Another recommendation for cleaning crew

[NRA223]

I will be getting a cleaning crew together after I get back from a trip. I have a 58 Gallon, 65lbs of rock and a 3" sand bed, about 50lbs.
My LR is growing green algae like weeds, on my glass too. I wish I can get the crew now, but I can't until I return.
So, how many and what should I get? Thanks!!


ETA; I have no fish yet.

 

[duke62]

what type of filtration and lighting do u have.how long do u leave lights on.i had same problem with my old setup my lights were on to long.and my blenny took care of the green algae

 

[marki24]

get a sally lightfoot crab. I like them

 

[NRA223]

what type of filtration and lighting do u have.how long do u leave lights on.i had same problem with my old setup my lights were on to long.and my blenny took care of the green algae

My overflow goes down to my sump, into a filter sock and I have a protein skimmer. Right now, I have my T5 lights on eight hours.

 

[NRA223]

get a sally lightfoot crab. I like them

They look cool:scratch:

 

[duke62]

im telling u my 1 lawnmower blenny does some good job.and they are a coll lookin fish

 

[duke62]

and the sally crab i read eats invertabrates and small fish when it gets larger

 

[NRA223]

im telling u my 1 lawnmower blenny does some good job.and they are a coll lookin fish

It's on my list:ANYWORD:

 

[ellebelle]

Sally Lightfoots will go after fish and other inverts when they get big.

I'd stock your tank with turbo snails - both Mexicans and Astrea. They're good rock/glass cleaners. My turbos are champs! I'd also stock a bunch of nassarius snails to clean your sand for you.

 

[PComo]

how about a tang?

 

[NRA223]

Sally Lightfoots will go after fish and other inverts when they get big.

I'd stock your tank with turbo snails - both Mexicans and Astrea. They're good rock/glass cleaners. My turbos are champs! I'd also stock a bunch of nassarius snails to clean your sand for you.

Thats' the info. I was looking for, who cleans what:ANYWORD: . Thanks.

So, I guess five each of the Mexican, Astrea and Nassarius, is good?

 

[digitalreefer]

So, I guess five each of the Mexican, Astrea and Nassarius, is good?

Good for a much smaller tank than you have... I would probably go with 3x-4x that number.

 

[NRA223]

Good for a much smaller tank than you have... I would probably go with 3x-4x that number.

Wow, okay, I was way off :banghead: . Cool, I'd rather have more:ANYWORD:

 

[scumonkey]

A fighting conch is also good for keeping the sand clean and free of diatoms,even all along the edges of the rocks. Serpant stars are good for detritus.

 

[Henrye]

Mexican turbos and astraeas are both temperate water dwellers. As such,they generally do do not have a long life in a 79 degree reef tank. Turbos are effective, as they will mow down everything in their path. The problem is, they mow down everything in their path, including knocking over your corals and rocks.

Asterea's need to come with a Life Alert to to notify you that "I''ve fallen, and can't get up". Makes them vulnerable to becoming a crab picnic, with a winning crab getting to take home the goodie basket for reuse.

I prefer Trochus snails. Naturally found in Eastern Pacific reefs and adapted to the temperatue, they are decent workers, remain a reasonable size, don't bowl things over (you have the crabs for that), and reproduce easily provding a renewable cleaning force.

Avoid a Sally Lightfoot. They really don't work out most of the time (actually, I've never heard of them ever working out if you keep smaller fish).

Nassarius snails do well for cleaning up excess food on the sand, and I like them paired with ceriths to keep the sand bed looking somewhat presentable.

 

[NRA223]

Mexican turbos and astraeas are both temperate water dwellers. As such,they generally do do not have a long life in a 79 degree reef tank. Turbos are effective, as they will mow down everything in their path. The problem is, they mow down everything in their path, including knocking over your corals and rocks.

Asterea's need to come with a Life Alert to to notify you that "I''ve fallen, and can't get up". Makes them vulnerable to becoming a crab picnic, with a winning crab getting to take home the goodie basket for reuse.

I prefer Trochus snails. Naturally found in Eastern Pacific reefs and adapted to the temperatue, they are decent workers, remain a reasonable size, don't bowl things over (you have the crabs for that), and reproduce easily provding a renewable cleaning force.

Avoid a Sally Lightfoot. They really don't work out most of the time (actually, I've never heard of them ever working out if you keep smaller fish).

Nassarius snails do well for cleaning up excess food on the sand, and I like them paired with ceriths to keep the sand bed looking somewhat presentable.

LOL. Thanks, I was just going to ask about the ones that flip over and cannot right themselves.

 

[ellebelle]

In my 29g, I've stocked 25 ceriths, 7 nassarius, and 15 astreas (I need more nassarius snails).

If you really have a bad hair algae problem, you could always get a sea hare. Those things are eating machines, though kind of dumb and prone to getting caught in powerheads and the like.

 

[reefs4life]

Fastest algae removal is if you get a sea hare. It looks like an underwater slug some are ugly but there are others that have nice colors, like blue specles on them. Try one, you wont regret it.

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

get a sally lightfoot crab. I like them

Sally's are evil and will eventually hunt down and kill your fish.

 

[RareZ]

Not an expert here but just putting my past experience here. I had the same problem when I had to move a tank from one state to another and restablish it, it caused a re-cycle and grew hair algea.

I think you should cut down on your lights time. If you do not have corals and just fish right now I think you can just run the actinics and that will bring down your hair algea growth a bit, you wont have new one's growing but the existing will stay, this way you can put your cleanup crew at work while new one's are not producing. Keep in mind that will also affect any of the photosynthetic stuff like coraline and other stuff.

For my cleanup crew I had nassarius (night workers for sand bed). Mexicans for large size munchers. Cerith but the best of all Nerites (the best I had, they are the most hardiest besides nassarious). They eat hair on LR and glass and very small best for reef tanks. I also had queen conch which did take care of little bit of cyano that was growing. Sea hairs are good but what you think will happen once your hair algea is gone? It will starve and die.. so you might want to give it away once it served it's purpose.

Anyway that's all I have to say..