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| General Reef Discussion In this forum we discuss issues related to keeping marine and reef aquariums in a friendly flame-free environment. |
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10-16-2001, 04:09 PM
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#1
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Reefer D' jour
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: lansing, mi
Posts: 791
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Clean-up crew
I'm looking to beef up my substrate clean-up crew. Its a 55, I've got 1 brittle star, 1 serpent star, cuke, 35 blue leg hermits, 5 scarlett. The blue leggers seem to like to kill my snails and steal their shells. I might donate them to an enemy  . The bottom is just getting grey and dirty. Anyone have any luck with other clean-up crews?
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nickg<br />LIFE TASTES GOOD!
55g display, 10g sump, 5g refugium
single, siphon overflow to sump, rio 2100 return, ref is pumped from sump, and returned via gravity/bulkhead. Big in-sump skimmer w/cap 2200 pump, various maxijets in display. temp 82
<a href="http://www.nickg309reef.iwarp.com">MY TANK SITE</a>
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10-16-2001, 04:33 PM
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#2
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New light hood builder
Join Date: Sep 2001
Location: Northern California
Posts: 168
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I have had alot of luck with cerith snails. They stir the sand, burrow down in it and eat the gunk... that is a scientific term! :frank: Julie |
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10-16-2001, 04:35 PM
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#3
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A goof
Join Date: Jan 2000
Location: Plymouth, MN USA
Posts: 2,923
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I would recomend trying to get rid of as many of the hermits as you can. There is one or 2 "reef" "safe" hermits out there, I think that they are the red leg one's but as you have found out the blue leg tend to kill the snails. I would recomend going to www.premiumaquatics.com and look at their snails or even www.ipsf.com and look at their clean up packages. HTH
Jon:spook:
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10-16-2001, 07:52 PM
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#4
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Nothing to See Here
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: Montana
Posts: 5,815
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I would definately get some Detrivore Kits which Minnreefer has suggested for more infauna(critters) for you sand bed which will help clean up unwanted waste and help keep algae under control.
Two great places are:
http://www.ISPF.com
http://www.premiumaquatics.com |
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10-16-2001, 08:45 PM
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#5
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Super Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2000
Location: TN, USA
Posts: 9,692
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Nick,
I would definitely recommend thinning the herd of Blue Legs! The Scarlets, (Paguristes cadenati) are usually pretty benign toward snails and such but the Blue Legged Huns can be a different story! 
Nassarius snails will do the cleanup jobs and a mixture of Trochus, Margaritas, Astreae and such will do the algae control. Turbos will eat algae but I stopped keeping them when a big one died, hidden in the rocks where the hermits couldn't get to him, and the resulting Ammonia spike caused the Great Crash of '99!
Please read this article:
http://www.animalnetwork.com/fish/li...=&RecordNo=166
HTH,
Dick 
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10-16-2001, 10:55 PM
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#6
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Reefer
Join Date: Sep 2001
Location: California
Posts: 468
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it has been my experience that Sand Sifting stars work well for the sand bed! I have a 100g with a wide sand opening, and the sand sifting star is constantly rototiling it up in search of food!
http://www.bluechunks.net:81/reef |
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