Bare Bottom Clean Up Crew

[seanm001]

I've got a bare-bottom 30-gallon with 30 lbs or so of live rock, an RBTA, and Mandarin. No corals, no plan to add any later on (though I'm encouraging coralline algae growth).

I'm looking for input on a clean-up crew. It seems somehow unjust to put snails like Cerith or Nassarius which burrow into the sand into a bare bottom tank.

I'm thinking maybe 4-6 Astreas and 4-6 Nerites, but are there better snail choices for a bare-bottom tank? Is there a really cool species out there I should look into?

I've had good luck with blue-leg hermits in my main tank, wondering if they'd be a good choice for a bare-bottom set-up? Is there a better choice?

I was thinking a porcelain crab or some sexy shrimp could be interesting, though I guess they don't really count as a significant part of the clean-up crew...

Thanks!

 

[Packersfan21]

Margarita,nerite,trochus, and mexican turbos are my favorites. I don't like the astrea though because they always fall of the glass and they can't flip back over own their own. I think that hermits should be ok. I like electric blue, electric orange, scarlet reef, red tip, and blue legged hermits the best. I hate the zebra hermits though. The've caused a lot of destruction in my tank.

 

[dendro982]

I used turbos even in 10g BB tank - they are much more effective, than astreas (1 turbo comparing to 3 astreas), but when they move - it's a bulldozer, paying no attention to surroundings and making its way through everything. Even superglued frags were broken off.

Same with medium sized hermits, like zebra and maroon. Small blue legged and scarlet (if memory serves) hermits did less harm, only sat on the corals, that stopped to open, while they were there.

If stomatellas are living in your tank, they may help too.

 

[Chris2500DK]

My stomatellas seem to be a lot more effective than my trochus and my turbos.

 

[seanm001]

Great feedback! Thanks!