how many snails?

[Nabob89]

How many snails/what type should I get for my 55-gallon reef tank? I will be having a shallow sand bed (about 1.5-2 in deep).....i was thinking of getting some turbos (10?).....banded trochus (8?)....Nassarius (4?)....and any other ones I would need to keep my tank clean....

 

[stewymaroon]

Not many, I have a thirty gallon with 4 turbos and they prety much do the job. But I also have like 40 blue legged hermits in there also.

 

[Nabob89]

I'm not going to have any crabs in the tank....so I'll just get more snails to make up for that i guess.....

 

[bertoni]

That number of Nassarius vibex sounds reasonable. I'd cut the other numbers in half for starters. Too many snails and they starve to death.

 

[Alaskan Reefer]

Depending on how clean you keep the water, I'd go minimalist first as suggested by bertoni. Also add ceriths in quantity -- best all purpose snail IMO.

 

[hopkisag1]

agreed not that many

 

[Amphiprion]

Since Nassid snails are either carrion eaters (meaty foods, decaying meaty foods) or predators, they will not do much except eat leftovers--but they are very good at it. Ceriths would be a good choice as far as keeping the sand cleaned and minimizing detritus. Worms and the like are very good at this, also. I agree about starting with smaller numbers.

 

[bjonesjr1]

I only have 2 mexican turbo snails, 3 sand sifting snails, 7 astrea turbo snails, in my 55 gallon tank and they do fine... But I also have 10 blue legged hermit crabs, you did say that you didn't want any crabs right...