Is a "clean up crew" necessary?

[RyanH]

My 90g sps tank currently has one turbo snail and one hermit crab. There are a couple stomatella (sp?) snails, but that's about it. My tank is BB.

I have 2 anthias, a fox face, a midas blenny, 2 red head gobies, a yellow watchman goby and a golden angel.

I change 15g about every 3 weeks, have a Deltec APF600 skimmer, run a little bit of carbon and rowaphos passively in the sump.

I have 3 very small (dime to nickel size) patches of green hair algae (that is what inspired the rowaphos), but that's it.

My question: do i really need to add a bunch of astreas, ceriths and hermits?

 

[JR719]

Need a bunch? Not really... Here is something to think about though. All your live rock has nice little areas for stuff to collect and grow. When you add your "cleanup crew" they do a pretty good job of getting into those places and ridding your tank of junk.
Your tank will prob do fine, but maybe start getting alot of algae or other crud depositing. You can blow off the junk with a powerhead but the algae, well, hard to get out of the little areas. I forgot who said it on here, but, unless people look at your tank and comment on the vast amount of snails you have, you don't have enough.

 

[G-money]

I'd say it's indespensible. They can get at stuff and process things that other animals can't and won't. Their excrement is very easily skimmed as well, provided you can get it to the skimmer.

IMO, don't slack on this, because by the time you see the signs of insufficient cleanup crew (algae), you're battle is only going to get worse...

 

[RyanH]

I tend to agree that a clean up crew is helpful and certainly doesn't hurt. That being settled, what do you guys recommend?

Astreas? ceriths? hermits?

 

[sfsuphysics]

Depending upon the bioload, that translates to how much you feed your fish/corals, will dictate how much of a cleanup crew you really need. Now that being said the clean-up crews you see being sold on various sites as the "recommended" ones for any particular sized tanks tend to be WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY over stocked. If you have the means (ie good LFS) i'd be clean up crew as their needed rather than get a bunch all at once to take care of all future problems, why you ask? Simple starvation, if your tank isn't that dirty buying 500 snails will end up having 100 snails after a few months due to the rest starving, then their deaths will dirty up the tank and now you won't have enough snails to handle the cleaning.

What to recommend? well depends upon your setup. Turbos (real ones) are nice, but they do have a tendancy to knock down smaller things. Have a sand bed? Then you might want something that sifts the sand about (whether it be a cucumber, nassrius snails, fighting conch, etc). Do you feed lots of meaty type foods? Ie leftovers? Then maybe hermits (but they are known to not care if the meat comes from fish food or snails), brittle stars are nice for eatting meaty food as well but some like fish as well. So look at the big picture and let that dictate what "clean up" critters you get.

As to the hair algae, you're on the right track with nutrient control, if you can pinch off the stuff and manually remove it, or if its a glass tank and on the glass, a razor blade is good (all with pumps turned off is helpful). And then just keep ontop of nutrient issues.

 

[javajaws]

I'm surprised your foxface doesn't eat your algae up...I thought they had voracious appetites? Do you keep some nori out for him?

As for a cleanup crew...I actually just placed an order at reeftopia (they have most of what you'll need for great prices). I think variety is the key...I ordered a bunch of astreas, some ceriths, and a dozen nassarious.

I find the astreas don't have a problem righting themselves on a BB. If you have a sandbed you may want to get some trochus instead...

 

[SeanT]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6492993#post6492993 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by RyanH
I tend to agree that a clean up crew is helpful and certainly doesn't hurt. That being settled, what do you guys recommend?

Astreas? ceriths? hermits?

Read my sig line.

 

[G-money]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6495081#post6495081 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by javajaws
I find the astreas don't have a problem righting themselves on a BB.

Yep - that's a definite BB plus. Astreas and ceriths can both right themselves without sand interfering.

 

[SuperNerd]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6495715#post6495715 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by SeanT
-Astreas are great at harvesting algae.
-Ceriths are great at harvesting other algae - and - astrea poop.
-Ceriths will make the astrea poop easier for you to harvest with a skimmer.

How do ceriths make the astrea poop easier?

 

[G-money]

:lol: