Help with cleanup crew selection

[havefun]

I have a 75g tank that has been cycling since last Sunday. I know I have some time yet but have been trying to figure out what to get for a cleanup crew. At first it will be FO but in the future I intend on adding some lr.
I've looked at some of the package's that the online places have but for a 75g it looks like I need to spend $150+. Is that really necessary? I'd like to stick to around $80 or less.
Any help you can give me would be great - whether it's individual types of snails, crabs etc to make sure I have or if it's a recommended package.

Thanks

 

[seaham358]

I would spend some money on LR.... With no LR I would only get a few crabs and snails to start. You don't want to dump alot of critters into a new tank becasue there is not much for them to eat.

 

[Biotoper]

Do you have a live sand bed? Are you using a trickle filter for now, and then planning to go FOWLR? Personally, I'd add LR now. To keep it cheap, you can go 50/50 dead/live rock or more, use uncured, etc.

I think the online stores often recommend a lot more clean-up crew individuals per gallon than you really need. And if you don't have a DSB, many species included like sand-sifting starfish and cucumbers are not a good idea (and may be a bad idea even with a DSB). As seaham said, a few small snails and small hermit crabs would be a good start.

Hope that helps, Ryan

 

[Phyl]

www.liverocks.com has great live rock at a fraction of what you'd pay in a LFS for it. My LFS charges 8$/pound v. the 5$/pound delivered to your doorstep from LR.com. Good stuff too. Teaming with stars, crabs, worms, coraline, etc. Get that and you won't need a cleanup crew right away

I'd personally go for the LR now and hold off on the crew. They aren't needed for a while anyway. You could do 80% base rock (2$/#) and 20% keys rock. That would be a great mix of rock and in no time your base rock will be just as good looking as your live rock.

 

[havefun]

Thanks for the info.

I have about a 4 in sand bed (not live (yet)). I've added 30# of hirocks.com base rock and somewhere around 40# of lfs base rock.
I would love to get some lr.com rock but I'm already over budget on this (according to my wife Would it be worth it to get $100 worth of lr.com rock now or wait till I have more to spend? If I could do that instead of getting a cleanup crew she may not complain too much And if I'm getting it mainly for cleanup should I go with keys or gulf or doesn't it matter?

 

[Biotoper]

Yes, it would be worth it. To clarify, LR is not for "clean-up" as we normally refer to it. The LR is for biofiltration and well as being the preferred environment for most reef fish/inverts (algae growth, pod production, etc.), while a clean-up crew is for eating algae, cleaning up detritus (i.e. eating/breaking it down but not actually getting rid of it, unlike biofilter and skimmer), and stirring up your sand bed although I don't know if this is a good thing. A biofilter is essential and LR is a very good method to do so, whereas the cleanup crew is not essential. All the organisms on your small amount of LR will eventually populate your base rock as well as your sand bed, and your tank will be both more "natural" and a lot cooler to look at.

 

[havefun]

So when do I add the lr? Wait till the cycle is over? I understand the lr will cause my tank to have a mini cycle but if I put it in now won't the high ammonia/trite/trate levels kill off things on the rock? I've only had the raw shrimp in for 1 week today - going to test the levels later tody.

 

[Biotoper]

Yes, you are correct. If it's cured rock, it's better to wait til the shrimp cycle is done, although you may still get a small cycle from secondary die-off during shipping. If it's uncured rock, you cna put it in now.

I think the main benefit of using cured rock is you can put it straight into an established tank, hence the price difference - diversity-wise, since the cured rock had to go through the same cycling that the uncured rock will go through, I don't think cured rock will per se be more diverse than uncured rock (of course, different sources vary in diversity) - and uncured rock cycled in a lit tank w/ skimmer might be better off than rock cured in a trashcan w/ powerhead. But the SW veterans here would know better.