Clean-up crews, cheap RO units...

[Reefer94]

Looking for a good clean up crew. I've got a 55 gallon undergoing a facelift right now... changing the lamps after a long year and a half, just replaced the pump for the skimmer which went out three months ago... still not sure if the advice I got will work... and I need to add some cleaners.

I was hoping to find something which would eat primarily flatworms and cyanobacteria. I also have a thick green algea... it's tough... like a scouring pad. The 30 gallon in the pic (that apparently no one can see) is doing great, the 55 upgrade.. terrible. I was thinking of garf.org for the crew... anyone have a good alternative? They offer 82 assorted snails & crabs for 82.00, with 2 free corals.

Also, and ideas on getting my hands on a cheap RO unit? Does it really need to be RO/DI?? Seems little a little much. Let me know... any help would be great. Thanks.

[Reefer94]

Sorry to reply to my own message... tee-hee... just didn't want it to disappear!

[Reefer94]

Anyone?

[paulF]

while some people may disagree, hermits are what worked best for me. also fighting conch are excellent. did the snail thing and i wasnt really impressed. as far as something that eats cyano, i couldnt tell ya. water flow is a vital part of fighting cyano. and as far as the ro/di i know it hurts the pocketbook a little, but youll have less algea problems etc.. in the long run. hth

[Geoff]

there is a fairly inexpensive RO/DI unit out there. i do not have the url here right now. but i think it is something like airwaterice.com. i also think it is called the typhoon. i will try and look it up to make sure.

G~

[Geoff]

i remembered correctly, it is www.airwaterice.com. and thier models are called the typhoon.

G~

[Doug1]

Your 30 pics always show up for me. If you scrub and clean and redo, recycle and get the cleaners in before it goes to hell , it should work

[CAT]

Re. cleanup crew.

Some suggestions. If you have enough exposed sand, a fighting conch or queen conch should keep the sand clean. Nassarius snails will eat leftover food and turn the sand. Cerith snails eat detritus. I've always had good luck with astrea snails cleaning the glass and clearing up hair algae. Don't know of much that eats cyano or really coarse green algae.

Personally, I don't like the crabs because they're opportunistic feeders and never were much help in my tank.

Also, I've found that the 'clean-up packages' almost seem to double the amount of critters needed per gallon -it's like they're trying to blitz a tank. I usually about order about half of what they suggest because I don't want them starving. I just add more if I need them.

And then there are flatworms... No one's got them safely figured out yet. I got some and I just syphon them out when I do a water change.