What kind of Inverts for a clean up crew?
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Lavey29
10K Club member
A diverse variety but build your team in phases as the tank needs them. If you add to much to early then they will die off. Variety of snails, some clean sand, others prefer rocks and glass. Scarlet leg hermits, these guys are great and don't bother corals. Tuxedo urchins are great too for algae control. Big tank like yours can use a conch also for sand. My DT is 65g. I probably have 30 to 40 snails small and large. 15 hermits, 2 emerald crabs, 2 acropora crabs, serpent starfish, 2 fire shrimp. Etc...
You can go to one of the Clean Up Crew sites and they'll have the various critters listed and what they are good for so you can customize your crew to the issues you have in your tank. Also, they should have packages already made up for different tanks. I have a 120 and, as Lavey29 indicated, I started with a 50 gallon package and adjust as my tank matures.
PotatoPig
Well-Known Member
How old is your tank and how much algae do you deal with? Sand or bare base?
My 2c - once the tank is stable go with approx 1 to 2 small inverts / two gallons, with type and exact number depending on your tank. These would be Astrea snails, nerites, nassarius, and ceriths. Not far off the “cleaner package” for your tank size from reefcleaners, though I think they go a little higher than you should start with.
If you have sand add a conch or two - tiger/fighting/similar.
Crabs are optional (IMO) but fun (IMO) - for your size tank maybe up to around a dozen of hermits and a couple emeralds and porcelains.
My 2c - once the tank is stable go with approx 1 to 2 small inverts / two gallons, with type and exact number depending on your tank. These would be Astrea snails, nerites, nassarius, and ceriths. Not far off the “cleaner package” for your tank size from reefcleaners, though I think they go a little higher than you should start with.
If you have sand add a conch or two - tiger/fighting/similar.
Crabs are optional (IMO) but fun (IMO) - for your size tank maybe up to around a dozen of hermits and a couple emeralds and porcelains.
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As long as you have room all the way around I would get a fighting conch, they are great sand sifters. Ignore the word fighting, just get one, not 2 as that is where the fighting comes into play. Nassarius snails, cerith snails, hermits, definitely a variety, but as Lavey 29 said, start slow based on tank needs, or they will starve.
SomeHappyFish
Active Member
Start slow and work your way up in numbers. Too many CUC in a tank without enough food/algae to scavenge is going to lead to mass die off and pollution in the water.
You want a cleaner sandbed? Go with Nassarius, A conch, and if your tank is old enough a sand sifting starfish. If your tank is new,go with Nassarius only first. You want less algae on your rocks? Go with trochus, Turbo or an Urchin if you really have a lot, but they might/will remove coralline algae from what I have read.
Trochus 1 per 3 Gallon
Cerith 1/3 Gallon
Conch 1/20 Gallon
Nerith 1/5-10Gallon
Astrea 1/3Gallon
Nassarius 1/5Gallon
Turbos 1/5-10Gallon
Hermit (YMMV with each specie)
Urchin 1/50Gallon
*These are rule of thumb I found quickly on the web, you may want to look at other 100G build for inspiration*
You want a cleaner sandbed? Go with Nassarius, A conch, and if your tank is old enough a sand sifting starfish. If your tank is new,go with Nassarius only first. You want less algae on your rocks? Go with trochus, Turbo or an Urchin if you really have a lot, but they might/will remove coralline algae from what I have read.
Trochus 1 per 3 Gallon
Cerith 1/3 Gallon
Conch 1/20 Gallon
Nerith 1/5-10Gallon
Astrea 1/3Gallon
Nassarius 1/5Gallon
Turbos 1/5-10Gallon
Hermit (YMMV with each specie)
Urchin 1/50Gallon
*These are rule of thumb I found quickly on the web, you may want to look at other 100G build for inspiration*
How I personnaly do it for now, since I'm new in the hobby is I built my CUC over the course of the 3 first month and each time I went to my LFS for something I would add to my bill 1 or 2 Trochus or whatever snail I wanted next.
Lets say the rule of thumb is 1 snail per 10G, well you need 11 trochus. But you should only really start with 2-3 then work your way up based on the look of the tank. No more algae for them to eat and they died... good you didn't waste 8 snails.
Pictures would help with your build, but I would start with something like:
3 Trochus
2 Cerith
1 Conch (if you have a sandbed)
1 Hermit of choice
then work you way up from there.
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vcnt
Active Member
I currently have not
set it up, i just have a bunch of equipment including the tank
SomeHappyFish
Active Member
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vcnt
Active Member
What kind of pump would you recommend for my setup? The sump is around 45 gallons I think, it is an aqeeon sump
litsoh
Active Member
For my 125 I waited a bit until I had some algae growth and then started out small, so 3 ceriths, 3 nerites, 3 margaritas, 2 nassarius, and a fighting conch. I'm also want to add some trochus snails in there, but there's also no real rush. The plan is to wait and see what the tank shows me and then add accordingly. For newer tanks especially it's easy to overbuy on your cuc and then have a bunch of them starve themselves.
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vcnt
Active Member
ill prob just wait till I start having nuisance growth and then buy a few and base from there
SomeHappyFish
Active Member
Exactly.
I added my conch when the sandbed started to have slight brown spots and he managed to keep it spot clean for now.
My snails I added them when I saw a slight film over the rock.
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