Let's talk about CUC and Detrivore Kits

[Rollis]

Hello all.

My 30 gallon reef has been running a little over 2 months now. I have a fairly small cuc consisting of 2 emerald crabs, ~8 hermits, 4 nassarius snails, 2 nerite snails, 1 trochus snail, 2 margarita snails, and a brittle star. As far as I have seen, I don't have much of anything in the way of detrivores. No 'pods, no worms etc. I plan on fixing that with a detrivore kit from Inland Aquatics, as I've read a lot of good things about them. I'll likely be supplementing the kit with spaghetti worms and micro snails as well. I'd like to go for as much biodiversity as possible.

I have read a lot of mixed things about various cuc-type creatures. Cucumbers, shrimp, sally lightfoot crabs, serpent stars, urchins, etc etc...all seem to have mixed reviews.

So I am curious and asking you, more experienced reef keepers for your thoughts on the matter...what makes a good cuc and detrivore crew? Which are your favorite additions, and what are somethings you'd never add again and why? I know there can be a lot of variables with these sorts of things, but I am very curious and don't want to just stumble into making purchases and regret it later.

 

[89Foxbody]

If you have cured liverock in your tank you almost definitely have bristleworms which are great as detrivores. It might take some time for their population to grow though since you've only had the tank up 2 months. The brittle star and snails are all considered detrivores as well. The nassarius snails will burrow into your sand and help keep it stirred and clean, and the nerites and margaritas will mostly patrol the glass and rock work for film algae.

I'd stay away from sally lightfoots. They can become fish aggressive when they are fully grown, just not worth the trouble IMO. Serpent stars are good. Easy to care for and reasonably hardy and long-lived. In a 30g you'll have to supplement their food though with stuff like seaweed salad or algae wafers. They like meaty foods as well like squid.

Blue and Red Leg hermits are great as well. Just stay away from the regular hermit crabs (they are gray in color). They are a pain in the *** as they are always fighting each other and crawling across my corals causing them to close which I find annoying.

My CUC consists of 12-15 Red and Blue Leg hermits, 5-6 Turbo Snails, 1 Nassarius Snail, 3-4 Astrea snails, 1 Margarita Snail, a tiny Brittle Star, 1 Pencil Urchin, and 1 Peppermint Shrimp. Plus a bunch of bristleworms that I see slinking out of the rocks at night. Any time I lose a snail or hermit it's usually gone within 24 hours...so I guess they're doing their job.


Edit - 37 gallon tank.

 

[Slafav]

I'll add in that my serpent sea star and tiger cucumber are some of the greatest additions I've added to my tank and a few peppermint shrimp were the worst. The sea star is great about eating the larger chunks of food the fish leave behind, especially when I had my eel, and the cucumber eats TONS of detritus covered sand and poops it out shiny white. A few of my peppermint shrimp took to prying open Acan heads to steal the mysis from them. They got tossed in the lionfish tank after that.

 

[Rollis]

I really like the look of Royal Urchins, but I've been told all urchins will bulldoze your rockwork. I've read positive things about cucumbers, but the guy at one lfs referred to them as 'nuclear time bombs'. I like my brittle star, but I was told it's a bad idea to have more than 1 in a tank my size. Sand sifting stars will deplete your sandbed and then starve. Serpent Starts will eat your fish. Etc. Etc.

There are so many conflicting opinions on these things all over, it's hard to tell what's for real and what is just biased opinion or just straight up false information sometimes.