Buying non-fish Clean Up Crew - LFS vs. dedicated online sellers

[Obriy]

My tank is 7 weeks old, fully cycled and with some fish already in. An ugly phase has recently started and now I see some Green Hair Algae appearing on the rock. My tank is quite small (3"-long 50 gallon AIO) for Foxface and even if I decide to get a small tang with a plan to rehome it after a couple of years, it's still too early as I'm planning to add some docile fish before I can add a tang. So, I'm thinking of buying non-fish CUC to control GHA. Here is my dilemma:

There are around 15 LFSs within 1-hour drive from me and many of them sell snails/crabs. I can pick up inverts I need for my specific case. However, since all my new fish goes through QT procedure, should I really purchase CUC from tanks located right next to fish tanks?
Or, If I purchase CUC from a website that does not sell fish, am I really protected from contaminating my tank with fish disease/parasites? Is it worth to do and pay a lot for shipping of some inexpensive livestock?

 

[TX_REEF]

3 inch long tank? Wow that is small!

Jokes aside, I highly recommend reefcleaners.com. Excellent products, prices and customer service. Trochus snails are my favorite, but you can build full crews on that site.

 

[JTP424]

Second Reefcleaners, definitely worth the shipping cost for the peace of mind as well as the quality of product. Check out their "kits" perfect starting mix. Speaking of which... it's about time I re-up....
(sorry about the tag)

 

[Obriy]

3 inch long tank? Wow that is small!

Sorry, confused my tank with a can of sardined laying on the kitchen countertop!

 

[Fastball16]

3 inch long tank? Wow that is small!

Jokes aside, I highly recommend reefcleaners.com. Excellent products, prices and customer service. Trochus snails are my favorite, but you can build full crews on that site.

Reef cleaners has my vote. John is awesome to deal with.

 

[BeanAnimal]

@Dr. Reef sells quarantined inverts. More expensive, but easy peace of mind and cheap in the long run compared to bringing in disease.

 

[Bruttall]

I'll add a vote for Reefcleaner.org. I added CuC from there at 6mos, 9mos, 15mos. without any issues or problems. Thinking about placing another order for some more exotic types this time around.

 

[Steven Garland]

A lot of LFS don't sell the good stuff or never have it im stock. Stuff like Chitons,Money Crowies,Limpets,Stomatellas,Micro Brittles,Strawberry Conch's.

John at ReefCleaners usually has all those mentioned above.

 

[RWReefer]

I’ve recently taken two orders from reef cleaners. Florida ceriths, dwarf ceriths, Astraea snails, turbo snails, pithos crab, silver lip conch, nerite snails, nassarius snails. In total almost 200 inverts and I couldn’t be happier.

 

[BeanAnimal]

I don't think I have ever asked for a credit on a dead snail or crab... Not calling you petty or anything, just not worth the few bucks and time for me to deal with. A $50 shrimp DOA, sure.

 

[Steven Garland]

Is he still give way more than you order ? I know back in the day you ordered 10 hermits you got like 50 lol.

 

[Obriy]

It looks like Reefcleaners.org is everyone favorite.
Two questions:
1. How do I know if I have enough food in my tank if I purchase a cleaner package suited for my aquarium size? I'm a bit worried that there is not enough food for CUC after they go through GHA and Diatoms.
2. Should I go with "snails only", "snails and mixed hermit crabs", or "diverse clean up crew" packages? I'm concerned about crabs, and especially, emerald ones that people often regret having in their tanks.

 

[TX_REEF]

It looks like Reefcleaners.org is everyone favorite.
Two questions:
1. How do I know if I have enough food in my tank if I purchase a cleaner package suited for my aquarium size? I'm a bit worried that there is not enough food for CUC after they go through GHA and Diatoms.
2. Should I go with "snails only", "snails and mixed hermit crabs", or "diverse clean up crew" packages? I'm concerned about crabs, and especially, emerald ones that people often regret having in their tanks.

1. I’d wait til you start to see algae grow before you add a crew. For example, when I started my display I added 2 clowns post cycle then didn’t add a crew til almost a month later once algae started to grow and some leftover food began to build up.

2. Hermits will more effectively clean up slightly longer tufts of algae, so I’d get a snails and hermits combo. I recommend no emerald crabs as I have caught them eating healthy LPS coral. Large (the size of a quarter seems to be the cutoff in my experience) hermit crabs may also develop a taste for coral as they grow, so keep an eye on them. They live in the fuge now. Scarlet cleaner shrimp are also a great addition IMO - they will steal food from corals, but otherwise will not harm anything in the tank

 

[Gumbies R Us]

It looks like Reefcleaners.org is everyone favorite.
Two questions:
1. How do I know if I have enough food in my tank if I purchase a cleaner package suited for my aquarium size? I'm a bit worried that there is not enough food for CUC after they go through GHA and Diatoms.
2. Should I go with "snails only", "snails and mixed hermit crabs", or "diverse clean up crew" packages? I'm concerned about crabs, and especially, emerald ones that people often regret having in their tanks.

Go with the diverse clean up crew package, is better to have a variety of cleanup crew since they all do something a little different. My snails take care of glass/sand bed algae. While my urchin and grabs deal with the algae that is on the aquascape.