Clean up crew

[Icehockey_whino]

I am looking to add to my clean up crew in my 55g. reef. I have 6-8 assorted snails, 4 peppermint shrimp, 1 fire shrimp, a few red legs crabs and an emerald crab.

What does anyone recommend for the reef? what kind of snails are the best? If you could list what has worked in the past would be great.
Thanks in advance

Dr. Kurt

 

[Marinemom]

Turbos,astreas, and the like are great for algae. Hermit crabs like the scarler reef hermit crabs and the blue legged hermits rummage through the sand and substrate looking for uneaten food and also airate the substrate. Some people like sand sifting stars too. A cleaner shrimp is always nice.

Marinemom

 

[bigworm616]

sand sifting stars would be a bad choice, they need an extrodinary amount of room, and will decimate your pod population. After they have eaten all the pods they will usually starve to death.

 

[skeeter_ca]

Nassusisi (however it is spelled) are the best sand stirrer, get about 50 and you'll never have to worry about your sand bed. 50 Astrea snails would be great for to algae on the rocks and glass. Great thing is that they don't both anything else.

aquadw

 

[Icehockey_whino]

Thanks, I appreciate the info.

Do you have an amount/ number of snails/ crabs per gallon?