Suggested cleaning crew

[Sailor]

How's everyone today?

My 14 gal Biocube is almost finished cycling, what would you suggest to put in as a cleaning crew?


Thanks

[thegrandpoohbah]

5-6 blue legged hermit crabs, 5-6 Astreas snails and 2 cleaner shrimp. Maybe put the shrimp in later though as they are a little more finicky and are much more expensive. The crabs and snails will be a good start. And don't worry when you get an outbreak of brown diatom algae, it is normal and it will go away eventually on its own as the tank matures.

[Sailor]

Thank you very much for your reply.

The brown algea has started on my substrate and at the bottom of the tank.

[mixixe]

After going through many different types of snails I would suggest to get banded trochus snails. They are great at eating algae and they are quite pretty. When they fall over, they even right themselves up unlike astrea snails, that will just die if they are upsidedown.

here is a link to what they look like
http://www.apoon.com/trochussnail.htm

the clean up crew I have in my tank are just 3 banded snails, 3 spiked snails? and 4 pompom crabs <-- these guys clean things up with their pompom anemones. All the worms that have come along witht he live rock eat up all the left overs too.

[Shelley]

No matter what kind of snails you decide on getting make sure you SLOWLY acclimate them into your tank. Marine snails are really sensitive to changes in salinity, ph, ect. If you just dump them into your tank they are gonna die!

When I add new snails I acclimate them over a 2-3 hour time frame. I leave them floating in the bag of water they came in, and add 1/2 a small dixie cup of my tank water into the bag every 1/2 and hour or so. When you are ready to add them to your tank, pour the water with the snails in it ino a pail. Remove the snails with a net.. dont use your hands, some marine snails have barbs, and DO NOT add the water from the bag to your tank. It could have nasties in it from someone elses t ank! :yes:

Hermit crabs are ok I guess. Some are reef safe and some are not. The bigger they get the nastier they become.. they will eat each other.. eat your snails.. and crawl all over your corals irritating them. I caught all mine and have them in my sump. I really dont like hermit crabs.. if you didnt notice:rolleyes:

[Melody]

I'm sorry but that just sounded so.....

Crabby. :lobster: Shelley is crabby about crabs.


:rofl:

:BOLTS:

[Shelley]

You would be crabby too if YOU had crabs!:Dunno:

[Melody]

ROFL I ain't touchin' that one! :laugh: Good to see you Shell - drop by more often :smile:.

[mixixe]

I dont even like it when my sexy shrimp walk over my corals. But i recently got a green emerald crab (did not touch the bubble algae at all!) and a zebra hermit crab. The HC is still smaller than the sexy shrimp at this point so it doesn't seem to bother the corals too much. I might end up catching them and putting them in my fuge eventually too. Once it tries to upgrade on its' shell. :)

[toniell]

If you have plenty of homes for them they get along alright sometimes even swapping shells.