Groundsmen of the Reef

[reefinginBD]

Hi there, I will be setting up a 160 gallon mixed reef tank. I will have around 17-20 fish in there with 3-4 tangs and possibly a one spot foxface as well as some wrasses. The stocking is a little heavy but I will also have good filtration. I will have a roller mat and a Bubble Magus Curve 9 elite as the protein skimmer. I may or may not add a refugium later on. So, I was wondering what should be the stocking of the cuc for this tank? I was thinking of adding very few cuc as I will be doing monthly water changes and also scrape the glass weekly. So, for the cuc this is what I have planned. As I will only be feeding pellets foods, there won’t be much extra waste but just so that I can feed these cuc and also a goby pair that I will get, I might broadcast feed these foods.
1) 1 cleaner and 1 fire red shrimp. Because they are cool
2) 4 Trochus snails for algae
3) 3 Blue legged hermit crabs only if they will not bother my snails, conch and corals.
4) 1 Tiger conch
5) 3 Cerith snails (only if I do not add the hermit crabs. I may add both as well if you guys can convince me to.)
I will add more cuc if and when needed. But if it is not required then this might be all in the list.
please let me know if this stocking is ok. What should I exclude or include to make it better? Should I add more or less of any of these cuc? I am afraid there won’t be enough algae and left over food for these guys. Which is why I have such a small list. Do let me know! Any help is appreciated! Thank you so much in advance!

 

[Thomas Jedlicka]

you would be surprised, even with 20 fish, food will still get away from them. for a 160 I would consider that cuc stocking small but its all personal preference. I would do like 25 snails, you could choose the mix. hermits are controversial some people love them some hate. only problem i have is sometimes they try and kill my snails for the shells. but one of my tanks i have never had to scrape because i had trochus snails and they are the best algae control snails ive ever had. i cannot swear by trochus snails enough. hermits dont really bother corals imo

 

[blaxsun]

I have 52 fish in my 160-gallon, including 4 tangs and 8 wrasses, so 17-20 fish is "light" to "medium" in terms of bio load. I would probably quadruple your cleanup crew and add some nassarius, spiny astrea and ring cowries.

I've lost count of my cleanup crew, but I've got well over 120 inverts, including: trochus, spiny astrea, ring cowrie, cerith, orange spotted nassarius, nassarius, orange conch, decorator crab, bristle banded starfish, sally lightfood crab, scarlet hermit crabs, blue leg hermit crabs, a dozen or so miscellaneous hermit crabs and five black sea cucumbers.

 

[Thomas Jedlicka]

yeah depends on type of fish you do too. if you have 15 anthias vs 15 angels its two very different stories. more the merrier for cuc.

 

[reefinginBD]

you would be surprised, even with 20 fish, food will still get away from them. for a 160 I would consider that cuc stocking small but its all personal preference. I would do like 25 snails, you could choose the mix. hermits are controversial some people love them some hate. only problem i have is sometimes they try and kill my snails for the shells. but one of my tanks i have never had to scrape because i had trochus snails and they are the best algae control snails ive ever had. i cannot swear by trochus snails enough. hermits dont really bother corals imo

I see thank you so much! What’s snails would you suggest to use? Please let me know, thank you! Should I or should I not add blue legged hermits? What do you think?

 

[reefinginBD]

I have 52 fish in my 160-gallon, including 4 tangs and 8 wrasses, so 17-20 fish is "light" to "medium" in terms of bio load. I would probably quadruple your cleanup crew and add some nassarius, spiny astrea and ring cowries.

I've lost count of my cleanup crew, but I've got well over 120 inverts, including: trochus, spiny astrea, ring cowrie, cerith, orange spotted nassarius, nassarius, orange conch, decorator crab, bristle banded starfish, sally lightfood crab, scarlet hermit crabs, blue leg hermit crabs, a dozen or so miscellaneous hermit crabs and five black sea cucumbers.

Oh wow that’s a lot of fish! What’s the dimensions of your tank? Can you please post a picture of it along with the tank size and equipments used? Also a pic of the sump would be appreciated! My tank will be similar to the Red Sea dimensions 60x26x24 inch 160 gallon. I will use three XR15 G6 Pro’s and two Maxspect XF 350 in the beginning and will add more if needed. For filtration I plan on using the bubble magus roller mat and a Bubble Magus Curve 9 elite protein skimmer (I might use a curve 7 instead as well as the curve 9 is oversized and plus I also will have a roller mat so there shouldn’t be much to skim out. I Amy or may not have a refugium, but in the beginning I will only have bio media in it along with a bowl of sand for the copepods. Do let me know what to change here! Thank you! It will be a mixed reef btw.

 

[Floyd-]

Seems light for a CuC. My 150gallon display has nearly 300 snails and a few hermit crabs and sometimes they cannot keep up with only 12 fish in my tank.

 

[reefinginBD]

Seems light for a CuC. My 150gallon display has nearly 300 snails and a few hermit crabs and sometimes they cannot keep up with only 12 fish in my tank.

Ah I see thank you so much! Can you please post a pic of your tank and sump with the equipment list and fish stocking please? I would really like to see it!

 

[Thomas Jedlicka]

I see thank you so much! What’s snails would you suggest to use? Please let me know, thank you! Should I or should I not add blue legged hermits? What do you think?

I would add them and for snails I would use the mix blaxsun suggested

 

[reefinginBD]

I would add them and for snails I would use the mix blaxsun suggested

Okie thank you so much!

 

[blaxsun]

Oh wow that’s a lot of fish! What’s the dimensions of your tank? Can you please post a picture of it along with the tank size and equipments used? Also a pic of the sump would be appreciated! My tank will be similar to the Red Sea dimensions 60x26x24 inch 160 gallon. I will use three XR15 G6 Pro’s and two Maxspect XF 350 in the beginning and will add more if needed. For filtration I plan on using the bubble magus roller mat and a Bubble Magus Curve 9 elite protein skimmer (I might use a curve 7 instead as well as the curve 9 is oversized and plus I also will have a roller mat so there shouldn’t be much to skim out. I Amy or may not have a refugium, but in the beginning I will only have bio media in it along with a bowl of sand for the copepods. Do let me know what to change here! Thank you! It will be a mixed reef btw.

It's a Red Sea 750XXL (200-gallons total; 160-gallon display) measuring roughly 2' x 2' x 6'. I run a full Neptune setup, 4x XR30/XR15 G5 Blues, a Nyos Quantum 160 skimmer and two Nyos Torq reactors, a ReefMat 1200, AquaUV 57-watt UV, two Sicce pumps (SDC 6.0/9.0), two ReefWave45 gyres, a pair of Maxspect XF330 gyres and a OzoTech Poseidon 200 ozone system. Full details are on my build link.

 

[reefinginBD]

It's a Red Sea 750XXL (200-gallons total; 160-gallon display) measuring roughly 2' x 2' x 6'. I run a full Neptune setup, 4x XR30/XR15 G5 Blues, a Nyos Quantum 160 skimmer and two Nyos Torq reactors, a ReefMat 1200, AquaUV 57-watt UV, two Sicce pumps (SDC 6.0/9.0), two ReefWave45 gyres, a pair of Maxspect XF330 gyres and a OzoTech Poseidon 200 ozone system. Full details are on my build link.

Oh wow that’s a really nice tank! Mine will be 615 litres or 162 US gallons which is smaller than yours.