CUC advice

[Barb0713]

Couple months into a 20 gallon nano reef. Just a few fish, actually 4 cromies , 2 little baby clowns and a watchman goby. I have a little chunk of dragons breath macro algae , and a few coral frags. All doing great. But, here home the diatoms and the algae,, not a problem yet and I don’t want one ,, so. I have .
6 astrea snails
2 Mexican turbo snails
1 tiny conch
1 brittle starfish
Is that a good start ?
Should I add a cleaner shrimp ?
Any other suggestions ?
Thanks , as always for your help guys
I get my best advice on here.

 

[reefchi]

I personally think that’s a good start for a 20g. I’m sure those Mexican snails are big. I like to add trochus snails as well since my astrea snails are always the first to die for me.

 

[zwalter38]

Couple months into a 20 gallon nano reef. Just a few fish, actually 4 cromies , 2 little baby clowns and a watchman goby. I have a little chunk of dragons breath macro algae , and a few coral frags. All doing great. But, here home the diatoms and the algae,, not a problem yet and I don’t want one ,, so. I have .
6 astrea snails
2 Mexican turbo snails
1 tiny conch
1 brittle starfish
Is that a good start ?
Should I add a cleaner shrimp ?
Any other suggestions ?
Thanks , as always for your help guys
I get my best advice on here.

I personally like hermits. Some people don’t because they can prey on snails but I think they are one of the best clean up crew members. Id get about 4-5 blue legs. As for the rest of the cleanup crew. I would recommend planning an exit strategy for the Mexican turbos. They will definitely outgrow your tank. They get massive. You can also look into cerith snails and or nassarius snails to stir up the sand bed.

 

[kevgib67]

Couple months into a 20 gallon nano reef. Just a few fish, actually 4 cromies , 2 little baby clowns and a watchman goby. I have a little chunk of dragons breath macro algae , and a few coral frags. All doing great. But, here home the diatoms and the algae,, not a problem yet and I don’t want one ,, so. I have .
6 astrea snails
2 Mexican turbo snails
1 tiny conch
1 brittle starfish
Is that a good start ?
Should I add a cleaner shrimp ?
Any other suggestions ?
Thanks , as always for your help guys
I get my best advice on here.

Don’t worry about the diatoms, they are self limiting and feed on silicates, once the silicates are depleted so are the diatoms. If you want to speed up the process it’s a great time to get your copepod population going. They eat diatoms but they will eventually go away anyway. I love cleaner shrimp and wouldn’t have a tank without them. They won’t eat algae but are great scavengers of uneaten fish food that otherwise would break down into algae food. At some point you may want to consider a tuxedo urchin and some nassarius snails to help your conch with turning over your sand and keeping it white. Otherwise looks good to me.

 

[MikeyZo]

+1 on the trochus and I like nessaruis ones also. Also, dosing some copepods helps with outbreaks like that.

 

[Uncle99]

Brittlestar can “bother” LPS corals by running over them.
Cleaner shrimp can steal food from LPS.

The list is fine.

Remember, the best cleaners are the ones you can’t see. With rock solid chemistry, they will develop on their own and in good populations, are great cleaners of rocks and keep sand white.

CUC are good helpers.

 

[fladiver]

Will echo Nassarius and trochus. Those are work horses. Also like blue legs which in my experience generally leave everything else alone as long as there’s enough food to scavenge. Astreas are decent and I usually have a few, but imo money is well spent adding a few nassarius and trochus.

Have had decent luck with strawberry/tiger conch - just make sure you’re not buying a different kind (like fighting) that can grow much bigger.

 

[zwalter38]

I concur on the trocus snails. I started with 15 in my tank and have about 60 now which is great. The young ones get into the hard to reach places. Bonus that they flip themselves over.

 

[Barb0713]

Don’t worry about the diatoms, they are self limiting and feed on silicates, once the silicates are depleted so are the diatoms. If you want to speed up the process it’s a great time to get your copepod population going. They eat diatoms but they will eventually go away anyway. I love cleaner shrimp and wouldn’t have a tank without them. They won’t eat algae but are great scavengers of uneaten fish food that otherwise would break down into algae food. At some point you may want to consider a tuxedo urchin and some nassarius snails to help your conch with turning over your sand and keeping it white. Otherwise looks good to me.

Thanks so much. I had a peppermint shrimp when I had a larger reef tank a few years ago and I busted him ripping a hammer frag to shreds so , he name was Jeffery , as in daumer cuz he was a shrimp and he ate shrimp lol. He went back. never again. Lol the starfish I have is big brittle . The body is the size of a dime.

 

[Barb0713]

I concur on the trocus snails. I started with 15 in my tank and have about 60 now which is great. The young ones get into the hard to reach places. Bonus that they flip themselves over.

Thanks. I will definitely throw some in :)

 

[kevgib67]

Thanks so much. I had a peppermint shrimp when I had a larger reef tank a few years ago and I busted him ripping a hammer frag to shreds so , he name was Jeffery , as in daumer cuz he was a shrimp and he ate shrimp lol. He went back. never again. Lol the starfish I have is big brittle . The body is the size of a dime.

In my experience Skunk cleaner shrimp are the best, always out and about and will clean your hands when they are in the tank. I have 2 and a blood red, beautiful but reclusive. I only see it at feeding time, and I’ve had a few and all the same as my current one. Coral banded are reclusive as well and peppermint shrimp are nocturnal. I haven’t had any problems with my peppermint shrimp and him and his friends cleared my tank of aptasia. I also prefer trochus snails as they can right themselves when they fall upside down. Also, since they spawn versus laying eggs, they reproduce well in our tanks.

 

[Buckster]

I bought several skunk cleaner shrimp and had them in my QT. As days past some of them died. Further research said that I couldn't have several in the same tank. I now try to only have two at a time. The blood shrimp does hide most of the day but does come out when feeding.