Clean up crew suggestions

[jadedog]

My tank is nearly 3 months old and im very much in the ugly stage. I ordered 10snails online a few weeks ago thinking that would enough for a 60gal lol. I drastically overestimated the snail sizes does anyone have any recommendations for a cuc i will obviously order more snails but should I get some hermits and maybe a brittle starfish are they useful? Or should I stick to snails only?

 

[Staghorn]

I have blue leg hermits and emerald crabs also along with trochus , cerith, nerite snails and nassarius snails as well. I’ve found over the years they all do a slightly different job.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Urchins is another one I would add to your CUC list. Conchs like a fighting or strawberry can make good cuc as well.

 

[EuphyllinOHk]

I've also found that every member of the CUC does a slightly different job, with some overlap. Where is your nuisance algae really cropping up and what kind of snails did you get?

 

[jadedog]

Urchins is another one I would add to your CUC list. Conchs like a fighting or strawberry can make good cuc as well.

Are they destructive like ramming into corals?

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Are they destructive like ramming into corals?

My urchin occasionally would knock over my mushroom, but that was because it wasn't glued to the rock.

 

[Marco_99]

If you don’t have good local options look into Reef Cleaners. They have some good packages and overall I think best value for your dollar. They also just have a bunch of detailed info on their site to guide you if you are unsure of what’s what. Buying snails or crabs individually can get very expensive rather quickly

 

[edd59]

reefcleaners.com they have nice cleaner packages for specific tank sizes

 

[Jekyl]

reefcleaners.com they have nice cleaner packages for specific tank sizes

Believe it's reefcleaners.org

 

[Biokabe]

Personally I think larger starfish really need a bigger tank to thrive, I wouldn't include a brittle star in a 60g. If you can find them, micro-brittles are good, but I've never seen anyone sell them direct - I've only occasionally had them come in as hitchhikers.

So that said, here's my opinion as to what you should stock for a clean-up crew:

Conch: For a 60g, you want 2-3 of the smallest conchs. They're essential for keeping the sand bed stirred up and clean. They won't touch glass, but great scavengers.

Astrea snail: I think you want at least 1 per 5g, and you can probably go heavier with them. Personally I favor more diversity in snails rather than going heavy on all Astreas, but you need a small army of these guys. Great for glass cleaning and one of the few CUC members that will directly eat hair algae. Biggest drawback is that they can't right themselves, so you need to either keep your eyes out for them or plan to replenish their numbers regularly.

Cerith snails: You want a mixture of regular and dwarf Cerith snails. They don't have the prolific appetite of Astrea snails, but they're good at tackling a wide mix of algae and their slimmer shells allow them to attack narrower crevices where holdfasts can develop. Also good for glass cleaning. For the dwarfs, 2-3 per 5g; for regular, 1 per 5g is probably good.

Nerites snails: Good general-purpose algae eaters. As with Astrea, probably one per 5g is fine. Make sure you get the tropical species and not the temperate species.

Nassarius snails: Great scavengers. Stick with the smaller species, you want at least one per 10g.

Trochus snails: Everything I said about Astrea is mostly true for Trochus snails, but there are some differences. First, Trochus snails can right themselves, so you don't need to watch out for them as much. On the flipside, they've always seemed more delicate to me; I can keep a population of Astreas in my tank no problem, but whenever I've brought in Trochus they never seem to last past six months, so I don't buy them any longer. Other people have evidently had better luck than I have, so they're definitely worth trying.

Turbo snails: The workhorses. Mexican turbos are pretty common and worthwhile, but personally I'm a big fan of zebra turbos. You can get one Mexican for every 10-15 gallons and they'll do pretty good for you. Zebra, you really only need 1 for every 40-50 gallons. They get huge, and have a correspondingly huge appetite for algae. I have two zebras in my tank (75g); one is the size of a baseball, the other a tennis ball, and they are great at mowing down everything algal.

Urchin: Pincushion or tuxedo urchins are great, and one of the few that will eat coralline algae. That might be a good or a bad thing depending on your personal feelings. Other than that, think of them as a zebra turbo - a little more delicate, a little more hungry.

Hermits: Hermit crabs can be hit or miss. Great scavengers and algae eaters, but they can also go rogue and attack other things, including snails and corals. Some people choose to skip them for that reason. If you want to use them, blue-knuckle, blue-legged and scarlet seem to be the least problematic in my experience. I only keep about 1 hermit for every 10 gallons or so - in small numbers, they seem to behave better. When there are too many of them they tend to get hungrier, and that's when they tend to go rogue.

Finally, and I might attract the ire of the tang police here... A small bristletooth tang makes for an excellent CUC member. At 60g, you might have enough space for one of the smaller bristletooth tangs, such as a tomini.

 

[jadedog]

Personally I think larger starfish really need a bigger tank to thrive, I wouldn't include a brittle star in a 60g. If you can find them, micro-brittles are good, but I've never seen anyone sell them direct - I've only occasionally had them come in as hitchhikers.

So that said, here's my opinion as to what you should stock for a clean-up crew:

Conch: For a 60g, you want 2-3 of the smallest conchs. They're essential for keeping the sand bed stirred up and clean. They won't touch glass, but great scavengers.

Astrea snail: I think you want at least 1 per 5g, and you can probably go heavier with them. Personally I favor more diversity in snails rather than going heavy on all Astreas, but you need a small army of these guys. Great for glass cleaning and one of the few CUC members that will directly eat hair algae. Biggest drawback is that they can't right themselves, so you need to either keep your eyes out for them or plan to replenish their numbers regularly.

Cerith snails: You want a mixture of regular and dwarf Cerith snails. They don't have the prolific appetite of Astrea snails, but they're good at tackling a wide mix of algae and their slimmer shells allow them to attack narrower crevices where holdfasts can develop. Also good for glass cleaning. For the dwarfs, 2-3 per 5g; for regular, 1 per 5g is probably good.

Nerites snails: Good general-purpose algae eaters. As with Astrea, probably one per 5g is fine. Make sure you get the tropical species and not the temperate species.

Nassarius snails: Great scavengers. Stick with the smaller species, you want at least one per 10g.

Trochus snails: Everything I said about Astrea is mostly true for Trochus snails, but there are some differences. First, Trochus snails can right themselves, so you don't need to watch out for them as much. On the flipside, they've always seemed more delicate to me; I can keep a population of Astreas in my tank no problem, but whenever I've brought in Trochus they never seem to last past six months, so I don't buy them any longer. Other people have evidently had better luck than I have, so they're definitely worth trying.

Turbo snails: The workhorses. Mexican turbos are pretty common and worthwhile, but personally I'm a big fan of zebra turbos. You can get one Mexican for every 10-15 gallons and they'll do pretty good for you. Zebra, you really only need 1 for every 40-50 gallons. They get huge, and have a correspondingly huge appetite for algae. I have two zebras in my tank (75g); one is the size of a baseball, the other a tennis ball, and they are great at mowing down everything algal.

Urchin: Pincushion or tuxedo urchins are great, and one of the few that will eat coralline algae. That might be a good or a bad thing depending on your personal feelings. Other than that, think of them as a zebra turbo - a little more delicate, a little more hungry.

Hermits: Hermit crabs can be hit or miss. Great scavengers and algae eaters, but they can also go rogue and attack other things, including snails and corals. Some people choose to skip them for that reason. If you want to use them, blue-knuckle, blue-legged and scarlet seem to be the least problematic in my experience. I only keep about 1 hermit for every 10 gallons or so - in small numbers, they seem to behave better. When there are too many of them they tend to get hungrier, and that's when they tend to go rogue.

Finally, and I might attract the ire of the tang police here... A small bristletooth tang makes for an excellent CUC member. At 60g, you might have enough space for one of the smaller bristletooth tangs, such as a tomini.

Thanks so much for the details. I definitely won't do the starfish unless i can get a mini brittle. A small tang would be cool but I have like a 60gal breeder its only 3feet long so I'll probably have to pass unfortunately. I think a couple hermit crabs would be cool but it might be wiser to just stick to the snails you recommended. Will urchents mess with corals? I have a bangai cardinal and I think he might enjoy a urchent plus I'll get the benefits of it too. My tank footprint is 36x18x22 I think its kinda a strange size.

 

[Biokabe]

Pincushion or tuxedo urchins should be fine, but you will need to make sure that any corals are solidly attached to the rockwork. They have a tendency to pick up small objects (such as rocks, empty or not empty shells, and coral frags) and carry them around as "camouflage." Hermits are usually not a problem unless you get too many of them or you get the wrong species. I don't have any problems with my current crop of hermits, but I have had hermits rip up LPS corals to get at food in their guts.

And yeah, if your tank is only 3 ft long, it is pushing it to put a tang in there. Not impossible, but they do like their swimming space.

 

[jadedog]

Pincushion or tuxedo urchins should be fine, but you will need to make sure that any corals are solidly attached to the rockwork. They have a tendency to pick up small objects (such as rocks, empty or not empty shells, and coral frags) and carry them around as "camouflage." Hermits are usually not a problem unless you get too many of them or you get the wrong species. I don't have any problems with my current crop of hermits, but I have had hermits rip up LPS corals to get at food in their guts.

And yeah, if your tank is only 3 ft long, it is pushing it to put a tang in there. Not impossible, but they do like their swimming space.

I'd really like to get hermits just cause i think there pretty cool but I have a micromussa on the sandbed and I'd be devastated if they ripped it up. I think I'll get one of the urchins you recommend and the snails you recommend thanks alot man!