reef frendly inferts?

[ajx22]

Just a reference point:

100-150 Gallons:
<UL TYPE=SQUARE>100 Blue Legged Hermits
15 Red Scarlet Hermit
30 Astrea Snails
30 Margarita Snails
30 Cerith Snails</UL>

Question: "How many snails and crabs do I need for my tank?"
Answer: A good rule of thumb is 1 crab for every gallon, and 1 snail for every gallon and a half. This is a good starting point, from here you can judge for yourself whether or not your clean up crew needs some additional recruitments.

J&L Aquatics - Reef Janitors & Clean-Up Crew

 

[jamesw]

Anybody who puts 100 hermit crabs in a 100g tank is asking for trouble. Either that or they are asking to turn 100 hermits into 20 hermits and a lot of dead snails....

Cheers
James Wiseman

 

[Anonymous]

AJs list sounds fine but I would lose all the blue legs. Scarlets are the mildest natured and 15 is as many hermits as you need, I think.

Other good options are:
sand or tigertail cuke
nassarius snails
tuxedo urchins
serpent stars (but not brittle stars)

 

[chris_h]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote

* The 50-50-90 rule: Anytime you have a 50-50 chance of getting something right, there's a 90% probability you'll get it wrong!

I dont understand, could you explain

 

[HARRISON]

Now I thought that brittle stars were supposed to be a good thing? I have seen little bits of hermit legs from time to time but I have never noticed them bugging my snails. I also bought a brown cuke with white spines and haven't seen him at all. He has been in a cave in the live rock for almost a month now. He looks like he is the same size but doesn't do much...I guess everyone has their own likes and dislikes.

 

[ajx22]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by DanConnor:
<STRONG>AJs list sounds fine but I would lose all the blue legs. Scarlets are the mildest natured and 15 is as many hermits as you need, I think. </STRONG><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>


I hear you...just quoting from a respected Mail-Order companies site.


http://www.jlaquatics.com/cgi-bin/store.cgi?page=janitors.shtml&&cart_id=

 

[Great Reefer]

what types of inverts would you use as a clean up crew in a 180 reef

 

[Mac1]

snails, hermits, cuke's, stars...

- Mac

 

[Mabu]

100 blue leg hermits? ROFL!

Go with the Atlantic Necessarius snails - they rock. You can get them from ffexpress.com. These are some of the coolest inverts you can have in your tank - they don't mess with anything, they bury themselves in the substrate and they move like lightning if you drop any food in the tank, and are lots of fun to watch - they are snails with personality.

Regarding the "formula" I see regarding how much you should put in your tank based on its size, based on my experience, it just doesn't jive. The size of your tank may be one of the least critical factors in determining the size of your cleanup crew. The factors that I think are more important are:

Are you using RO/DI de-silicate water? Are you using 0-phosphate water? If so, you'll have less of an algae problem, and need less of a cleanup crew.

Are you overfeeding and overfiltering? If so, you may need more of a cleanup crew.

What kind of substrate are you using? If you have silica-based sand, or you put stuff in your tank from questionable sources (i.e. "the beach") you're going to have more of an algae problem.

How long are your lights running and what kind of setup? What kind of filtration are you using? Is your filtration mainly biological or chemical? Each of these factors may have more of an impact on algae growth.

Also, if your tank is healthy, I believe your invert population can reproduce/die off to balance itself based on the food available.

[ September 18, 2001: Message edited by: Mabu ]

 

[Anonymous]

harrison,
Sorry, I meant the big green brittle stars that I see occasionally included in janitor collections. They will eat your shrimp and fish! Small brittle stars are fine.

 

[Mouse]

Bad reef beasties

Emerald Crabs
Hermet Crabs - Red/Blue
Sand sifting stars

I cant be bothered to go through the list of desasters incurred by these spawns of satan. But if i tell you that if i had recieved this information before i added them to my tank, i would have probably saved myself at least £150, 2 days full work on the tank (breaking down etc) and a beutifull goinopora. Need i say more!!!

 

[kjb]

I vote for lots of a variety of snails, a queen conch or two, bristle worms and maybe a emerald green crab or a sally lightfoot.
A starter kit of copeopods and spaghetti worms, miniature stars and mysid shrimp is probably a good idea.
Get a kit from Inland Aquatics or wherever... and maybe a booster kit later on as the tank progresses.

I find blue leg hermits to be too violently aggressive and wonder if my bristle star actually does any good.

 

[esmithiii]

nassarius snails are good replacements for hermits in the scaveging department, but not for algae removal. Over time the hermits typically die off leaving the most aggressive and most predatory, which is exactly what you DON'T want. In my 180, I plan on using more nassarius snails and fewer hermits.

E