spiralevolution
New member
Can someone recremmend best cleaning crews for the whole 2ft cube? Thanks!
Cleaning crews!
- Thread starter spiralevolution
- Start date
Pea-brain
In Memoriam
Astrea snail-algae, rock grazer. Slow but thorough. If they fall you will have to tip them back up so they don't die.
Nerite snails-glass/rock grazer. Not as thorough as astreas but cover more areas in less time. They stay mostly on the glass and get the easy film algae off before they cause a nuisance.
Cerith snails-sand/rock/glass cleaner. They mostly burrow under sand but I see them do a bit of everything. Keep the sand well stirred and eat detritus.
Nassarius snails-sand cleaner. Burrows under sand and keeps it airated and helps with detritus and leftover food.
scarlet reef hermit-rock/sand grazer. They get kind of large but are very peaceful and extremely thorough. They can get kind of annoying and may knock things over but they'll eat hair algae and cyano. Will pick at corraline too. Only hermit I even remotely like. Not too prone to killing snails.
Bristle worms-Harmless scavengers that eat dead things, and detritus. Essential to the cleanup crew imo. Will hurt if you touch it, so don't
Stock as you see fit. What you get depends on what is in the tank, how much live rocks, how much sand (if any), algae problems etc. etc. . If you want some suggested stocking levels we'd need more info.
Dan
Nerite snails-glass/rock grazer. Not as thorough as astreas but cover more areas in less time. They stay mostly on the glass and get the easy film algae off before they cause a nuisance.
Cerith snails-sand/rock/glass cleaner. They mostly burrow under sand but I see them do a bit of everything. Keep the sand well stirred and eat detritus.
Nassarius snails-sand cleaner. Burrows under sand and keeps it airated and helps with detritus and leftover food.
scarlet reef hermit-rock/sand grazer. They get kind of large but are very peaceful and extremely thorough. They can get kind of annoying and may knock things over but they'll eat hair algae and cyano. Will pick at corraline too. Only hermit I even remotely like. Not too prone to killing snails.
Bristle worms-Harmless scavengers that eat dead things, and detritus. Essential to the cleanup crew imo. Will hurt if you touch it, so don't
Stock as you see fit. What you get depends on what is in the tank, how much live rocks, how much sand (if any), algae problems etc. etc. . If you want some suggested stocking levels we'd need more info.
Dan
spiralevolution
New member
Thanks all! So anyway scarlet or maxican hermit r good? anymore suggestion? Do u all recremmend urchins or stars?
chrisstie
Premium Member
If you're just setting up a reef you want to really avoid any urchins or stars. They really do better ina much more mature tank .. at least 6 months if not a year old. They don't really "clean" as much as are ornamental for the most part anyhow.
After a month or two if you find your sandbed seems dirty you could look into a small cucumber but they get large eventually. No doubt there are still very cool inverts to add as decoration but just start with a conservative crew and add as needed. Otherwise they will starve outcompeting to clean the tank. No need to spoil your water to feed them either they tend to do ok on their own.
After a month or two if you find your sandbed seems dirty you could look into a small cucumber but they get large eventually. No doubt there are still very cool inverts to add as decoration but just start with a conservative crew and add as needed. Otherwise they will starve outcompeting to clean the tank. No need to spoil your water to feed them either they tend to do ok on their own.
Packersfan21
New member
Blue Tuexedo urchin, sand sifting seastar, Fancy serphent star.
Pea-brain
In Memoriam
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1290068
Sand sifting stars are a bad idea.
Dan
Packersfan21
New member
Alright whatever. Say that sand sifting seastars are a bad idea, but I think they do a good job so i'm going to keep reccomending them to people.
