Does anyone not use a clean up crew?

[Caragol]

Does anyone not use a clean up crew? In my old tank I always had snails falling helplessly on their backs and hermits fighting eachother despite numerous available shells... I'm tired of them.

So with good water parameters and a magnetic glass cleaner/scraper does anyone just not use a clean up crew other than standard pods, worms, and other hitchhikers?

 

[Caragol]

So does this mean everyone uses a cleanup crew?

 

[risika67]

Nope, I use one

 

[kydsexy]

the problem is the detritus on the ground, around the bottoms of rocks, in the corners, the amount that settles in the sand. u wont find a good amount of space in the ocean without snails or hermits. wink* wink*

 

[Roy G. Biv]

I would say I have a minimal cleanup crew compared to what is recommended by the LFS.

 

[sherm71tank]

I only have snails and starfish for a cleanup crew in my tank.

Oops! I forgot one Sally Lightfoot crab.

 

[SDguy]

I think too many people get WAY too many animals to serve as a cleanup crew. I have about 6 snails (trochus/astreas) and two cleaner shrimp. Peanut worms and amphipods get the rest.

Decide what exactly you want "cleaned up" before you go and buy some large, prepackaged grouping of animals.

 

[kydsexy]

a cleanup crew depends on the owner of the fish tank. 1. how much do you feed? heavily a few times or lightly many times. how long is the light on? snails and hermits are out at all hours. amphipods at night mainly. cleanup crews also eat waste. its hard to have too many snails/hermits but you can have too many shrimp.

 

[MattG]

Im with SDGuy. Most people buy these huge cleanup crews and they starve. Small cleanup crews are usually sufficient.

The only time I've had a personal tank without a cleanup crew was in an aggressive tank. This was because the fish would kill snails/hermits/etc.

When I did aquarium maintenance most of our tanks did not have cleanup crews that we intentionally added. The tanks were filled with worms and pods though that did clean up the tanks.

 

[dendro982]

I had cleanup-crew, nut stopped to buy new crew members to replace the lost ones - I don't see any positive result of their work. Only moving rock and knocking down corals, including super-glued. And the spare shells for hermits are making siphoning difficult.
Doing cleaning by myself.
BB tank.

 

[Sepeku]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10970989#post10970989 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by MattG
Im with SDGuy. Most people buy these huge cleanup crews and they starve. Small cleanup crews are usually sufficient.

The only time I've had a personal tank without a cleanup crew was in an aggressive tank. This was because the fish would kill snails/hermits/etc.

When I did aquarium maintenance most of our tanks did not have cleanup crews that we intentionally added. The tanks were filled with worms and pods though that did clean up the tanks.

I tend to agree. Purposely introducing a crew is fine, particularly in the beginning. But a mature tank tends to be able to handle the detrius issues by itself through small brittle star and pod populations.

 

[Tpareefer]

I agree with everyone as well. I would say a 'small' cleanup crew is best.

I always had a clean up crew but like you, I got tired of the yearly restocking b/c of the inevitable fighting / killing of my crew. So I decided not to have one last year and I noticed a big difference after several months. Maybe it was me slacking in keeping up with the extra husbandry that comes from no clean up crew but I eventually started to battle, for the first time, nitrates and algae issues that just seemed to never go away. So in went the clean up crew again last week and what a difference in just a few weeks. I forgot how much easier it is to keep the glass clean without snails. Snails completely took care of any film algae I had in tank and back glass. If anything, skip the predatory, opportunistic crabs and just get a good variety of snails. I like crabs, so I accept going in that I will have some level of predation and loss. No way around it with crabs of any type.

I will always use a crew from now on...it does make a difference!
:smokin:

 

[Caragol]

That's sort of what I was thinking. My older tank pretty much had the cleanup crew die off after a couple years and I never replaced it, yet I never had algae or real nitrate problems. I did have a brittle star explosion which, frankly was the coolest thing that ever happened to that tank. But this tank doesn't have much of a natural population of pods and misc critters. Just some that I've been introducing from my other tanks. So, maybe I'll start with a handful of snails. Thanks all!

 

[GoingPostal]

I have two hermits in my 12 gallon, one hitchhiked in and I had a stometella snail but he hitchhiked out.

In my 33 gallon I added snails and hermits a few years ago, maybe have four of each left plus some nass.

 

[kysard1]

I think you only need scavengers like shrimp and a few hermits.
If you have bubble algae emerals are also very beneficial.

Snails are worthless in my opinion. I have never seen any amount of snails reduce glass scraping frequency. They mow the tops but don't remove it completly.

 

[Caragol]

No bubble algae yet, but I'm sure it will show up in time. I assume most pests are difficult to avoid entirely as long as you're trading frags. All you can do is dip and hope, then control if it becomes a problem.

I hate hermits because the second a snail falls it's toast. But maybe without snails, the hermits aren't such a pain. I've got peppermint shrimp, but I wasn't counting them. I've been seeding pods from another tank, waiting for them to take off. I'm asking around about mini brittle stars to see if anyone local has some to give me.

I have brittle worms in another tank but haven't added them yet. People seem to go both ways on if they like them or not. I haven't had a problem yet so I may just add them. Also stomatellas, maybe I'll let them in too.

So now I'm thinking no snails, but add the stomatellas, brittle worms, brittle stars, let the pod population take off. Then that leaves me with a couple of emeralds and what type of hermit? Blue leg? I'll have enough eating leftover fish food, algae control is more what I'm after.

 

[Caragol]

And maybe some limpets and colonistas... I've got those around too.

 

[justinl]

in my 8gal reef i have a mantis so my CUC options were limited. other than the usual hitchers, my CUC consists of a single surviving turbo snail and a magfloat. i keep to my weekly-biweekly water changes, dont overfeed, and increased my water flow. that's really all i need to keep my tank clean.

i think with a small CUC, it sort of forces the aquarist to be diligent. with a large CUC, the aquarist gets the mindset that says "i can afford to be lazy and let the CUC deal with the crap," which imo is a dangerous mindset in this hobby.

 

[db_triggerfish]

Me too, only a very small clean up crew. They don't remove the coraline off the glass.

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

I have a small CUC because I like the diversity, and having different animals in the tank. But they dont help much. My flow doesnt let any food or detritus settle to the bottom. And even if your snails east some algae off the glass, they only eat little trails in it, and you stil ave to clean it just as often. I say get a small CUC because you actually want the animals, not because you think you have to have one.