Clean up crew

[lauren_88]

I have a RR94. What would be a good cuc? I currently have 3 red hermits and one turbo snail. I run rowaphos but I'm still getting lots of algae on the glass. I'm not over feeding and only having lights on for 7-8 hours a day. I also feel that as well as something to help clean the glass I could do with something to sift the sand. I have a goby but he only moves the sand around his cave so I think I may need something for the rest of the sand bed. How many snails could I fit in a RR94? I have a few tiny hitchhiker snails but they don't really seem to do much.

Thanks for any advice
Lauren

[tlkng1]

...can you translate for the yanks here? What is the water capacity of an RR94?

Nassarius snails are good for the sand bed. As for the algae on the glass, Ceriths and Nerites will do a good job.

To give you an idea on number, in my 14G I have 4 Nerites, 15 Ceriths and 3 Nassarius. I also have 1 scarlet legged hermit and 6 Blue leg hermits. If you want to take a look at their cleaning , I have pics up on my thread in Nano Reefs under 14G Biocube Reset.

[lauren_88]

Wow that seems a lot. My tank is about 20 gallons. I was always led to believe I couldn't have many snails as they would starve if there are too many. But I seriously need something I'm cleaning the glass every other day and my corals don't appreciate me messing in the water lol

[tlkng1]

If you have liverock the rock itself provides quite a bit of food. I also add a small amount of dried algae if I notice the CUC is doing too good of a job.

I don't even see the Nassarius snails until I feed the tank and then they "erupt" out of the sand bed

[joy13]

I don't know if this is a reef tank or not but if it is keep your glass clean because the small bits of algae is what a lot of them eat. I try to keep my glass as clean a possible so the clean up crew keeps the sand and the rocks clean.

[lauren_88]

Hi

Yes it is a reef tank. My hermits do a good job with the rocks and I only have 1 turbo snail which mostly cleans the rocks and goes onto the glass rarely. I'm having to clean the glass all the time and it's not easy with the LR being close to the back glass and some of my mushrooms being near the front glass. They tend to sulk for ages after I've cleaned the glass and I just wanted to know if I can have more snails to try to keep on top of the glass algae and also sand sifting snails to turn over the sand.

[joy13]

I have 4 sw reef tanks I clean the glass once a day on all of them with a magna float then when I do a water change I scrape them with a razor blade, It only takes about 10 minutes a day the back glass I don't worry about since all of them is growing coraline algae on them.

[lauren_88]

Mine is getting coraline algae on the back as well. I just never thought it was good to always be putting my hands into the water.

I'm going to get a few more snails to help keep the algae down I can't get to (in-between rocks and glass where it's too small a gap to get to without moving the rocks)