what clean up crew?

[pomme]

what clean up crew?
i have got a 100gal tank, and am thinking about the clean up crew that i want to get, so that i have them in their before the algae starts.

in my local lfs in england they have red-leg hermit crabs, turbo (astrea, i think) snails, super (trochus) snails, green mithrax crabs, nassarius snails, and cerith snails.

i was thinking against the nassarius and cerith snails as they like the dsb and i am only going to have a sprinckling of marine gravel, like sand, on the tank floor. Is this right?

so what would you guys suggest to have in there? and when would you put them in just after the mature live rock? and would you put them in all at the same time or in stages?

i was sort of thinking of 24 red legs, 12 super snails and 6 turbo snails.
what do you guys think of this?

andrew

[Alice]

Lots more snails

Turbo snails can get quite large, a few of those would probably do. Get a mix of ceriths, margarites, black Mexican turbos (super glass cleaners!), strombus, trochus. Different snails eat different things so mix and match. I'd put at least 30 snails in there.

You might want to look online for snails etc, you can often beat the heck out of the LFS price for clean up crews online, even with shipping. We have several sponsors that offer clean up crews.

Add your clean up crew after the intial cycle when ammonia, nitrites and nitrates are at zero.

Welcome to The Reef Tank and have fun with your 100!

Alice

[Alice]

Ooops, I just noticed that you are in England. Shipping from here might not be the best idea

[pomme]

yeah i had thought that and have looked up clean up crews and have found somewhere that will do it, but there pricee is good, and they are also one hour drive away from me which i dont think is bad as i wouldnt have to pay for post and package. and i would know that they hadnt been in shipment for that long.

would you suggest adding all of them at the same time, or manybe them all slowly over a length of time?

[Reefdude5]

I added about a 100 to my 120 tank in increments of 50. It doesn't matter a whole lot. Just make sure that you have suffiecent algae for them to eat! And stay away from sally lightfoot crabs, nobody told me that they are opurtunistic. I was just told that they were the best algae eaters ever. After eating 4 shrimp and eyeing the clowns I'm starting to change my opinion!!!

[hayday]

snails, snails, and more snails.

as alice said, a combination of snails- nassarious, ceriths, astreas, strombus- would be the best way to go. diferent snails do different things so go with variety. in a 100 gallon tank, you could easily have 40 to 50 snails. be sure to wait until after the initial cycling has occured, and don't worry about trying to stop the algea before it grows as this just ain't gonna happen, mate. let some algae grow and then add the cleanup crew.

red-legged hermits are generally reef-safe, but as they are crabs, bad things could happen. i've never had any trouble with mine, so far, but others could tell you some horror stories. a few would be a good addition, but i'd suggest getting more snails and going light on the crabs. i've got about 20 in my 55 gallon tanks.

cheers.

-hayday

[pomme]

so would you sort of suggets 40 sanils, something like,
18turbos (asrea)
6 super snails (trochus)
6 nassarius
6 cerith

because they sell them in groups of 6.

and 18 red legged hermit crabs.
and a mithrax crab.

how does that sound?

[Reefdude5]

sounds good to me! Maybe some bluelegged too!

[pomme]

oh i was always told that you should only have red legd or blue legs and not mix them. or is this wrong, with advances in technology and peoples ideas that you can keep them together now?

[Doug1]

Blue legs always seem to get a rep as turn on the snails kinda guys. I would be more inclined to go with a dozen redlegs and try 6 nassarius and see if they will adapt to the smattering of sand.
Mithrax crabs are usually gotten when one have bubble algae (valonia) problems. They can grow large and are not to be trusted.
An assortment of snails is good as they do tend to target specific stuff. Any that will reproduce, like the trochus, etc are always good.
If you go with a low hermit population you could try to introduce some small bristle worms, they are great scavengers

[pomme]

doug what would you call a small hermit population?