Recomendation of clean-up crew for 55gal tank plz...

[Man-grove]

I am setting up a 55gal live rock tank with a sand substrate. I want to add some small critters to make it interesting AND keep things clean. My thoughts was some hermits maybe and snails. Can you guys give me a recommendation (pics appreciated) of what and how many I need of these or other critters? ALso a good (low cost prefered) supplier of said critters with web link would be awesome!!

 

[Anonymous]

i may be the only one with this advice, but i find the clean up critters to be almost entirely superficial.

live rock provides the needed cleaners. a few hermits in there won't hurt, for viewing, but i find them to be a pain. they tend to get into mischief.

snails aren't a real favorite of mine either, they knock frags over all the time, but again they do no harm otherwise.

i haven't bought any clean up in at least a year and their numbers have dwindled to very few and i see no difference in tank appearance.

i like scarlet hermits, zebras are cool too.
i find the snails referred to as black turbins, to be the most efficient at algae consumption. they are easily killed by hermits though. sorry no pics.

 

[ZigZagZombie]

I agree with podman.....I also have very few snails, with no effect to the tank. I just clean the glass a couple times a week. But everyone keeps their tanks different. So you might hear a few that disagree....

 

[beerbaron]

my thoughts are as follows. no hermits. they are omnivores and will take an opertunity to chow on anything. i just finally got rid of my mexican turbos, they are buldosers. go with some trochus, nerite, and nasserous snails. the smaller snails are the best imo. i always like to get a variety of things in my tank , so get a few of everything. no hermits though.

BB

 

[jawfish man]

i agree with beerbarron on the mexican turbos.
they run over everything. ive had quite a few problems with my turbos
running over xenia polyps and killing them. also my yellow colony polyps
have been damaged a little too.
i like the bumblebees, they are pretty small, not sure how much algae they actually consume though.
i also have some orange moon snails too that do a good job and i bought them small, but they eventually will grow pretty big. they are cool looking snails though.
i have hermits blue legged hermits, they do get into trouble but i like watching them.

 

[dgin]

People tend to go overboard and get a lot of things for their cleanup crew - especially when they have a hair algae problem. Once the algae is gone, some of the stuff starve to death. The things I would recommend are as follows along with some numbers to start with:

6 Nassarius Snails (help stir the sand and eat leftover food)
2 Tiger Trochus Snails (excellent algae eaters)
6 Cerith Snails (will eat algae below the sand line)
2 Turbo Snails (excellent algae eater - never had a problem bulldozing with mine but others have)
1 Emerald Crab (entertaining to watch and eats algae, leftover food, and valonia)
1 Fighting Conch (stirs sand, eats detritus and grows fast - up to 5")

 

[dvb]

I just got a blue tuxedo urchin which is really cool. Aside from looking good, they clean way better than the snails I have. The powerhead that I have was almost like new after he got through with it!

I too haven't noticed much of a difference in cleanliness after my snail and hermit populations have gone down. I really like my queen conch snails though. They keep my sand bed pretty well kept up. I know that they get big, and I plan on trading them to my LFS when they outgrow my tank. But for now they are great!

 

[dgin]

Tuxedo urchins are cool as well. I had one shipped with an order I made but it didn't survive the trip. They are, ounce for ounce, better algae eaters than a tang! However, something to keep in mind is that they eat coraline algae as well.

 

[fishfarmer]

After my 55 experienced a total crash in July, my tank became an algae stew. I have LR and a DSB.

Right now the hair algae is almost gone. The rock is looking clean. Cyano is almost a memory. Macro algaes are growing well.

My cleanup crew = one long spined sea urchin and two small hermits.

I will be adding some snails to the sandbed to keep it stirred though, probably will go with a dozen or so nassarius snails, maybe a conch and four trochus for the rocks.

I'm probably going to pull the urchin out before it gets too big and starts knocking over stuff.

www.reeftopia.com

www.ipsf.com

Both of these companies have a good selection of snails

 

[SPC]

I keep a variety of snails, 1 cucumber, and 2 urchins for my clean up/herbivores needs in my 180. I would also recommend Reeftopia for the purchase of these animals.
My thoughts on these animals are that they are natuarally found on a reef for a reason. It is said that when referring to a coral reef, a more acurate term would be an algae reef due to this area being 90% algae. Herbivores are what keep the algae in check. One example of this is the demise of the long spine urchin (disease) in the Caribbean and the susequent large increase in various macros.
Steve