Critique my Set-up

[invalid]

Ok, I'm pretty much finished with my reef tank, and would like to hear your opinions on what I've done and what I'm doing.

20 Gallon Tank
1 Powerhead in cornor (will add a second)
110 Watts PC (1 Day, 1 Blue)
Prizm Skimmer
2 O. Clown Fish
3 Blue Legged Hermits
1 Turbo Snail
1 Coral Band. Shrimp

Adding: DSB, doing it today. 4" of fine sand.
Overflow with a 15 Gallon sump to help with stability.

More cleanup crews as well. What other snails and crabs (and how many) should I get? Could I add a goby to stir sand as well?

Thanks,
Greg

 

[Anonymous]

I'm not one to discuss the set up - not enough experience - but I despise blue leg hermits. I love my scarlets and they do a great job, but blue legs are murderers. There are tons of grow out shells for the crabs, but they killed all of my snails for the sport. Well probably for food, but either way...And they even killed my nassarius snails, who's shells they would never fit into.

I would suggest that you get some scarlet hermits (not red legs - scarlets have yellow eye stalks) and some astraea snails. They'll both eat algae and the scarlets will also eat excess food. Nassarius snails are generally hard to find (I can only get them mail order) but they live in the sand bed and stir it up. And it's pretty neat how they pop up and come running when I put food in. They move so fast! Some people don't like turbos because they get so big and are able to knock things down, but they do such a good job. One will be fine in your tank.

You'll get plenty of people that despise hermits, but really, I've never had a problem with my scarlets. I watched one clean a snail's shell of algae and never touch the snail itself.

 

[invalid]

Thanks for the tip. About how many Scarlets do you recommend for the 20g?

 

[esmithiii]

I prefer nassarius snails to hermits, and I would recommend more snails, 1 per gallon.

Also, how much LR do you have? Do you have a top off device? Salinity changes are a major concern in such a tiny tank. Also, how do you dose Calcium?

Ernie

 

[invalid]

i have about 28 pounds of LR. I do dose calcium, but not Kalk-water - I've been using Coral-Vite 2 times a week. I do my top-offs manually, as well. Were you recommending 1 nassarius snails per gallon?

 

[Anonymous]

I would start out with maybe a half dozen or so scarlets and see what they do and work your way up from there.

And the general recommendation for snails is usually around 1 per gallon - that's for the algae eater type (astraeas). For the nassarius - you could easily get 20 of those. Even more - they are tiny little things, maybe like a big pea or a smallish raisin? They are neat, I love to watch them.

I loved my turbo too until my powerhead ate him (way back when) so make sure the powerheads have the proper screening.

 

[invalid]

Thanks for the help, guys! I really appreciate it. I'm adding the 6 or so Scarlet hermits, 20 Astreas and 20 Nassarius snails will take care of any algea problem I might have by changing my substrate. Is 20 Astreas too much for my 20; it just sounds like a lot. They are small guys, right? Like an inch?

 

[invalid]

Just another quick question: would Marg. Snail be better than the Astreas in the smaller tank?

 

[Anonymous]

Margarita snails eat different things. Mine hang out on the rocks and the astraeas are always on the glass munching away.

 

[Rich-n-poor]

I say go for diversity in snails buy 2-3 of everytype you come across....but I think 1 per gallon is excessive even though many people go that high.

I prefer scarlets to blue legs also but I think hermits should be kept in small numbers. with growout shells and be FED! we put hermits in our tanks to eat algea then when the algea is gone we get mad when the eat snails to avoid starvation go figure ?

but hermits will also eat corralline as i recently found out. I thinned out my hermits to 4 in my 37 gallon and suddenly my coralline is back
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[SPC]

Marg. snails are from colder water and do not last long in most reef tanks.
Steve

 

[invalid]

Do you think I could add a small Watchman blenny or would that add too much Bio-load? I don't think I'm getting my sump set-up until after X-mas.

 

[invalid]

Sorry... I meant Goby, too