TEAM CUC: What does your CUC team (clean up crew) look like and who's your MVP?
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Happy Monday Reef Fam! This week we're going to be discussing CLEAN UP CREWS or CUC to keep it short! 100% of us have some type of CUC whether it is a group of inverts that are housed specifically to keep the dissolving organics clean (eat poop) or it's a pretty fish that just so happens to love the taste of unsightly algae! Let's talk CUC!
1. What cleaner inverts, cleaner fish and micro cleaners do you have "on the team" in your reef aquarium? Please list them!
2. Who's the MVP of your clean up crew and why?
image via @OceansGarden
2 turbo snails - my favorite for rock workHappy Monday Reef Fam! This week we're going to be discussing CLEAN UP CREWS or CUC to keep it short! 100% of us have some type of CUC whether it is a group of inverts that are housed specifically to keep the dissolving organics clean (eat poop) or it's a pretty fish that just so happens to love the taste of unsightly algae! Let's talk CUC!
1. What cleaner inverts, cleaner fish and micro cleaners do you have "on the team" in your reef aquarium? Please list them!
2. Who's the MVP of your clean up crew and why?
image via @OceansGarden
2 blue hermits
1 sand sifting star
1 nassarius snail
1 tiger conch - my favorite for sand bed
1 cleaner shrimp - looks good and has a personality but robs corals constantly when I feed them and closes polyps all the time. I’m about to put him on the bar b q
Pods - my favorite for everything not algae.
This crew kept a 60 gal clean however I always struggle with low nutrients so I feed lots to make up for it. If I had an algae outbreak I would just add a cool tang.
Jarry
Community Member
Conches here as well, Trochus histrio snails will help with glass and rock if you don't have tangs or other herbivore fish like Salarias fasciatus, but especially Conomurex luhuanus conch is unbeatable. I use nothing else in my 300 gallon to keep it clean (of course there are a lot of bristle worms, brittle stars etc.).
I kid you not, and I can not make this up. Picked up some CUC today @LAXaquarium which included a couple emeralds. I didn't even get my hand out of the tank and they were already eating!
This is a fun one, and I have so many inverts b/c I also like them for the novelty. The CUC/inverts I actually purchased were:
Trochus snails
FL Cerith snails
Scarlet reef hermits
Tonga nassarius snails
Cleaner shrimp.
Later I added:
Tuxedo urchin
Small conch
Porcelain crabs
Money cowrie
Pitho crab.
Then some VERY cool hitchhikers showed up:
Elysia obtusa sea slugs -- IDK why but they're thriving and multiplying, and are actually pretty effective in larger numbers (but I wouldn't recommend purchasing them for CUC)
I also have a tailspot blenny that does a lot of rock-picking, but I wouldn't count it as any kind of effective CUC.
I lost the urchin. I have 1 scarlet hermit left b/c they killed e/o for shells until there was only one -- he's very active and has gotten pretty big. The conch is a huge fave, and so is the pitho which is a strange-ranger bubble algae eating machine that bothers nothing and no one in the tank aside from the algae. The money cowrie is another fave -- very cool to watch and pretty effective, too. The porcelain crabs are pretty much just novelty, kinda like my feather dusters are, and out of a handful I added there are three red zebra striped ones left that seem to hang out together. The shrimp is also for novelty and I kinda view it as another fish, but it has taken to cleaning my blenny which is cool to watch, and I guess a nice service to have. As for the snails, the nassarius are extremely effective at what they do, and so are the ceriths b/c they both bury themselves in the sand and clean the rocks and glass. The trochus are my OG algae machines, but seem to get a little less effective than other algae-eating inverts as time goes on and the type of algae in the tank changes.
Trochus snails
FL Cerith snails
Scarlet reef hermits
Tonga nassarius snails
Cleaner shrimp.
Later I added:
Tuxedo urchin
Small conch
Porcelain crabs
Money cowrie
Pitho crab.
Then some VERY cool hitchhikers showed up:
Elysia obtusa sea slugs -- IDK why but they're thriving and multiplying, and are actually pretty effective in larger numbers (but I wouldn't recommend purchasing them for CUC)
I also have a tailspot blenny that does a lot of rock-picking, but I wouldn't count it as any kind of effective CUC.
I lost the urchin. I have 1 scarlet hermit left b/c they killed e/o for shells until there was only one -- he's very active and has gotten pretty big. The conch is a huge fave, and so is the pitho which is a strange-ranger bubble algae eating machine that bothers nothing and no one in the tank aside from the algae. The money cowrie is another fave -- very cool to watch and pretty effective, too. The porcelain crabs are pretty much just novelty, kinda like my feather dusters are, and out of a handful I added there are three red zebra striped ones left that seem to hang out together. The shrimp is also for novelty and I kinda view it as another fish, but it has taken to cleaning my blenny which is cool to watch, and I guess a nice service to have. As for the snails, the nassarius are extremely effective at what they do, and so are the ceriths b/c they both bury themselves in the sand and clean the rocks and glass. The trochus are my OG algae machines, but seem to get a little less effective than other algae-eating inverts as time goes on and the type of algae in the tank changes.
Will_W
Active Member
For my 10G reef tank I have:
2 cerith Snails
1 or 2 astrea turbo snail (haven't seen one in a week or so)
2 white clawed hermits
1 Halloween hermit
Really need to add a detritus eater....
2 cerith Snails
1 or 2 astrea turbo snail (haven't seen one in a week or so)
2 white clawed hermits
1 Halloween hermit
Really need to add a detritus eater....
MVP CC in my tank = me.
My m&&*^^%((&**ing coris wrasse wiped out my crew from reefcleaners.
So I scrape. I shuffle sand. I yank the algae off the rock.
My m&&*^^%((&**ing coris wrasse wiped out my crew from reefcleaners.
So I scrape. I shuffle sand. I yank the algae off the rock.
ilikefish69
Kind of a Valuable Member
I have an empty 75 gallon ripe for the taking, if you are in the market
Surprised the conch doesn’t have a vote.
I have one single tiger conch, and it is an absolute beast. Sleeps in the sand like 3x 12 hour rests a week, otherwise it’s doing like 2 laps an hour around the 48x30 sand bed.
MVP for work ethic on my cuc.
I have one single tiger conch, and it is an absolute beast. Sleeps in the sand like 3x 12 hour rests a week, otherwise it’s doing like 2 laps an hour around the 48x30 sand bed.
MVP for work ethic on my cuc.
Astraea’s have been extremely effective algae eater’s. They never died from my Ostreo Dino’s (most toxic). They will get stunned, but won’t die.
dlaird76
Active Member
So so wrong here brother. Watch the Biome Series on BRSTV, I think its fantastic. Of course your opinion might be totally different which I totally respect
GillMeister
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I hadn't heard of this series. I might have to watch it. Is it new?
Jwise
Active Member
Hippo tang, magnificent fox face, tribal blenny, and 5 cleaner shrimp. I will be getting more tangs in the future but am dealing with velvet, flukes, and black ick in my dt so im moving my fish over to a qt im setting up on friday and am going to treat the fish for 2 and a half months and leave the tank empty for that time before i get more fish
monkeyCmonkeyDo
7500 Club Member
As soon as u said watch the video from brs you lost me. They sold out to corporate America and are currently buying up any aquatic businesses they can to become the top of the pyramid.
They will sell you and all information they can to push products.
Cmon ppl your buying bugs in a bag or jar and dumping them in your tanks. Lol.
It was frowned upon for dumping any foreign saltwater from any supplier in the past. You aren't supposed to add rhe liquids. Do you run em through a net or breeder net and than put them in the tank? You think they acclimate and live?
There bugs ppl. I don't buy it. Its not a garden where we need to add worms or certain bugs to keep the soil good. Its rock. The coral literally get glued go the rock. If your tank has cyano. Dino. Hair algae. Work on that before buying fish and corals.
Idk what I can say here cuz you've all been drinking the kool aid so to speak and I'm a nobody shouting at the top of a building
D
They will sell you and all information they can to push products.
Cmon ppl your buying bugs in a bag or jar and dumping them in your tanks. Lol.
It was frowned upon for dumping any foreign saltwater from any supplier in the past. You aren't supposed to add rhe liquids. Do you run em through a net or breeder net and than put them in the tank? You think they acclimate and live?
There bugs ppl. I don't buy it. Its not a garden where we need to add worms or certain bugs to keep the soil good. Its rock. The coral literally get glued go the rock. If your tank has cyano. Dino. Hair algae. Work on that before buying fish and corals.
Idk what I can say here cuz you've all been drinking the kool aid so to speak and I'm a nobody shouting at the top of a building
D
monkeyCmonkeyDo
7500 Club Member
I've met Sanjay. Tony vargas. Scott fellman. Mr saltwater tank...can't remember his name. Lol. They're ppl just like u and me. They put pants on and 1 leg at a time just like u and me. If a big name company came to you and offered you a ton of money to help support their product. U would.
D
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GillMeister
Valuable Member
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Ahem...
I didn't watch any videos. Nobody told me to use pods. I can tell you for a fact that I observe a very clean tank when my pod population is healthy. I've had very different results when my current system didn't have a sustainable load of pods.
If 'Reefing Scientology' teaches you pods are bad or useless, don't put them in your tank. It's that simple. But don't try to get people who don't know better to follow your views on this because you are misguided. I know we're not going to get you to come around on this so my suggestion for you is be satisfied that we can't force you to use them.
monkeyCmonkeyDo
7500 Club Member
How do you even know you have a good pod population? This is mind blowing to me.
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