Clean Up Crew

[kellynguyen]

Ok its about that time for me i guess... cycle is almost done and brown stuff is growing on my sand... so i am getting ready to get a clean up crew, BUT.... not too sure what would be best... and where? LFS or internet?? for a 29 gal biocube

Thnk you

[bertoni]

I'd probably just go to a LFS and buy a few cerith and a few Trochus snails. Then, I'd add snails on an as-needed basis. A few Nassarius vibex might be run, too, if the tank has a sand substrate.

[sir_dudeguy]

it is not that time yet. Dont add anything till the cycle is FULLY done..."almost" doesnt count. But the brown is just diatoms and will go away on its own, but cleanup crew will help but ONLY when the tank is cycled.

But is this your 72? if so, i'd start with 10 ceriths, 10 nassarius, 10 astreas. The ceriths will be the best at eating the stuff probably, but the others will help. You dont wanna add too much to start tho...might cause problems. So start light and then over time guild up.

[kellynguyen]

i dont need crabs or shrimps yet?

[kellynguyen]

ohh no this is not the 72... that one still empty i started with the nano 29 gallons.... and i think the cycle is complete because all my readings are whitin normal parameters, even tho my tank has only been set up for 2 weeks... i bough mixed salt water and cycle rocks... so thats why i thought maybe it would be ok to add someone in there to eat that stuff....
i see tiny littl esnails already from the live sand i guess.. or maybe from the rocks... and even a littl ecolony of zoanthys..

[bertoni]

I'd wait for three weeks of zero ammonia before adding animals, but it might be safe now.

Crabs and hermit crabs aren't necessary, and I don't add them because they are predatory. Shrimp will eat leftover food, but there are lots of animals to do that, so I don't really count them as cleanup crew members.

[kellynguyen]

OHhhh ok.. i just thought that they where part of a clean up crew pluss they are so pretty and colorful too

[bertoni]

Well, I like shrimp a lot, so adding some is a fine idea, in my opinion, but they're not really cleanup crew. I like the skunk cleaners (usually Lysmata amboinensis) and the fire shrimp (L. debelius), personally.

[sir_dudeguy]

whitin normal parameters

well they have to be 0...the amonia and nitrite. Otherwise the cycle isnt finished. If your test says something like "in between 0 and 0.25" then its probably 0, but get a better test that actually shows 0 as one of the numbers by itself.

As for the shrimp...i'm with bertoni...they're not part of the cleanup crew imo. Many people think they are, especially the cleaner shrimp (aka red skunk, skunk cleaner, etc...), i guess because of the name. But they dont eat any algae or anything, just loose food. They're called "cleaner" shrmp because they'll grab a hold of a fish and eat off any parasites that are on it.

But i'm in the process of acclimating mine to my tank right now...cool lookin little shrimp imo. Hopefully he turns out how everyone claims they do.

But not every shrimp is a good one to have. For example coral banded shrimp can be rather mean and agressive, and i dont think they're reef safe (could be wrong on that one tho..) but i have seen them kill peppermints, cleaners, and those blood red shrimp before.

But like bertoni said...i dont ever get hermits. I've got an emerald and so far he's fine...but if he does anything, i'm pulling him out and making him an in-sump cleaner only and not letting him near other stuff. But my hermits have killed off a ton of cerith snails for their shells, even tho i put in like 30 shells like everyone said..oh well.. even the scarlet reef hermits that everone said are "the good kind" did this.