QUESTION OF THE DAY It's like they all disappeared over night! So do you have a set schedule to replenish?

[revhtree]

Is it just me or does it seem like your cleanup crew, snails and such, disappear over night? I feel like they do and when I notice it's too late and algae has started to take over! I know that a cleanup crew doesn't prevent algae but they sure help and they work in conjunction with the many varied ways to export nutrients.

So I'm thinking that maybe it's just me and that maybe all of you schedule your cleanup crew orders to make sure you don't ever go without them. So the questions of the days are as follows!

1. How do you manage keeping a good string cleanup crew in your tank? Just keep an eye out? Schedule orders?

2. For the most part how long does your cleanup crew normally last?

Image via @WWC

 

[Crabs McJones]

I've only ever had to replenish my clean up crew a few times. I get enough that they seem to self regulate. I have snail eggs all over the place, and i'm hopeful that some of them make it to adulthood. But in the 5 years i've been reefing, I've only placed 3 clean up crew orders.

 

[SDK]

After an initial die off with any new batch of cleaners, I find most survive for quite some time in my tanks. I do try to avoid adding too many at once which probably helps.

This last tank, I purchased an appropriately sized package from Reef Cleaners. Then I added a few here and there as needed from my LFS. I seem to have struck a good balance and my CUC has been pretty static for months now...

 

[Meldrath]

Personally my nassarius and black keyhole limpets have breed to the point they have become a nuisance and have to be removed/sold. I've had emerald crabs last multiyears as well as various other CUC.

The smaller snails and hermit crabs and such usually die in 6 months to a year but the larger guys end up thriving and breeding.

 

[fish farmer]

Usually yearly, by year two I don't have much left. I do have hermits so they probably dwindle the snails down quicker.

I try to buy spring or fall. Rarely does my LFS have what I want. This past year I did find some Mexican Turbos locally but they only lasted a few months but did a great job. I found them online so I placed an early fall order, but sadly the two day shipping wound up to be three days and lost most of the big snails. I went with a different company which had Mexican Turbos as well and shipped overnight, those didn't last long, but expect my quick tempering time may have done those in.

I don't trust shipping overnight in the winter so I won't be ordering until spring.

 

[BeejReef]

Die? They multiply.. lol.

Only 8 months old, but have all the og crew except for two emeralds and one turbo. Them aside, I've gone from maybe a dozen crew members to many hundreds. The snails are being old-testament fruitful and the hermits keep upsizing and will be wearing football helmets this time next year.

 

[Sailingeric]

I had a bunch of small crabs in my tank for my Valentini puffer to eat to keep his teeth filed down, which he seemed to have no interest in. I would throw in a mussel for the fish and crabs to eat they would come running, then last couple of weeks I think i am down to 3 or 4 small crabs. Finally I think my puffer get back to what it is supposed to do.

 

[TJDSEKULA]

Got a few turbos when I started and still have them. They've gotten quite large in 3+ years. Here's one example. In the first top down view you can see all the newer growth about almost halfway to a full new ring
Besides them I just have some astera snails.

 

[LIreefguy]

My clean up actually gets bigger in my tank.
My trochous snails breed so there is always enough. I do have kind 7-15 hermits (can’t tell how many there are in my 265). They seem to live too it’s been 4 years

most of my other snails died off over time. Finally lost my big Mexican turbo snail to a predatory snail the other month

 

[Mical]

When I had my niger trigger they didn't slowly disappear - they were MIA

 

[Roosterjack]

Can’t seem to find decent and reasonably priced Trochus lately...

 

[Peach02]

The only member of my clean up crew that disappeared was my starfish but my 3 hermit crabs 2 nassaarius snails 1 other snail, 2 stromb snails and until this weekend 2 trochus snails now 1 haven't disappeared

 

[don_chuwish]

My trochus snails reproduce prolifically. Never need to buy them anymore. Haven't bought hermits in a long time even though the numbers are getting low. Nassarius and cerith I replenish occasionally, maybe once per year.

 

[Auquanut]

I'm kinda with @Crabs McJones on this one. After replentishing once or twice early, It seemed I had a snail explosion. I started to think the tank would be overrun. I never (intentionally) took any out, and they really have seemed to self regulate.

 

[Tim Olson]

In general, most of the snails I get die within days or weeks, with the only exception being 5 Nassarius snails, which I've had for a couple of years. I've been trying to figure out why the snails keep on dying and haven't had any luck. The only factor I can think of is phosphates, which run 0.01-0.06 ppm. Could that be the problem? Also, FYI, my Triton ICP results are spot on, with the exception of slightly high Iodine, since I dose it. I have a big order of snails coming this week, so I'm trying to lower phosphates just in case that's the issue.

 

[lapin]

I saw a baby Nassarius snail this moring on my acrylic front panel.

 

[bobbyM]

I've only ever had to replenish my clean up crew a few times. I get enough that they seem to self regulate. I have snail eggs all over the place, and i'm hopeful that some of them make it to adulthood. But in the 5 years i've been reefing, I've only placed 3 clean up crew orders.

same

Can’t seem to find decent and reasonably priced Trochus lately...

they are worth every penny. The sooner you get them the better. I started with 6 and have stocked up two tanks.

 

[ScottR]

My CUC never die. I think I haven’t lost anything except a tuxedo urchin in over six months. With that said, I have some peppermint shrimp I’d love to dip into some cocktail sauce. A giant turbo snail that knocks things over that wants to become escargot. A feather duster that prefers to live in the overflow that would make a better feather duster than anything.

 

[AndrewB]

I have a large elegance coral with a graveyard of snail shells. I don't buy them enough to keep up with its appetite, but every few months or so I add 2-3turbos. They might last a couple months?

 

[ca1ore]

Assuming wise selection, the persistence of the CUC is almost always a function of predation. I used to regularly replenish it, until I didn’t ..... seemed to make very little difference to the appearance of the tank. Now I mostly just buy hermits because they are cool to watch.