time I had a question though and wanted to try and do some more research on my own. As of now, I don't think I need any snails, because I don't mind running the little magnet cleaner along the glass to keep it clean. I think I just need sand stirrers and some detritus eaters.

So how is this for a shot at trying to come up with a cleanup crew:
150 Blue Leg Hermits
6 Cucumbers
6 Brittle/Serpent Stars

Enough? Overkill?

[aLittletank]

I stay away from hermits. I have had problems with blue,red legs big or small.

I have found that snails do a great job keeping my reef clean. Nassarius for the sand bed, strombus grazers and a few turbos for the rock. a queen conch for the sand bed surface has always worked well for me.

I have never bothered with cucumbers but 6 seems excessive.

[romunov]

If I were in your pants,
I would skip the hermit crabs and cucumbers. Instead, I would go with (given you have a lot of algae to start with):
a number of polychaete (bristle) worms (say as many I could get my hands on)
a few of Stomatella varia (5),
a hand full or two of Columbellids (10),
perhaps a few Nassarius (10) (tropical species),
can't go wrong with Collonista,
some Trochus (perhaps 3), and perhaps a Turbo or two.

Sand sifting stars need huge well maintaned deep sand beds to survive. They generally starve.

I would go with Ophiuroids ("brittle stars") and Asterinids (those little white stars).

Most of this stuff is available at local reefers, so there is no need to purchase it. Why so "few" numbers you say? Because some of these snails (Stomatella varia, Columbellids, Collonista, polychaetes) will reproduce in your tank, depending only on food.
Sometimes, Collonista tend to outcompete bigger snails due to their proliferation. They are usually nocturnal as well.

How's that? :D

I would also warn against any conches. they need a DSB (they sometimes like to bury themselves), about 3 square feet of open sand surface per inch of snail's shell.
Queen conch can grow... a lot.

[algonquin]

We just set up a 120 gallon tank last October. For our cleaner crew we have added 15 Blue Legged Hermits, 4 Halloeen Crabs, 4 Star eyed crabs, 10 Nassarius snails, 4 turbo Snails, 2 Cleaner Shrimp and 1 Brittle Star. We took out the 10 Nassarius snails the next day because they will gang up and prey on other things, for example if one of your crabs is molting they will go after as a gang and kill it (we saw them do it and tried to save the crab but couldn't) they are unussually fast They do have their spot in tanks but for ours they didn't fit Our Brittle star which we have had for a while also has now left our tank and is another one by himself, for 2 reasons. 1/ One day he thought that he would pull a feather duster under a rock and give him a going over (my wife resued the feather duster). 2/ This was the final curtain for him in this tank, I came home 1 day to find him just finishing off eating our Xenia which was about 2" high. Your probably saying, " A Brittle star did that" yea he did. So thats my story but everything else is getting along fine.

[leebca]

Leave the hermits out.

[auto_loader]

The combo that I am satisfied with in my 120 is as follows: Scarlet Reef hermits 15-20. A combination of 10-15 Astrea snails and maybe 20 or so ceriths. 20 nassarius snails for the sand bed. I have not had any problems with the scarlet reef hermits. They are very mild mannered.

[aLittletank]

Originally posted by romunov
.
Queen conch can grow... a lot.


My bad :)

the fighting conch stays relatively small and has been a great addition for 2 1/2 years in my reef

[durango_doug]

why are hermits bad? do they eat some types of coral or something?

[romunov]

They will eat pretty much anything.
Astraeas tend to come from temperate rocky area and don't do pretty well in our aquaria. See all those "my "astrea" fell to the ground and died" threads.