Clean up crew help?

[cougar67]

Just started a 55g tank. Was wanting an idea of types and numbers of snails, crabs, and shrimp that might work. I don't want to put something in the tank and have it starve. I don't plan on putting aggressive fish in this tank. Also plan on adding corals later on. I have asked people at my local fish store and they seem like they would sell me anything i wanted. Any ideas would be helpful. Thanks

 

[Guygettnby]

how old is this tank? how much live rock is in the tank? what kind of livestock is in the tank?

 

[cougar67]

Tank was started in October with about 50lbs of live rock. I plan on adding another 30-40lbs soon. I was thinking about just adding base rock would save on time and money. I just added a few damsel fish a month ago.

 

[ralphie]

First suggestion, do you plan on keeping those damsel? There is a very good chance that anything you add later could be killed by those fish. If you do not plan on keeping them, I would remove them now before adding any more rock.

If you are going to add base rock, I would put that on the bottom of the live rock. FYI, for my tank, I started with base rock on the bottom and then after the initial cycle, I added live rock on top. Years later I can not tell where the live VS base rock is.

Remember as you stock inverts, always add less then add as you need to. If you do not plan on keeping those damsels, I would do it in this order:
1>. Remove damsels
2> add base rock under live rock
3>. watch for possible cycle due to die off on base rock
4>. when sure there is no cycle, I would add some hermit crabs, worms and a few snails and let them get established in the tank
5>. add one or two fish

 

[cougar67]

Thanks I will get things ready to move around.