Cleanup crew for 120

[beatle]

Though my 120 has only been up and running for a few weeks, I'm already getting algae blooms, both in water and every surface. My fuge will be online with chaeto this weekend, but I know I could also use some janitors. I have a shallow sandbed of less than an inch, and I plan to have a sand sifting goby to stir the sand bed, so I don't believe I'll really need nassarius snails.

 

Years ago I had great luck with an order from Reeftopia. The animals were big and everything survived, though I've long forgotten what I ordered. What's the new, hip thing in clean up crews these days? Nerites? Turbos? Astrea? Hermits or no hermits? Scarlet or blueleg?

[Max Ivers]

I would try and jump on a livestock GB for getting the snails. I personally am not a fan of the sand sifting gobies (it covered a brand new fungia with a mountain of sand and killed it in 2 days, needless to say, it went back to the store) because they decide to make mountains and cause blizzards. I love my brittle starfish and he keeps my sand very clean. Plus he's awesome to watch during feeding time, he's earned the nickname "the kraken" for his wild flailing in search of a piece of food. About the nassarius snails, I have about 40 in my 55gal with a 2" sandbed and they keep it nice and clean and mixed and don't disturb anything or anyone.

 

I would advise against too many hermits, I have about 25 mixed between blue, red and white leg hermits and they are good scavengers, but as they grow they become bulldozers with their shells. I'd recommend as much diversity as possible in terms of your CUC. Think of it this way, if you could go to a buffet, you could only eat so much and of probably one or two foods. But if you brought your friends with you, you would each eat one or two kinds of foods and you'd clear the buffet out. So I really think diversity is key in CUC's. Nerites, astrea's, blue/red leg hermits, nassarius, a brittle star (probably 2 for a 120) are my vote for the janitors.

 

Hope this helps,

 

Max

[beatle]

I had a couple brittle stars in my 90. They were neat to watch, but didn't really keep the sand surface clean IME. I'll probably get some anyway.

 

I killed a plate coral the same way by placing it on the sandbed. It was quickly covered by the goby. My other corals did fine, however. No sandbed corals for me.

 

I was thinking of a combination of turbo and cerith, and maybe a couple dozen assorted hermits to start. With the lot prices @ Reeftopia, I'm already close to their $120 minimum for free shipping if I pick up 100 cerith and 100 turbos.

[Max Ivers]

100 turbos seems quite excessive to me, IF they're the huge Mexican Turbos. I "rented" three to clean up a bit of hair algae in my 55 and they ran through it in a week. Unless you're growing the forbidden forest in your tank and need to do some heavy "deforestation" I wouldn't recommend more than a handful of the large Mexican turbos for an established 120. They'll die off pretty fast if you don't have tons of algae for them to eat.

 

I would instead recommend a mix of Astreas, Nerites, Ceriths and a few dozen hermits to start. maybe a dozen nassarius wouldn't hurt either, the more diversity the better!

[angel not fish]

You can take it at liveaquaria (more than$60) delivery is free, or join the blue zoo GB that is goin on now.

[Chad]

Wow, 100 turbos!!

 

That would do close to a 1000+ gallon tank!

 

IME, it is better to rely on small snails and a few larger turbos (some don't like turbos at all since they tend to bulldoze)

 

Here is my CUC recommendation for a tank your size (without taking into consideration things that you may want to keep that may eat these things)...

 

5-10 large turbo snails

Find stomatella snails from a fellow reefer (a few online places like Inland Aquatics also sells these), they are small, stay out of sight during the day mostly and are prolific breeders in the aquarium... meaning that as available food sources vary, their population will change to adapt.

~50 cerith snails

I would stay away from nerites (they time out of the water else it shortens their life... so they WILL crawl out of your tank) and margaritas (they prefer cooler water and the warm water speeds up their metabolism and shortens their life)

~5 brittle stars (stay away from the green ones as they will capture and eat fish/other inverts), the red/black ones are good

~5 peppermint shrimp

~50 blue legged hermits

1 fighting conch (may need to target feed in low algae tanks)

 

My 0.02

[hypertech]

I've ordered from reeftopia many times and was always happy. However, check what a "turbo" is. To them I believe a turbo is an astrea with some purple coraline on it. It's the same snail as the golden astrea other than a minor difference in size. Skip the turbo and just get the astrea from them.

[daharley]

I had good luck with reefs2go.com. 200 plus cuc animals and a few corals only lost 2 emeralds.

[daharley]

Also have buy one get one free deals.

[ReeferMan]

I LIKE THESE GUYS http://sealifeinc.net/

[FearTheTerps]

+1 on reefs2go. I've had good luck with them before, near 100% survival rate. They also have some pretty good deals, they have a deal of the day which usually rotates every week. They had blue leg hermits 100 for $25, and alot of the snails are listed as buy one get one free, and the prices are already low to begin with, most of the snails are $0.89-0.99.