Clean up crew ???

[reefermadness03]

I need to add a clean up crew to my 120g fowlr. I was thinking about 12 nass. 12 turbo. 12 cerith snails and 5 red scarlet crabs. does this sound good/not enough/overkill? Also, does anyone have any experience with reeftopia.com? Thanks for your input.

[johnmaloney]

I have more than that in my 20 gallon tank. You wont have to worry about overcrowding.

[johnmaloney]

Try getting some other more diverse species instead of more. Maybe some nerites and the odder ones like chitons and limpets.

[reefermadness03]

Is it ok to add about 60 assorted snails, 5 scarlet crabs, and 10 peppermint shrimp (aptasia problem) ALL IN THE SAME DAY? Is this a good cleaning crew? More or less on the crabs/snails? Also, anyone know about reeftopia.com?

[Scoobaman17]

I got a 100 mixed snail package for my 100 gallon tank from reefscavengers.com for $70. So far everything is doing great.

Here is that package.
25 Nassarius Snails
25 Nerite Snails
25 Miniature Ceriths
15 Stocky Ceriths
10 Turbo/Astrea Snails

I like the snails, hermits may go after them. Though I do have about 5 small hermits in the tank they are no match for the 100 other snails. Nice package.

[Guygettnby]

i would add a few more hermits to the mix and a few brittle stars. oh yea and i would lean more towards the dwarf zebra hermits. they seem to be more reef safe from my experience and they stay smaller.

[NanoReefWanabe]

LOL my zebra was a bastard...he is locked in my sump now..

i am a huge fan of diversity as well...

i would do

30 nassarius
15 margarita
15 astrea
15 trochus
15 cerith
15 nerite
2 turbos
a black brittle star or two
a sand sifting star
a couple strawberry conch's

10 scarlet hermits
15 or so blue leg hermits

[Scoobaman17]

Don't sand sifting stars take almost everything beneficial out of the live sand? I'm heard nothing back bad news about them.

[NanoReefWanabe]

yeah they eat a lot of beneficial stuff in the sand...but one in a 120 wont do any harm...in fact it may become survival of the fittest under the sand then...starfish picking off the weak which are in turn causing a slow down in beneficial population, may actually help the bacteria thrive...at any rate i think they do more good then bad in a large tank...

[Scoobaman17]

I have a 100 with a 40 sump. You think one is a good idea in it?

[NanoReefWanabe]

how deep is your sand?

what other sand stirring critters do you have? Nassarius snails? Fighting Conchs? strawberry conch? gobies?

[Scoobaman17]

About 25 Nassarius. It's about 1 1/2 inch sand bed right now. It's all dead sand so when I add live sand on top it will at least hit 2.

[tigereye37]

More Hermits! they are fun to watch and mine do a great job eating gunk off sand, walls, and rock. I have a few of the zebra striped and they are really hardy, but i love the look of the scarlet reef and electric blue so i always try and keep some of them too.

[Guygettnby]

i have never had a problem with my zebras. the blue leg hermits are the only problems i have had in my tank. they like to pick at my corals and are aggresive towards my shrimp, starfish and anything else holding food. but i think hermits do a better job cleaning up my sand then my snails do. whatever you decide to get make sure to get abunch of different stuff as they all seem to do better jobs in different areas.

[kc9dre]

I like the snails, hermits may go after them. Though I do have about 5 small hermits in the tank they are no match for the 100 other snails. Nice package.

In my 29g, I have 3 nass snails that I bought way back when (a year and a half or so ago). I have 15 blue legs and they don't mess too much with the Nass. But the Mexican Turbo was beaten up and eaten and had his shell repossesed by the hermits. The Nass' are probably still around cause they stay in the sand bed most of the time...

[Pea-brain]

Originally posted by NanoReefWanabe
yeah they eat a lot of beneficial stuff in the sand...but one in a 120 wont do any harm...in fact it may become survival of the fittest under the sand then...starfish picking off the weak which are in turn causing a slow down in beneficial population, may actually help the bacteria thrive...at any rate i think they do more good then bad in a large tank...

They will clean out a 120 sand bed. They eat tons of life. Avoid these like the plague. Most people who have had them (including 1 guy who had a 120 or larger i think) say that these stars destroyed their sand beds and they haven't been able to get back the diversity they used to have.

I'm not a big fan of hermits. The only ones I would put in my tank are scarlet reef hermits. They eat tons of different algae (including corraline) and aren't too prone to killing snails.

Dan

[Nanocube-6]

Emrald crabs have a bad rep., because if your thinking about getting those and someone told you otherwise. just do it they are a make a great add to your CUC.