Clean up crew help

[vishboy]

I need a clean up crew for my sand. What reefsafe options are there? I am looking at inverts because I like to keep my bioload low. I am primarily looking for detritrivores. Algae feeders are second on my list.

Thanks,
Viahboy

[vishboy]

This may be the wrong forum. If it is, could someone please point me in the right direction?

[Kgoarmy17]

Well I like nassarius snails myself for the sandbed, I also have sand sifting starfish. The snails burrow in the sand until feeding time. I also have yellow watchmen gobies which keep the sand nice and white as they move it around alot. But for inverts I would suggest the snails.

I prefer not to have hermits becuase they disturb my coral polyps alot.

[bencozzy]

mayalasian trumpet snails, great algea and detritus eaters as well as sand bed stirrers. they will have to be acclimated to SW though as they are only kept in FW tanks at the moment i dont think people have realized that they have great potential in SW tanks.

i know were you can get them for free.

[vishboy]

Thanks ben, but I think I will stick with something that is SW.
With the Nassarious snails, do you have a recommended sand bed depth? Also, would anyone else recommend nassarious snails? And how many for a 12x30x1-2 inch square surface?

Thanks,
Vishboy

[NanoCube-boy]

Im my opinion for clean up crew, I'll go with Scarelete crabs, emerld crabs, blue legs crabs, peppermint and skunk scarelete cleaner shrimp, astrea snails, and a fighting conch.

Scarelete crabs scavenge left overs and eats aglaes.
Emerald Crabs eat bubble and hairy algaes, including scavenge.
blue legs crabs scavenge and eat algaes.
peppermint eats aptasia and prevent out break of it, including scavange.
Skunk Cleaner scavange left over and clean fish from parasites.
Astrea clean windows and back wall, including rocks from aglaes.
LAST Fighting conch are best for sand shifting and clean out your sand bed from algae built up on sandbeds. The suck and shift the sand so the sand doesn't have a dead spot for bult up.

[klyons]

I have both Nassarius and Cerith snails. Nassarius are great sand stirs and they quickly consume detritus, uneaten food, decaying organics, and fish waste. Cerith also stir the sand. They eat several types of nuisance algae (red and diatom), including algae on the aquarium glass underneath the substrate. A mix of both would be good. I have seen several sites that say 1 snail per gallon for these snails. Personally I don’t like Hermit crabs and would avoid adding them. When I first brought up my tank I added red, blue and zebra’s dwarf hermits. I added a bunch of shells for them to grow into. Over a year I have watched my snail population diminish and frequently watch these crabs pulling the snails out alive. I do have emerald crabs which I have never seen attack anything other then algae and scraps of food.

[NanoCube-boy]

Where do you get the shells from Kylon?

[klyons]

Ok, you’re going to think I’m a nut, but I buy a lot of stuff off Ebay. A few weeks ago I found some shells but cant remember where they were from. If you are buying livestock from Ebay keep in mind the shipping charges and weather where they are and you are. Not everything on Ebay is great! Helps to look at feed back and ask questions before buying.

[klyons]

To help minumize your hits you can start your search here and narrow the results. From home page click on:
Buy
Home and Garden
Pet Supplies or directly to Fish, Turtles & Frogs
Or just go here and type in your search :)
http://home.listings.ebay.com/Pet-Supplies_Fish-Turtles-Frogs_W0QQfromZR4QQsacatZ20754QQsocmdZListingItemList

[klyons]

HA! Just found it. http://www.saltwaterfish.com/ I have never ordered from them but seem like they have pretty good prices.

[vishboy]

Thanks guys. I will do a little of research on the species mentioned.

Thanks again,
Vishboy

[BrianPlankis]

I concur with Nassarius snails (avoid Nassarius obsoleta they are not a good snail and not really a Nassarius genus). Nassarius vibex are a good choice and Cerith sp. snails are also good choices.

You could add some of the smaller species of bristleworms, they help clean the sandbed as well.

Brian

[NanoCube-boy]

yea, bristle worms are nice too, but i never saw it for sell on the sites i go to.

[vishboy]

Believe me, I have plenty of bristleworems. They just dont do a very good job.

[RandyK37922]

Emerald Crabs are ravenous bubble and hair algae eaters, and are also very entertaining. I like Sand Sifting Stars to keep the sandbed stirred. They do a lot of under the surface traveling. I agree that the hermits can be a little destructive.

[fishguy449]

I have a 75g reef and just tossed about 40 astreas in since I was having a algae break out. But the hermits are destroying them! I saw a crab with blue/red marked legs and red tip legs that had one snail over on his back and going for the meat. (Guess I now know why the algae slowly crept in). However, I saw another crab that was cleaning the shell of another snail. My substrate is a 50/50 mix of sand and crushed coral, tho the sand has pretty much sifted down. How do the nassarius snails and bristle worms do in this type of substrate? WHere do you get the worms? The only thing on ebay I see is 'traps' for bristle worms.

[NanoCube-boy]

Would you guys recommend a small Red star fish in a 12gallon? Not Linkia, but Red/Orange starfish?

[BrianPlankis]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8391286#post8391286 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by NanoCube-boy
Would you guys recommend a small Red star fish in a 12gallon? Not Linkia, but Red/Orange starfish?

I would not recommend a sea star in a 12 gallon tank. What you are probably referring to is a fromia star (they are the other common red/orange sea stars available in the hobby), it will not have enough food in a 12 gallon.

I would recommend some mini brittlestars instead, they don't get too big and are still entertaining to watch and you can feed them meaty foods so they will survive in your 12 gallon.

Brian

[RandyK37922]

I agree with Brian. I am not much of a nano reef person, just easier to control the environment in a bigger tank, but mini brittlestars could do well in a small tank.

[NanoCube-boy]

Well, I do have planty off food in there, now, but I'm just seeking into it. How do i buy a mini brittle? Who carried them? Most are host under refugium, but my refugium doesn't have any.

[BrianPlankis]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8397524#post8397524 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by NanoCube-boy
Well, I do have planty off food in there, now, but I'm just seeking into it. How do i buy a mini brittle? Who carried them? Most are host under refugium, but my refugium doesn't have any.

Another thing to consider is how much does your salinity fluctuate in one day (due to evaporation)? Even mini brittles will not do well if your salinity varies by more than 0.002 each day or they are in an area of the tank that gets your freshwater top-off water.

There are a couple of websites on-line that sell mini-brittles.

Brian

[RandyK37922]

Brian,

This is a little off thread, but I just checked out your project over at Talking Reef. Wow! This is going to be quite amazing. I am curious as to what you have budgeted for the entire system.

Ditto on the salinity sensitivity. Most stars are very sensitive to both changes in salinity and in pH.

[BrianPlankis]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8399629#post8399629 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by RandyK37922
Brian,

This is a little off thread, but I just checked out your project over at Talking Reef. Wow! This is going to be quite amazing. I am curious as to what you have budgeted for the entire system.


Well, the beauty of the system is that it is distributed, I have several other people willing to hold livestock for me.

I will be redoing my current tank setup into about 90-100 total gallons with some custom made sumps and holding containers that are submerged in the sump (for better water stability). This small system in itself should hold enough stuff short term, but once it gets larger than that I have access to around 3,000 gallons of other tanks to hold stuff.

When we move to our next house my wife has agreed to let me have a large fish room (at least 10' x 15') that will have a lot more room for things, especially breeding setups. I'm guessing when we get to that point it will be a few thousand dollars to setup the room properly since I won't be going for a large tank, just many small ones.

Brian

[NanoCube-boy]

damn, that's cool Brian...

[vishboy]

Okay, I did some research and everything looks good, but thought I would ask to make sure.

Have there been any anomalies in which a Nassarious snail eats, lets say, a coral or clam (Or continuously bothers it)?

And where would the best place be to buy them, minus the obsoletas (going on Brians advice).

Thanks,
Vishboy

[RandyK37922]

My Nassarious snails have never bothered anything but the algea, though they have occasionally been victims of the hermit crabs I used to keep.

[greenbean36191]

If you have a true Nassarius snail (of which there are many species) it won't bother any healthy animals.

[vishboy]

Any good places to find them? I was looking at this-http://www.etropicals.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?siteid=43&pCatId=1289

Any input?

[4x4nascar]

last time I was at gateway aquatics (st. louis) I bought some large nassarius, and they also had the nassarius vibex in their ebay store

[vishboy]

Thanks, I will look into GA.