Hermit Crabs versus Snails In a Reef tank

[investigator1]

What is the consensus on the cleanup crew in a reef tank? I have read many conflicting documents and statements. Should one go all snails? Or hermies and snails? I currently have a mix. NowI am wondering what is the most beneficial to my tank? Also does anyone know if normal size blue legged hermies do anything bad? I have a Calcinus Elegans or Ultra Blue legged Hermie. Lastly is there any kind of formula or something for cleanup inverts to gallons of tank? :?:

 

[trigger0214]

I've only gone with snails and some shrimp in my tank. The snails seem to be really quite good at eating brown type algae. Get a couple of baby conchs as they are simply little lawn mowers. I shyed away form hermit crabs as I read that they might not be completely reef safe and have the potential to eat the snails to make shells avaiable to grow.

 

[dgin]

When I first started (June 2002), I got a few dwarf hermit crabs. They have since moved up to some small Turbo snail shells - about the size of a nickel. They have killed off a few snails but don't seem to bother anything lately. If you do get hermits, I would keep it to a few. Expect a few snail casualties though. You can throw a few extra snail shells in to minimize this.

If you have a sandbed, I would highly recommend Nassarius and Cerith Snails, as well as a Fighting Conch or two (these grow fast and require 2 sq ft of open sandbed each). These will help aerate the sandbed and eat detritus. For other snails that will graze on algae, I would recommend Turbo and Tiger Trochus Snails.

I believe in getting a diverse cleanup crew to help address a variety of things in the tank. In addition to above, I also have Strombus snails (decent algae eaters and breed like crazy), a Serpent Star, a couple of Fire Shrimp, and a couple of Emerald Crabs.

As to a formula, do not follow the 1 per gallon of anything. This is just to get you to buy more. It really depends on the size of tank, amount of rock, how often you feed, and what else is in the tank. Getting too many critters with not enough food available will mean they will slowly starve to death.

 

[Bluetangclan]

I have both turbo snails, a few margarita snails, a few astrea snails and alot of hermit crabs. I want to eventually get to around 20 blue legged, 11 now. Crimsons in my experience are useless and simply it in their shells, I have 3. Halloween hermits are decent, I have one who works hard and one who is just lazy and doesnt very little. I have several unknown kinds as well. The only problem I have had is a black stripe hermit, great algae eater, didnt bother anything and was very active. Then I got my Halloweens and he immediatly did not like them. I had to weigh values then, keeping a 2 dollar hermit was not worth killing 2 ten dollar hermits. My hermits do alot snails cant do like get into cracks and they are way better at eating hair than snails I think.
If you are really biased against hermits pick up a few emerald crabs and a Sally Lightfoot or two. They are worth their weight in gold IMO. But like I said my hermits dont harm anything but the algae say. GO HERMIES!!

 

[Mogo]

I have a herd of hermits and a half dozen snails. Hermits (blue leg) have done a great job at keeping everything in order. They come out at night and graze in packs. Snails (turbo and astrea) must also be doing something in there. Not sure what because they work in slo-mo. In order for my snails to do the crabs work, I would probably need hundreds of them. The snails are good on the glass though. So is my scraper.

 

[Will C1]

i have 50 or so of each, once youre crabs out grow their shells they will kill a snail in order to get a bigger home. so you can expect a few deaths but the crabs will eat the snail so no polution. so if ya dont mind a few snails coming up missing now and again then go get some hermits i find the mix of the two will take care of most algea's.