New tank... CUC ideas?

[Remmy]

We have set up our first salt water tank. It is now 2 weeks old with ammonia being .25, nitrites being 0, and nitrates at between 5-10. It is a 75 gallon tank with 80 lbs of life sand, 50 lbs of live rock, and 20 lbs of dry rock. We are looking into a CUC and everything I read seems to be conflicting. We plan to have corals eventually as well as fish. What would you start with for a CUC? The websites that have “packages” seem to have A TON in them. Is that really needed?

 

[Billldg]

No, most will die due to lack of food, I suggest 1 snail per 10 gals roughly. I personally use trochus snails, nassarious snails, and cereith snails. I try to keep 1 per 10 gals of each. I also have several hermit crabs, kinda like them, and 2 skunk stripped cleaner shrimps.

 

[Remmy]

Thanks! That seems more realistic. Most places say 1 snail/ gallon which seems like a lot. Are the skunk stripped cleaner shrimp ones that clean fish as well?

 

[biophilia]

How many snails and hermits you have is really a matter of how you like to run your tank. I like to feed my fish and corals heavily and don't enjoy battling algae so I have three trochus, one astraea, a few hitchhiker stomatella, and five hermits in my 10 gal. It's best not to add too many at once until you gauge how much algae your tank produces. I'd say my cleanup crew numbers are probably at the very top of the range you should be considering so adjust down from there.

 

[Billldg]

Thanks! That seems more realistic. Most places say 1 snail/ gallon which seems like a lot. Are the skunk stripped cleaner shrimp ones that clean fish as well?

They can set up a cleaning station, I haven't seen it yet, but they r so cool to watch, and they may scare the heck out of you, mine did. When I was spot feeding my corals I felt something on my hand that felt like a thousand bugs crawling up your arm, made me jump, LOL, ended up being the shrimp climbing up my arm looking for food. It would try and climb up the Turkey baster to get to the food.

 

[Remmy]

They can set up a cleaning station, I haven't seen it yet, but they r so cool to watch, and they may scare the heck out of you, mine did. When I was spot feeding my corals I felt something on my hand that felt like a thousand bugs crawling up your arm, made me jump, LOL, ended up being the shrimp climbing up my arm looking for food. It would try and climb up the Turkey baster to get to the food.

Thanks lol I tend to keep my hands out of the tank and leave that to my fiancé. I don’t like gross things touching me and we have a worm in our tank that needs to be removed before I put my hands in there!

 

[Remmy]

How many snails and hermits you have is really a matter of how you like to run your tank. I like to feed my fish and corals heavily and don't enjoy battling algae so I have three trochus, one astraea, a few hitchhiker stomatella, and five hermits in my 10 gal. It's best not to add too many at once until you gauge how much algae your tank produces. I'd say my cleanup crew numbers are probably at the very top of the range you should be considering so adjust down from there.

Thanks! So far we have very little algae so I’m concerned about adding any more cleaners. I wouldn’t want them to die! We currently have 2 hermit crabs that came in on the live rock and some of the “bad” starfish.

 

[Barry_Cuda]

+1 for trochus snails. I have 3 in my 32-gallon and they do an amazing job of keeping the rock algae-free. I also have a couple of scarlet hermits, but honestly that's mostly just because I like them. I'm not sure how much they contribute to actual cleanup and detritus removal.