When do you add a Clean Up Crew? And how much

[TacticalBacon]

Hello,
I am going into week 7-8 of my tank, finally got my fish added a week ago. It is a 43g with a 15-gallon sump.

My sump has sock filter, two socks of biomatrix small particle rocks, two rocks from the DT, a sponge filter and a Skimmer I am trying to figure out.

My bioload is small, as I only have 2 fish and they don't eat much but I do feed them 2x's Day.

I did have some brown algae I got cleaned up with a water change and sand vacuum.

I am going for a mixed reef, with GSP, Xenia, Frogspawn and some zoas-type corals.

I saw on a thread about reef cleaners and their CUC packages for a 42g they recommend
35 Dwarf Ceriths -
11 Nassarius
15 Florida Ceriths
10 Astraea Snails
10 Assorted Hermits
2 Emerald or Ruby Mithrax Crabs

This is 83 total CUC members

That seems like 3 or 4 sometimes 10x what I have seen recommended.

How many should I add and when should I add them?

I have read and it seems like, "when it is time" or "when you notice algae".

Any thoughts?

 

[Tahoe61]

If you're going with that large of a package cuc I would say based on the image and tank size it's too soon.

 

[kevgib67]

When you start seeing algae add some and when they can’t keep up add more and so on and so on until you reach a balance. Now would be a good time to get your pod population started.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Personally I just add cuc a handful at a time, as I need them. I would suggest some carnivores at this point to eat the left over food, like nassarius snails bumble bee snails and hermits, and then add algae grazing snails as you start to see green.

 

[Bruttall]

I waited till tank was about 6 months old and added about Half what Reefcleaneers.org suggested for my 300g tank. I had some attrition to lack of nutrients. There just wasn't enough algae for all them to survive off of yet. waited about 8 more months and added another Half snails only. Most the hermits did survive from the first batch and judging by how things look I could maybe add some more snails now that the tank is close to 2 years old.

I guess my point if I had one, was I would wait longer observing algae growth better and adding in smaller batches than I did.

 

[TacticalBacon]

I waited till tank was about 6 months old and added about Half what Reefcleaneers.org suggested for my 300g tank. I had some attrition to lack of nutrients. There just wasn't enough algae for all them to survive off of yet. waited about 8 more months and added another Half snails only. Most the hermits did survive from the first batch and judging by how things look I could maybe add some more snails now that the tank is close to 2 years old.

I guess my point if I had one, was I would wait longer observing algae growth better and adding in smaller batches than I did.

That’s what I was wondering.

It just seemed like a lot of CUC numbers.

I will add probably a quarter and go from there.

The biggest point I have learned is add less than you think you need and then you can add more.

 

[PotatoPig]

Just note that the dwarf Ceriths are tiny. They’re something like 1/8” wide by 3/8” long.