top 10 clean up crew???

[rusty scupper]

question, whats the top 10 best animals to keep the tank clean, i have some already, but really have been looking into a few cleaner shrimp. a tv show said they where really good and thorough. also what eats algea like hair algea? i have a 72 bow front.

what i currently have:

scarlet crabs (2)
green ocean crab (1)
blue legged hermits (6)
turbo snails (2)
sand sifting star (1)
mirco stars (tons!)
sea urchin(1, do they clean anything?)

i have had peppermint shrimp but they die, i heard my clown or yellow tail damsel might have killed them? i wonder about the sand sifting bleny(goby?) i had one but it died, looked like it starved to death. anything i should definetly have or any fish that pick the rocks clean and are omnivores? thanks.

rusty scupper

 

[demonsp]

I just got rid of my coraline stealing long spine urchine. Just to big for my 75 gal I had 1 year and he eat everything from nori , brine ,shrimp , coraline but never touched the green hair algea.

Most stars do good job cleaning any area its in but they stay in that area awile not doing much for rest of the tank.

My sand bed cleaner is my diamond goby. My best investment. Sifts through the sand all day , throws junk in a cave . If i move a frag he comes right away cleaing where the frag was . Very cool fish.

Im looking into the sea hair in a group of 4. Another slime covered trash can.

Good flow and water changes also a great help. GL

 

[SALT WATER CRAZ]

Well it kinda maters what you are looking to clean up. I like Nassarius Snails thay are great sand stirrers and scavenger for a sand bed. Thay wont do good in c.c. though. I also like mex. turbo snails but thay nock over stuff.

I am not a fan of crabs thay will eat your snails.

 

[romunov]

Turbo snails are good for eating diatom films off of hard surfaces. Sea urchins are herbivores. Diadema species will eat also eat hair algae, while the short spined Mespilia will tend to much on coralline algae. Nassarius snails are carrion eaters and won't do much for any algae problems - they will dig up the sand bed looking for meat, though. Sand sifting stars are micro fauna predators, which means they hunt and eat animals living in the sand bed. Once they deplete that, they starve to death. Enough has been said about hermit crabs. They're not clean up crew, they're IRS.

Your best choice for cleaning up detritus and leftover food are polychaete worms (bristle worms), cerith snails and the like. Ron Shimek wrote extensively on this subject in www.reefkeeping.com. Some reading might not hurt. No guarantees, though.

 

[demonsp]

Turbo snails are good for knocking things over and from experiance i would have to say with out a dought a longspine urchine will eat frozen food like brine and coraline.

Dont get me wrong ,romunov gave great advice , im just speaking from my experiance with those.

 

[ChrisKil]

What are those turbos knocking over? I have two in my tank.

 

[demonsp]

My Taro but it was smaller. Also dont like mounting coral at first. I like moving around a few times to find good placement and ive lost a few while doing this. I do think that a few turbos in my tank are worth the small inconviance.