Whats a cleaning crew?

[mhhauser]

So I have heard lots of ppl mention, having a clean up crew in their tank.

From what i can guess, its a bunch of crabs and maybe inverts that are used to eat all the extra food in the tank.

Can anyone enlighten me.

 

[TekCat]

Cleaning crew is a collection of snails, crabs, shrimp, etc... that help you to have your tank clean of micro algae, diatoms, cyano, detrius, food leftovers.

 

[poppin_fresh]

Yep...TekCat is right on. A clean up crew is anything living in your tank that makes your life easier.

 

[Kazz]

Just to add to that.....a clean up crew are a pretty important part of the tank & as such nobody should consider setting up a tank without them IMO.

 

[wrano]

Just curious what would be optimal for your cleanup crew and how long should your tank be up before adding them.

 

[Anthony Clay]

a lunar wrasse , peppermint shrimp, turbo snails make sure not to ver do on sanils to many and they will keep the tank to clean- no food dead snails

 

[TekCat]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6570955#post6570955 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by wrano
Just curious what would be optimal for your cleanup crew and how long should your tank be up before adding them.

selecting crew depends on what you're planning to have in your tank. For example if you have sand bed, then you probably benefit from nassarius snails, bristleworms, etc... There are also consideration on what lifestock will you have, but I am far from an expert on that subject.

Usually you can add small cleanup crew after you tank had cycled and ammonia/nitrite stayed at ZERO for at least a week or two. When you get more algae usually after the cycle you can add more cleaners. Don't over do it, as Anthony Clay said, if you add lots of herbivore snails but your tank have very little algae growing, then snails starve to death.

Good luck

 

[mhhauser]

thanks for the resopneses who sell clean up crews.

 

[Ti]

your local fish store

 

[Kazz]

There are quite a few online stores that also sell clean-up crew packages.