CUC for Coral Reef Tanks
- Thread starter rldcpa
- Start date
Newbie Aquarist
Reefing is my middle name
1. Red Trochus, Nerite, Cernith, Margaritas.
2. Dwarf blue legs and Mexican red legs
3. Blood Shrimp, and Skunk Cleaner.
2. Dwarf blue legs and Mexican red legs
3. Blood Shrimp, and Skunk Cleaner.
petere1989
New member
I have the red legged crabs. they don't do anything to the coral. they just eat the junk on the bottom. I also got some snails and a sea urchin.
sfsuphysics
Active member
1: "Turbo" snails mostly are my advice, nassarius if you have a sand bed as they'll burrow and when you feed their proboscis(?) will come up like a submarine's scope and then go searching for food. If you have a 245g tank, get the amount recommended for a 25-30g tank the amount of "cleaning" does not increase linearly with size (and they oversize the "recommended" amount too), and your snails wont starve to death if you buy less.
2: None, if you want crabs to have crabs great, not necessary for clean up, if you feed that much food that it settles on the bottom you're feeding too much.
3: Shrimp don't clean up, except in the way crabs do, so treat them like crabs get them if you want shrimp but not for a clean up crew. IF you spot feed LPS they will yank the food out of them.
If you're going with a sandbed, a cucumber or two might be nice, it's fun watching them eat dirty sand and poop out clean sand, but again don't go by what is "recommended", I literally would cut that down by a factor of 10
2: None, if you want crabs to have crabs great, not necessary for clean up, if you feed that much food that it settles on the bottom you're feeding too much.
3: Shrimp don't clean up, except in the way crabs do, so treat them like crabs get them if you want shrimp but not for a clean up crew. IF you spot feed LPS they will yank the food out of them.
If you're going with a sandbed, a cucumber or two might be nice, it's fun watching them eat dirty sand and poop out clean sand, but again don't go by what is "recommended", I literally would cut that down by a factor of 10
sfsuphysics
Active member
A quick look a few sites and what they recommend for my 180g tank
One recommends 348 snails (different types0 for a snail only crew, add 40 hermits if I want hermit crew. Another site says 150 hermits (different types), 6 Emerald crabs (useless), 200 snails of various types. So yeah it's pretty laughable to what the "recommended" numbers are. I think in my 180g tank I have something like 8 turbo snails and that's it. Unless I can find something that will eat coraline algae off of acrylic walls I don't need anything more
Granted I have a rather low fish load for a tank that size, but even if I had 5 times as many fish I might at most double the snail count and even then only if I felt it necessary. You will still need to clean the glass nothing will do such a good job that you won't see any diatoms or algae, so don't overload the system by adding what are soon to be dead and rotting bodies.
One recommends 348 snails (different types0 for a snail only crew, add 40 hermits if I want hermit crew. Another site says 150 hermits (different types), 6 Emerald crabs (useless), 200 snails of various types. So yeah it's pretty laughable to what the "recommended" numbers are. I think in my 180g tank I have something like 8 turbo snails and that's it. Unless I can find something that will eat coraline algae off of acrylic walls I don't need anything more
Granted I have a rather low fish load for a tank that size, but even if I had 5 times as many fish I might at most double the snail count and even then only if I felt it necessary. You will still need to clean the glass nothing will do such a good job that you won't see any diatoms or algae, so don't overload the system by adding what are soon to be dead and rotting bodies.
Vlado4x4
New member
I have a 260G mix reef and i have as follows:
1. 20 nassarius snail and 3 mexican turbo snails (huge look like golf balls)
2. Only 1 blue leg hermit
3. 2 pepermint, 2 blood shrimp and 3 skunk
And i also have a medium size sea urchin
It all depends on what do you want them for ??? Alage ? Detritus ? Left over food ? Sand sifting ? etc etc etc
1. 20 nassarius snail and 3 mexican turbo snails (huge look like golf balls)
2. Only 1 blue leg hermit
3. 2 pepermint, 2 blood shrimp and 3 skunk
And i also have a medium size sea urchin
It all depends on what do you want them for ??? Alage ? Detritus ? Left over food ? Sand sifting ? etc etc etc
ridetheducati
20 and Over Club
Also depends on what phase the tank is in. Startup (1-6 months), Operational (6-12 months), or maintenance (12+ months). Startup requires more CUC to deal with the varies algae phases, and the maintenance phase requires a few addtitions to replenish any loses.
rldcpa
New member
So what do I want from a CUC?
1. No poisons into the tank from cucumbers etc if something goes wrong with them.
2. No infestation meaning I don't want anything that can multiply. I hated snail infestation with fresh water tanks and certainly don't want an infestation with a marine tank.
3. I would get a couple of shrip, not so much for CUC but becasue I like them.
To be honest, if its a choice, I don't want any snails. I might want a few crabs if I new they would be peaceful to small fish, shrimp and to corals. Otherwise skip crabs too.
So, are there any issues if you have no snails? I like gobies and gobies are good at cleaning gravel but not glass. An as you say if the snails really can't clean the glass and you have to clean it anyway, what is the point.
So do any of you have no snails?
1. No poisons into the tank from cucumbers etc if something goes wrong with them.
2. No infestation meaning I don't want anything that can multiply. I hated snail infestation with fresh water tanks and certainly don't want an infestation with a marine tank.
3. I would get a couple of shrip, not so much for CUC but becasue I like them.
To be honest, if its a choice, I don't want any snails. I might want a few crabs if I new they would be peaceful to small fish, shrimp and to corals. Otherwise skip crabs too.
So, are there any issues if you have no snails? I like gobies and gobies are good at cleaning gravel but not glass. An as you say if the snails really can't clean the glass and you have to clean it anyway, what is the point.
So do any of you have no snails?
