cleanup crew suggestions

[chase33]

My tank is in the cycling stage and I expect to house corals of all types.
Considering I want to have a blood shrimp I'm looking for recommendations on the following:

- When can I add a cleanup crew?

- Which inverts should be included?

- How many of each?

 

[Devilishturtles]

Add the clean up crew when your cycle is 100% completed, and not before. Inverts don't like ammonia.

I just ordered from etropicals.com and the Build-Your-Own (BYO) cleanup crew package. If you order over $60 they don't charge to ship. Check them out.

I like astrea snails, they love to eat on the rocks and the glass, and not to mention they'll munch at cyano, which is always a plus. I'd get atleast 40-50 for your 120.

Cerith snails are a nice addition, they like to dig a little in the sand and also the glass/rocks. Maybe like 20 of them.

Nassarius snails are sand burrowers, and will do a good job sifting your sandbed. I'd say atleast 10 if not more

I dislike hermits, and IMO snails can do just as good a job as they can.

Those are just some suggestions.

 

[roka64]

Those sound good to me. Maybe a fighting conch, sand star or some other sand sifting star, pistol shrimps are awesome, just make sure your rock is firmly stacked and on the bottom glass of your tank.

 

[melosu58]

All the suggestions are good ones but since the tank is brand new I would at least wait several months on the sand sifting star or any sand sifter since they need a mature sand bed. New sand beds dont have the required fauna in them to feed these stars.

 

[roka64]

Thanks for the reminder, Mike!

 

[MT79]

I'd avoid a sand sifting star period if you have a LS bed and want to keep it that way. They will consume the benficial fauna. They are generally not recommended for reef tanks for this reason. Sand stirrers are a better choice- nassarius snalis, conchs, etc. A serpent star is a great addition to a clean up crew.

 

[chase33]

I'll look at etropicals. Other then them, any other suggestions on where to purchase?

 

[roka64]

I'd avoid a sand sifting star period if you have a LS bed and want to keep it that way.

Hmmm, that's interesting, what about having a DSB? Would that help, or is there really no point in getting one at all (sand star)? Just curious, as I have only seen one at my LFS and don't know too much about them.
Chase, I like liveaquaria.com and saltwaterfish.com, thatfishplace.com (they are in Pa, so shipping to this area is pretty quick and cheap.

 

[austinsdad]

I've never had luck with the most mature sand bed and sand sifting stars. Sooner or later they just seem to literally melt away after a while.

Had one guy I knew that had'm breed. Baby stars all over the place. That was the ONLY exception I ever heard of.

 

[roka64]

Cool, thanks for the personal experience.

 

[Devilishturtles]

I just bought my first starfish last week, a Serpent star. Very comical little thing, and they will eat the detritus in your rocks, waste, etc. Seems quite hardy too. I've always been afraid to try sand sifting stars, because of the aforementioned lack of food/them starving to death, etc.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

While I love the little nassarius snails, the larger size nassarius snails (think drsfostersmith call them "Super-Tongan") are absolutely awesome. I added one to my tank a couple months back and he does an absolutely bang up job keeping the sand bed stirred up. Once I get back to that LFS that has them, I'm going to add 4-5 more. If you have semi-deep sand bed (and if I remember your pictures correctly, you do) I'd strongly recommend several! Those, trochus, and astreas are wonderful little creatures in my opinion. And if I had it to do over again, I would've only added one or two crabs, just for variety - not the 10 or so I started with.

 

[roka64]

I agree Kurt. The osuper Tongans are just from a different part of the ocean. The supers get a little bigger. The astreas, you kind of have to watch, since they get overturned and can't upright themselves and can become a nice snak.