clean up crew

[OceanMist]

how many clean up critters are recommended for an 85 gallon tank (which will likely soon become reef)?, would 50 astrea's and 50 dwarf blue leg's be okay?

[austinsdad]

Depends on how old the tank is. Often the recommended "crew" is for an established tank, whereas that amount in a new tank may mean some of the crew starves since there isn't sufficient algae or other food sources yet.

Hold old is the tank? How much rock? And what critters are in it? Maybe update your info while you're at it.

That 50 & 50 might be alright, just maybe not this soon.

[roka64]

That's a lot of hermits (I'm not a huge fan of hermits, but they serve their purpose). If you go that route, make sure you have spare shells in the tank for them to move into, as they grow.

[OceanMist]

The tank is nearly three weeks old now, so not very established yet, I've tested the water, no nitrites and very low nitrates so I added a couple of percula clowns the other day which are doing great, there is 41kg fiji live and at least the same amount of ocean base rock in there,

I'm not mad on hermits too much either, but I can get a fairly good deal on a 50/50 hermit/snail package, would it be worth finding out if I can get somthing like a 70/30 mix instead? or is too early to add this much yet?

[roka64]

It might be a little early for that many of them. They might starve, due to the lack of food....but that is a rather large tank.....I'll let others add their input.