Purpose of cuc

[JMorris271]

I have been a casual student of this forum for about 2 yrs and have seen different purposes for adding a cuc into the tank at the end of a cycle. Which is it please?
Is it to eat the algae and poop like crazy to feed the bio growth? But I also see to wait till the tank has enough algae growing to feed the cuc or it will die.. If their purpose is to crap like the dickens to help increase the bio population, why not just feed them nori and let them void like crazy regardless of algae growth?
Thanks.

 

[jrr98002]

Your CUC will have a negligible impact on your bioload. Inverts don't really have the impact like fish do. Your CUC's purpose is to eat the algae that comes with a cycle and during normal tank operations, not really anything to do with bioload.

 

[Dkuhlmann]

Actually the cuc's purpose is to eat excess food and dietrus, eating algae is secondary.

 

[PatW]

The clean up crew has several functions. One is eating left over food and converting it to poop that can be removed by skimming or filter socks.

The second purpose is to devour fish that die that you don't remove because you did not find them. The fish end up as poop which can be exported.

The third purpose is to stir the sand bed keeping it from becoming a nutrient sink.

The fourth is to clean algae off the glass partially for esthetic purposes.

The fifth is to devour unsightly nuisance algae from rock and sand.

The problem that aquariums have is nutrients. We add nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorous when we feed the fish. If the nutrients build up, the tank will become a toxic mess of bacteria and algae depleting the oxygen and killing the fish. Of course, rampant algal growth will just make the tank unsightly long before the system collapses.

The thing is, you need to be able to export the nutrients you add to keep the system healthy and stable. The clean up crew eats the stuff that has locked in nutrients. The CUC poops the stuff out in a form that can be exported by various means.

Also, the creatures of the CUC can be interesting in their own right.

 

[Frantz]

Anything that moves dirt from the glass to the water column where it can be filtered and skimmed is a winner in my book! Plus what isn't turned to waste goes to the animals growth.

 

[Psychomantix]

I believe your tank will cycle just fine regardless of if or when you add a CUC. And your tank will go through many other algae and cyano bloom cycles throughout its lifetime. Also, if you ghost feed, your CUC will not die even without any algae during your cycle.

 

[JMorris271]

I believe your tank will cycle just fine regardless of if or when you add a CUC. And your tank will go through many other algae and cyano bloom cycles throughout its lifetime. Also, if you ghost feed, your CUC will not die even without any algae during your cycle.

I have been lead to believe that the cuc is not put in the system until after the cycle is complete and before the fish and others go in as to deposit a food source for other sand sifters. I don't have a clue about this being true or not so that's why I was asking.
Thanks.