Establishing a a cleanup crew

[Striike]

Ok, my tank is a 75g, 29g sump. I have 130lbs live rock, 120lbs of sand (40 of it is live sand in the sump).
My clean up crew so far is
~40 Blue legged hermit
-10 Asturias (my spelling sucks)
-3 Cerith
-2 Turbo
-2 Emerald Crabs
-3 Peppermint shrimp

So, my questions are:
1. I put the snails in in hopes they would start cleaning my glass, as I'm getting a bit of algae growth on it. One Cerith snail, who's supposed to burrow, 1 Asturias, and 1 turbo are on the glass. The rest seem more interested in the rock work. So my glass is becoming more and more dirty. Is this normal?
2. I think one of my turbo's is dead. He has not moved in 2 days. Should I just let the crabs eat it? Or pull it out.
3. I got the shrimp to help with a few Aptasia that I have in the tank. Now there is very few of these, but I understand these guys will not survive on algae. So I bought some food for them (flake). Now, the problem I have, is with the amount of flow in my DT, the flake floats on the surface for a while, before it eventually gets chewed up and spread throughout the whole tank. I rarely see the shrimp, so I'm a little concerned they are eating this stuff. Should I just keep dropping food in every day?

More questions to come, thanks to any advice.

 

[ironman]

Snails will help, but they will not keep the glass clean. you will still have to clean the glass regularly. at night there are usually alot of my asteria snails on the front glass, but as the lights start to come on they tend to move around.
If you see a snail that you know if dead remove it. a dead snail will rot and smell horrible. eventually the shrimps and crabs will eat it, but in the mean time it polutes the water.

the pepermints will do fine, usually they will keep a few aptasia alive to preserve there food source i am told. but alittle flake now and then will give them a snack. just dont overdo the flake as this wont help your algae on the glass. soak the food before putting it in the tank and it will sink quickly.

 

[Striike]

That's a great suggestion on the food, thanks! The shrimp pulled the snail out of its shell last night, so its definitely dead. I'll pull him out today.
Another question. What is a good way to determine the clean up crew is adequate? I don't want to over populate and starve them.

 

[AlexStinson]

ive always gone by the starve method... i put in more than i need and let nature find the balance.... every tank is different so there is not set rule.

just remember, no matter what your cleanup crew is, low nutrients are still the #1 way to keep your tank clean.

 

[ironman]

There is no good formula, Ive heard one snail or crab per gallon of water. But it really has more to do with the amount of rockwork, the type of lighting, the amount of feeding, the amount of fish and many other issues, finding a ballance is just over time. I would stick with what you have and gradually add more if you feel there isnt enough to maintain the growth of algae, and clean up left over food. For the most part you probly wont get to many. I would say ultimatly you may want 75- 100 snails and 25 - 50 crabs. I have a fully stocked 120 and I add nearly 100 astreas a year. but I would say I loose that many to. I only have one electric blue leg hermit. but I do have 25 blue legs crabs in my refugium where they arnt eating my snails!

 

[ironman]

The best snails I could recomend if you are willing to pay alittle more:
Tongan nassarious - they will burrow in the sand to keep it stirred, and come out to eat when you feed, these seem to be much hardier than standard vibex nassarious. when donny has them I think they run around $5 each, they are big so you wouldnt need alot, I have 15 in my display and 10 in my frag system and sump.
Tiger trocus - these look alot like Asterias. the advantage to these is they can flip themselves back over. that is what usually kills an astrea, they get on there back and cant get back over. these tiger trocus flip themselves back over, so they live longer plus they seem more active. they run between $3 and $5 each as well.

just thought I would add that if you look for any other types keep those in mind

 

[Striike]

Certainly appreciate the suggestions. I want a huge diversity in my clean up crew. I went to clean my glass last night, I have a thin film of green stuff on the glass. A couple of the snails appear to be feasting on it, but its hard. I can't get it off with a magnet scraper. I had to get a thick bristle brush, and scrub to get that stuff off. After finishing half of my front glass, my hands were tired. Not to mention, I can't 'scrub' that hard without splashing water out of my tank.
Also, the dead snail is gone, except the shell. Looks like my clean up crew moved fast.
The nutrient thing is my concern right now. I feel some of the nutrients are coming from the rock still, but I'm sure the tap water I use is a culprit as well. I'll be getting an RO/DI system after the first of the year, so we'll see how this works.

 

[ironman]

get yourself a good scraper for the glass, pretty much any pet store sells them, they have about a 3" blade. it will clean the glass easily

 

[Striike]

Got 3 snails cleaning the outside of my powerhead, should I be concerned, or let them do their thing? Don't want them to get chewed up.

 

[ironman]

your powerhead should have some kinda screen? the intake is all you would want to worry about

 

[AlexStinson]

for scraping i just went and bought a 150 pack of razor blades... cost next to nothing and i just throw them away when done... tho on a larger tank a small razorblade could become tedious

 

[Striike]

your powerhead should have some kinda screen? the intake is all you would want to worry about

Its a Koralia, so the whole back is the intake. I left them alone, so far, no dead snails. They cleaned the powerhead, then proceeded to clean the cord that ran too it, then moved on to bigger and better things.

Razor blade is a good idea, thanks.

 

[Striike]

Is there any way to tell if the shrimp are getting enough food? I rarely see them except between the cracks in the rock work, and any flake food I place, no matter how carefully, gets swept up and chewed up before settling all over the rock. Should I get some pellets, so I can see if they get consumed?

 

[ironman]

Avoid pellets, they contain alot of ash, which is a bad thing for water quality, the shrimp will be fine, they scavenge and find food. dont intentionally try and feed them.
As for a razor blade, use it at your own risk. razor blades are easy to scratch the glass. be very careful to never let the edges dig at all, keep it perfectly flat. to me it isnt worth the chance, once the scratch is there it is always there.

 

[Striike]

I used a razor with good success. But I think I'll take the advice and get a blade that won't 'accidentally' scratch the glass. Petcare Warehouse said I'd have to feed the shrimp, but I wasn't convinced so I'm glad I asked you guys. I see the shrimp from time to time, but was convinced 2/3 were dead since I didn't see them for a week. I had some friends over, so I dropped a flake or 2 of food in, and everything came to life. And all 3 shrimp came out to get a piece. Really cool to watch.
As the title of this thread suggests, I now have:
2 - emerald crabs
3 - Cerith Snails
3 - peppermint shrimp
1 - turbo snail (2/3 that I bought from the east brainerd store have died)
40 - blue hermits, though I think a couple have died
20 - Asturias

I intend on adding (let me know if you see any issues here)
3 - cleaner shrimp (can't remember the name, but have the stripe down their back)
20-30 - variety of snails
~5 - nassarious
Let them work for a week or 2, then start fish shopping.

 

[ironman]

sounds good! In my experience the peppermint shrimp are not all that hardy. I usually will put several in when I see some aptasia, of those usually only a few survive. And they disapear after several months. but they usually do there job.

 

[Striike]

Oh goodness. I put in 2 skunk cleaner shrimp last night. Both tried to swim to the surface when I first put them into the aquarium, but the first one swam right over to a power head, and got sucked into it! Thankfully it was big enough to not fit between the cracks in the intake. So I scrambled under the stand and killed the power quick. Then I had to pick the little guy up and he swam off again. He's settle down now, but is missing a leg on one side, so he looks a little out of balance. I've been keeping a close eye on him, and read that shrimp will re-grow legs. Don't know if anyone else has ever seen this happen, so I'd thought to share it.