I need a tank cleaning army

[strayebr]

I have had a 75 gallon tank set up for about 6 months now and I have currently 2 clownfish, 1 flame fin tang, and 1 firefish goby. I also have 1 open brain coral, green mushrooms and a colony of star polyps. I am fairly new at the Marine hobby and I had some questions about good additions to my tank that will help keep my live rock and my substrate clean. I have heard of things like sand sifting gobies and the likes. I just wanted to know what other little critters people are using to help clean up uneaten food and take care of some little alge spots that I have, the alge is not at all out of control, there is just a little bit here and there. Anyy help would be much appreciated.

 

[jda]

Mexican turbo snails. The only downside is that they will knock over corals that are not secured. Make sure that your nitrate and phosphate levels are low enough to keep inverts for a cleanup crew.

 

[strayebr]

My levels for nitrate and ammonia are at 0 and have never really gone up since the initial cycle.

 

[Grouperhead]

Mexican turbos are great...they will mow through a lot of different algaes and even cyano. I love the Cortez hermits that I have. They stay pretty small, don't seem to be aggressive like bluelegs, are hardier than scarlets, and they just do a great job on algae and uneaten food. I'm also a huge fan of nassarius snails for sand bed cleaning.

 

[J's Quiet Reef]

Nerite snails work great for the liverock and glass, I bought 70, but half that would have worked in my 75 gallon. Ccritters.com had them at 5 for $1.25. Although, every once in a while I find one on the floor and have to toss it back in.

Nassarius snails can help a little with the substrate as they burrow to sleep during the day. I've heard that fighting conch's work good for the substrate.

 

[jda]

Get 3 or 4 mexican turbos for your 75 and see how they do with the rock cleanup. Personally, I would rather hit the very top of the substrate with the gravel vacuum during a water change that invest in the extra bio-load to keep it clean - the burrowing snails do an OK job, but not great; whereas the larger sand cleaners will oftentimes starve in smaller systems.

 

[Linkblaze]

Personally, I would keep it small. You said you don't have a big algae problem so don't put a bunch of snails in there that will just die from no food.

Maybe a couple of Ceriths and a few Nassarius; like a dozen of each. I also like Trochus, they cost more but you don't need many; again like around 10. I have nerites too, but it annoys me how they climb up out of the water level...personally I'd not get them again.