Folwr clean up crew?

[Monster00101]

My tank is about to cycle and just wondering what kind of cool cuc there is out there dot the tank. Anybody got something that works well or something to stay away from? I have done a reef before but had to avoid something's because of coral.

 

[jwm2k3]

Sand sifting stars are pretty cool.

 

[Monster00101]

Can I put a sand sifting star in a freshly cycled tank?

 

[jwm2k3]

You dont really need a clean up crew in a freshly cycled tank, theres nothing for them to clean up or feed on. I'd stock the tank with fish then add clean up crew after. Making sure all my fish were quarantined and disease free first. Then bring the crew in. That way there, in case of a disease breakout, you can treat tank. Normally if that happens, your clean up crew and other inverts dont survive. So, Id get it stable and stalked somewhat before a clean up crew. Just my .02$

 

[Monster00101]

That makes sense to me. The only fish I want in this aquarium are clown trigger and powder blue tang. The guy at my lfs told me I need to add a damsel fist or my tank won't b strong enough for either fish. I don't want the trouble of getting it out later. Does this make sense to anyone?

 

[Meshmez]

DONT use a damsel. IME they are a pain in the butt. there are other ways to boost the bio filtration in the tank (i believe adding a piece of raw shrimp and letting it decay? but i may be wrong.) if your tank is fully cycled with live rock, i think adding one fish (that you want to keep) at a time shouldnt be an issue...

 

[Monster00101]

That's kinda what I was thinking. The piece of shrimp has been in there for a couple weeks now and my ammonia has dropped.the place I get fish from quarantine them for me so it's a while to get them.

 

[DoubleM 10]

You dont really need a clean up crew in a freshly cycled tank, theres nothing for them to clean up or feed on. I'd stock the tank with fish then add clean up crew after. Making sure all my fish were quarantined and disease free first. Then bring the crew in. That way there, in case of a disease breakout, you can treat tank. Normally if that happens, your clean up crew and other inverts dont survive. So, Id get it stable and stalked somewhat before a clean up crew. Just my .02$

the touble with introducing the CUC after is that after all the effort of you putting the fish through QT you might introduce something when you add the CUC. the odds of it happen go up everytime you add something to the DT.

IMO you add the CUC first ,and then after QT add the fish. you dont wanna ruin all the hard work you did in the QT.

IMO IME nothing works harder than hermits. Personally i have had no luck with snails. The only snail that has done good for me is the bigger turbo snails. those things are algea monsters. all others are not doing much for me.

sand sifting star fish is not the best idea unless you have a larger system(like 90 gallons or larger) that has been established for some time. they will eat all the good stuff and bad stuff in the sand. once thats done they will die of starvation.

how big is said tank? taht would be very helpfull

 

[Monster00101]

I was thinking more the stuff I couldn't keeP in my reef. I want a star but this tank will b in no way established. Think I will start with a couple hermits after it cycles then go on to the fish a short time after. Anybody ever use the oversized hermits?