When do I add the cleaning crew?

[joeyfromlawrenceville]

I have one snail and 2 emerald crabs from months ago in my FOLR 37, just now converted to sand bottom and I know I need a sand sifting cleaning crew, but there is very little algae on the LR, none on the sand yet, when do I add the bottom cleaning crabs? And ,looking at online sites it says I need dozens of crabs and snails for this size tank... is that right? or will they starve?

A little insight of cleaners would be helpful, thanks


PS: my wife looks over my shoulder and says I give WAY too much information when I post a question, from here forward I am sorry that I ramble on, it is just my salesman like nature.

 

[melosu58]

I personally dont think you give too much info. The more you give the better we can understand what`s going on. I do agree that you should hold off on alot of crabs since you just changed the substrate. You dont want them to starve to death. As you need more you can increase as needed.

 

[joeyfromlawrenceville]

About the number of crabs -I must be learning a lot from you , that is kind of what I thought too.

I do not like the look of fish turds sitting on the bottom in a corner. Is this what the crabs pick through and sift, or should I reposition the korilia to move water lower in the tank forcing the turds to swirl around a bit? ( not sure I can get every corner though) Just looks funny with a corner full of turds on clean white sand
(That corner is kind of like a porta john for the fish)

 

[melosu58]

(That corner is kind of like a porta john for the fish)

OK now you are giving too much information. LOL. Yes crabs, snails, stars and other clean up crew members will take care of that.

 

[joeyfromlawrenceville]

Cool..... thanks.

 

[Justin_Toronto]

Also sounds like the corner is a 'dead spot' where there isn't much water movement, might be a good idea to reposition that korallia too.

 

[joeyfromlawrenceville]

Yes, I'm sure your right about the dead spot. I will have to experiment a bit with the positions of my Korilia and power head. I think I have tons of flow in this tank, 2 surface agitators ( HOT magnum w/ no media, and Bio wheel w/noodles and occasional floss ) and 2 corner power heads's pointed toward the lower middle. Just gotta get it all pointed right.

 

[roka64]

Get some nassi snails. I'm not a huge fan of hermits or many other crabs. I tend to add more snails and keep a few hermits (3 in a 55). Nassis hang out under the sand with their little "eye stalk" sticking up out of the sand. Your 6 year old will love it to see them POP up out of the sand when you feed the tank!

 

[joeyfromlawrenceville]

I think we may have one in there already, we have a bumble bee with a snorkel, I'll have to see if that is what your talking about.
Are the snails actually eating the fish waste or just breaking it into fine particles. If I don't use any mechanical filtration, how does it finally exit the system?
thanks,

 

[ryshark]

The turds etc breakdown into detritus and the cleanup crew will eat that. As Roka said the Nassarius snails are good to have and cool to watch. I agree about repositioning the powerheads to eliminate that dead spot. Those dead spots are not good. When my fish take a poo it goes flying everywhere. I try to keep the poo suspended in the water column until it goes down the overflow to the skimmer. Do you have a protein skimmer?

 

[joeyfromlawrenceville]

I do not have a skimmer, I have considered putting a H O T type being I have no sump. I have used a Skilter brand years and years ago on a 29 and seemed to work well back then. I do weekly 15% PWC religiously and will siphon out any detritus I see. I have been able to keep nitrates at 10ppm with the PWC. I have mixed feelings about protiem skimmers, from what I have read they remove good minerals as well as disolved protiens. I might have to read a bit more about this.
I will back down to 10 % PWC after I am convinced my crush coral to sand bottom conversion is long gone and tank is very well established with some algae growing.

 

[CluelessInNY]

Adding a question:

I had about 12 snails and two hermits all of which died except for one mexican snail, which lives and moves about quite well. The hermits got pretty huge while in my tank but died within three weeks of each other. Does this sound like starvation? They had gotten huge while I was using Mysis to feed my tank...then I stopped and started using the flakes again (my fridge broke down and the Mysis all melted) Within two weeks of that, the first hermit died.
20 gallon
12 lbs LR
Percula Clown, Firefish, Watchman Goby (all thriving)
water chemical parameters all w/i range

Thanks!