55 gal.

[PiscesGirl2]

Hi,
I"m wanting to get some cleanup crew for my 55 gal. (set up for about a year) Not only am I a newbie, but a slow learner. I was apparently born without the saltwater gene and need lots of help!

i'm currently using tap water (yikes), but going to buy and ro/di unit and a phosban reactor to help my water quality.

1.Will my cleanup crew be hurt by the tap until I get my ro water?
2. Whats the best way to switch from ro to tap...how much and how often should I change the water to get my tank fully running on ro.
3. I would like to keep soft corals like flower leather, toadstool leather, green finger and colt coral....what cleanup crew should I avoid with these.

Cleanup crew I'm thinking of:
red hermits
dwarf zebras and blue leg (although these may be aggressive)
trochus, conch, cerith and nassarius snails
shrimps I like:
cleaner shrimp
peppermint shrimp
coral banded shrimp
pistol shrimp
thanks for the help

[der_wille_zur_macht]

Sounds fine. The key to keeping hermits happy with other creatures is to keep them well fed, well housed, and SMALL! Pick smaller varieties, and make sure to scatter plenty of empty snail shells around so they have different homes to choose from and don't have to kill a snail when they need a new home.

Forget the conch in a 55, even the smallest varieties will get too big IMHO.

Also, keeping all those different kinds of shrimp might cause some fighting. Coral Banded Shrimp tend to get a bit aggressive towards other inverts.

Your cleanup crew won't be hurt by tap water, unless there's something toxic in it like copper. Do a copper test (or get your LFS to do one) just to be safe.

Switching from your current water to RO can be done on your regular water change schedule. Maybe do your changes a bit more frequently if you want to speed things up. I wouldn't do it suddenly (i.e. multiple big changes in less than a week) unless you really know what you're doing - there could be good (or harmless) things in your tap water right now that your tank is used to, and switching too quickly might cause problems.

[HPD Turbo]

I have less experience but here is my .00000002 of experience:

Do not add anything until your tank is cycled, 3 months at least.
Test and test and test and test your water to be sure every thing is OK.
For hard coral you have to wait maybe a year
If you are having problem with algee for usin tap water, start to change 25% of your total water every week with RO/DI. The 10% will be fine.

Hope this helps a little.

[PiscesGirl2]

Thanks,
would the shrimp be too sensitive to my tap right now?

[papagimp]

For hermits, I'd stick with scarlets or nothing.
I've got 2 conches in my 55g, a fighting and a queen. But I'm well aware of their potential sizes and feed them appropriately.
Other than that, I agree completely with Der_'s comments. Just start using ro/di as top off and when you do water changes, don't remove the tanks water for this process (other than normal water changes).
having the tanks current water tested well probably wouldn't be a bad thing either.

[PiscesGirl2]

Thanks,
would the shrimp be too sensitive to my tap right now?

I've also read that cleanup crews just change the nutrients in my tank...what do they change?

[papagimp]

What they mean by changing the nutrients, they eat stuff in the tank (nutrients), their bodies utilize some of it (change the nutrients) and the rest get pooped back out.

As for shrimps being too sensitive, that's all depending on your tap water. Everybody (well not EVERYBODY) but in general we all have different tap water and the quality therein.
It'll just be hit or miss, if you are truly worried, wait until you get an ro/di unit and do a few water changes first. invertabrates such as corals and shrimp, ect. ect. are much more sensitive than fish would be.

[der_wille_zur_macht]

Cleanup crews eat big pieces of "stuff" (fish poop, leftover food, algae, dead things, junk off the live rock, perhaps even eachother) and produce little pieces of "stuff" (cleanup crew poop!)

They don't really remove anything from the water column, other than the small amount they use for growth and other biological processes. Hence, don't plan on your cleanup crew solving any big problems. All too often, people buy TONS of cleanup critters to solve an algae problem, when they really just need to deal with the excess nutrients that are fueling the algae to begin with.

The shrimp should be fine unless something is way off in your water, or you have copper in there.

[PiscesGirl2]

Makes sense.
Currently in my tank: 1 ccs, 1 3striped damsel, 2 little hermit crabs (not sure what they are one has black and white striped legs)

I got this from my city water newsletter:
copper .0026-.0076 range
phosphorus .17
tds 190

[backyardspecial]

Mexican turbo, astera, and cerith snails are the better snails. For a 55, about 3 turbos, 10 asteras, and like 25 or more ceriths should be a good start. The number of snails really depends on how much algae you have in your tank. Hermits are a nice addition but you should stick to red tip reef hermit. I've have these hermits and I haven't had a problem with them.

Like previous poster stated you can't keep all those shrimp together. If you like shrimp try like 2 or 3 cleaner shrimp. Tell you the truth you really don't need the cleaner shrimp. Mine don't do a thing but sit there and look pretty.

[papagimp]

TDS isn't bad, would be fine for using an RO/DI unit. Phosphorus is enough to cause algae blooms, and copper...that's bad in any amount for a reef tank. I'd definatly test for copper and if any is present, run a polyfilter to remove the reminants from the tank. Would also take exta care if copper is found in the tank, copper can be absorbed by the rock/sand in a reeftank and can leech back into the water at a later time, this can cause all sorts of fun trouble that nobody wants to deal with.

I'd recommend the Peppermint shrimp myself. 55g sint' really big enough to house any fish that would require large amounts of cleaning and other than that, there going to be just like a ppermint anyways, and the peppermints stand a better chance of eating some aptasia out of the tank....if you don't have any yet, good for you and good luck with that, if you do not QT odds are you'll have em eventually.

[der_wille_zur_macht]

You can safely ignore the city's water data. I can tell you for a fact that it's pretty much meaningless as far as what comes out of your tap, much less what's actually in your tank.

If you have hermits living in your tank right now, then you don't have a copper problem. Go ahead and add the other cleanup critters whenever you'd like.

[PiscesGirl2]

yikes that copper thing makes me nervous. I had no idea it was that bad.

I like the shrimp just to look at. It doesn't matter to me if it does anything.

[papagimp]

Originally posted by der_wille_zur_macht
You can safely ignore the city's water data. I can tell you for a fact that it's pretty much meaningless as far as what comes out of your tap, much less what's actually in your tank.

He does have a point, my city states my waters ammonia levels are like 2ppm or so, but it comes out the tap maxed out on my color charts. I don't even like giving tap water to my dogs or cats!

[backyardspecial]

Your tap water isn't too bad. Just get that ro/di sooner rather then later.

Your gona hate that damsel in a few months...haha

[PiscesGirl2]

nope no aptasia.
my main problem is diatoms...hope to fix that with the ro unit and phosban reactor

[papagimp]

Originally posted by PiscesGirl2
I like the shrimp just to look at. It doesn't matter to me if it does anything.

I'd still recommend you get the more beneficial of the shrimps for your purposes. That aside, I do think the coral banded shrimps LOOK cool as they get, but last one I owned had a pention for going around stabbing at my mushrooms. Lost several very large hairy mushrooms because of him.

[PiscesGirl2]

Yeah I know I'll hate him, but he's been my buddy for like 2 months...very hardy fella.

I think my dog and ME would prefer ro water....
do you use the excess water for washing or plant watering?? I hate to waste water.

[papagimp]

Originally posted by PiscesGirl2
nope no aptasia.
my main problem is diatoms...hope to fix that with the ro unit and phosban reactor

Your hobby experience says 10 days at salwater...if this is the case, the diatoms are most likely due to it just being a new system. Althought the tap isn't going to help at all and I'd still recommend an ro/di unit, new tanks all go through several algae phases that with proper maintance will fade in time. At 10 days, I would not consider diatoms a "problem" yet. But good job trying to stay on top of it anyways, more than alot of people do.

[PiscesGirl2]

yeah I just read that as I was posting...I need to go back and update that...I"ve had my tank set up for a year.

Haven't been to RC in a while.

[papagimp]

Originally posted by PiscesGirl2
Yeah I know I'll hate him, but he's been my buddy for like 2 months...very hardy fella.

I think my dog and ME would prefer ro water....
do you use the excess water for washing or plant watering?? I hate to waste water.

keep posting while I'm busy responding!!!!

when I was using an ro/di unit (i buy lfs water now) I had my waste line stuck in a large 55g drum that was outside the window. When this drum was full, I'd roll it to whatever spot in my yard looked the worst and do some watering that way (kicked the thing over and let gravity do it's thing). I agree, hate to waste all that water, I definatly would put it to use watering houseplants and/or flowerbeds......or water balloons.

[PiscesGirl2]

why did you switch from using an ro unit to buying from a lfs?

[papagimp]

Water quality is very very poor where I'm at, I was replacing my filters way too often to make it worth the money. Probably had something to do with a poor quality membrane on the unit as well. Oh, and I have a habit of forgetting about the unit being turned on and would dump gallons of water on the carpet almsot daily. Enough that my 55g started to lean really bad and had to be relocated.

[PiscesGirl2]

yikes!
sounds like a good switch then.

[papagimp]

yes it was....no more wet socks. Nothing irks me as bad as a wet sock!

fwiw, I do plan to hook up the ro/di again soon, just been putting it off for awhile since I wanna hook it up properly to the sink in the bathroom. having a bucket sitting in the tub would be alot better in the event that I forget again. (I can tell you teh scientific name and all special requirments for any fish and invert in my tank, but i can't remember to turn off a running water source over carpet, geeze)