Cleanup Crew Necessity?

[cmondo]

My 6 gallon eclipse has been up and running for about 2 years now. I have a ten gallon refuge hooked up to it containing cheato, a shallow sandbed, and some liverock. I have no fish or shrimp in there now just LPS, softies, and zoos.

The only cleanup crew that I have are two nassarius snails and a serpant star. Along with the bristle worms and pods going wild would it be necessary to add additional hermit crabs or snails for long term management of detrius and algae?

The reason I am asking is because the hermits and turbos and such have been knocking over my frags both on the rock and resting in the sandbed.

Thanks everyone.
Chris

 

[mmgm]

On a system this small 5 snails would be a lot of clean up crew..... If your tank is clean then I would not be too concerned......

 

[rustybucket145]

I had a problem with hermits knocking over my frags also. I found a solution. Trade your big Hermit crabs to a LFS for tiny ones. They love the idea b/c they sell more big ones than small ones. Worked great, now once a year I take most of the hermit crabs out of my propagation tank and trade them in for smaller ones.

 

[hahnmeister]

Hermits are a PITA and not worth their shells in the work they do. They also tend to kill snails. I have converted all but one of my systems to hermitless now and the tanks look the same. Snails alone do a better job on algae and detritus, and dont have to worry about marauding claws killing them if hermits arent around. Besides...what do hermits REALLY do? Not much unless you have alot it seems.

I would get some smaller snails for algae and detritus, and take out the serpent, unless its one of the micro (1-2") ones, it will most likely starve in a tank that small...or start going after other living things. If you can, get some breeding populations of cerith, nassarius, and micro-turbo (colinista) snails going. They are usually always under 1/2" so they cant knock anything over, and do a good job on cleaning.

 

[cmondo]

Thanks hahmeister, i am thinking about getting several stomatella. Prob end up ordering them online.