New tank...can I get all the snails and crabs?

[DreadCapn]

Ok, not quite ALL the snails and crabs, just a lot of them! I'm cycling my first reef tank now, but I'm doing full quarantines of fish so it will be forever before fish are in the tank. In the meantime, I thought it would be nice to have a big diversity of inverts to add some life to the tank. Is this plan ok, or am I insane?

The setting:
A newly cycled 92 gallon bowfront, closed ecosystem - dry pukani rock, introducing as little unintentional life as possible. 2"-ish sandbed.

The plan:
Get the below list of snails and crabs while feeding the tank algae sheets, pellets, and occasional meaty food. Add 5280 Pods and feed a small amount of phyto as well.

1 Tiger Sand Conch
1 Spider Conch

2 Spiny Star Snail
2 Zebra Turbo Snails
1 Mexican Turbo Snail
6 Cerith Snails
6 Nerite Snails
12 Trochus Snails

1 Spotted Porcelain Crab
1 Green Emerald Crab
1 Pom Pom Crab

10 Blue Leg Hermit Crabs
10 Dwarf Red Leg Reef Hermit Crab
6 Hawaiian Zebra Hermit Crab

I have also thought about adding a serpent/brittle star.

I don't see why this wouldn't work, but I haven't seen another list like this, so I'm scared I'm missing something. Any feedback with the plan would be appreciated.

I'm sure some will say "But Capn, where are your bristle worms, they're GREAT!" and I'm sure that they are. But the giant bristleworm videos are just...no, no thank you. :lol2:

 

[Reefpuck]

Can't necessarily speak for all the inverts you want to add, but I just started my 90g a few weeks ago, and added a cleaner shrimp, 5 hermits and 2 cerith snails (even before I got my first fish). I just feed them pellets daily...since my tank is completely base rock at the moment and there isn't any algae/pods/etc to munch on.

 

[Reefpuck]

But why not just start with a few hermits/snails and go from there?

 

[RedGabino]

The problem is that snails AND crabs used to fight, and crabs and crabs todo.

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[Fiver]

I think we tend to overestimate the number of inverts our tanks can support. Sure, they may last a long time before dying, but they're likely slowly starving/killing each other the whole time.

I'd start with a third the number of inverts you and see how that works for a year or two. I started with two dozen(?) hermits two years ago and am down to five, which seems to be the right number.