Adding the CUC

[pdiehm]

As my 120 finishes it's cycle (10/7 was the ammonia/dr. tims bacteria add), and we're not yet at the point where 1ppm ammonia can be processed in 24 hours, but we've made it through the nitrite spike, so it's a matter of time now....

When do I add my clean up crew? This time, I want a diverse crew. The previous setup did not have pods or anything of that nature. I'm leaning towards adding the 5280 pods from @AlgaeBarn, and let them get super established in the tank for 4-6 weeks before I put my clownfish in. I do not run a refugium, though I will have an algae scrubber, which I don't deem that as a great place due to losing pods during the screen cleaning process.

Additionally, I run a barebottom system so I'm limited in what snails to get, so I'm leaning towards 25 Ceriths, 25 Nerites, and 15 Trochus snails (the other issue is, I can't find anywhere that has all 3 of those snails....that run a fallow system).

Other cleanup critters will be a pair of skunk cleaner shrimp, and 1 Fire shrimp. I figure between the Pods, The snails, and the shrimp, I should have a pretty diverse clean up crew.

I dont want a ton of snails, and I figure the numbers I have is a good starting figure, or I could even go lower.

 

[Stickboy15]

id do 25 of each type of your snails and 5-10 hermits

 

[pdiehm]

id do 25 of each type of your snails and 5-10 hermits

I'm passing on the hermits. had them before, and they just eat the snails.

 

[Gareth elliott]

I am partial to inverts that add something to watch [emoji23] sometimes i get home late and the fish are asleep.

Right now its pom pom crabs, i added a small coral banded shrimp over the summer but have never spotted since hit the dt [emoji23]

 

[count krunk]

It's fun to have 5 or so hermits to watch hermit around.
And add the cuc after the cycle is done. Don't add them all at once, freshly cycled tanks usually do not have a lot of food for them

 

[PDR]

As my 120 finishes it's cycle (10/7 was the ammonia/dr. tims bacteria add), and we're not yet at the point where 1ppm ammonia can be processed in 24 hours, but we've made it through the nitrite spike, so it's a matter of time now....

When do I add my clean up crew? This time, I want a diverse crew. The previous setup did not have pods or anything of that nature. I'm leaning towards adding the 5280 pods from @AlgaeBarn, and let them get super established in the tank for 4-6 weeks before I put my clownfish in. I do not run a refugium, though I will have an algae scrubber, which I don't deem that as a great place due to losing pods during the screen cleaning process.

Additionally, I run a barebottom system so I'm limited in what snails to get, so I'm leaning towards 25 Ceriths, 25 Nerites, and 15 Trochus snails (the other issue is, I can't find anywhere that has all 3 of those snails....that run a fallow system).

Other cleanup critters will be a pair of skunk cleaner shrimp, and 1 Fire shrimp. I figure between the Pods, The snails, and the shrimp, I should have a pretty diverse clean up crew.

I dont want a ton of snails, and I figure the numbers I have is a good starting figure, or I could even go lower.

I highly recommend astraea, trochus, and cerith snails. I do know ceriths usually bury themselves in the sand, so I'm not sure how they do in a BB. I do not like nerite snails at all. Are the captive raised/captive bred snails from algae barn not kept in a dedicated system? I would think you would be pretty safe with those.

While I'm not a huge fan of hermit crabs, I have found the scarlet reef hermits to be 100% invert and reef safe. I do also like emerald crabs for general algae control as well.

I personally would wait until you start to see at least some film algae before adding any cuc. If you plan to add copepods early on, I would recommend you feed them phyto for a few weeks while things mature and to help boost their population. My favorite source for pods and phyto is mikesphyto.com

 

[User1]

Add them in stages. If you mail order it costs a bit more but a few folks suggested why already. As the tank matures it goes through the various of, well, people say ugly, but in any case algae growth and what not. Diatoms, green algae, hair algae, etc. Post cycle there isn't a lot there yet. You shop on line, see a pre-made package you like for your tank size, and when you review the order there are 100 snails of this type, 50 of that type, and 303,330,668 hermit crabs. There won't be enough food in the tank for them to all eat. Opportunistic feeders like hermit crabs, will start picking off your weak snails, etc.

Having a recently cycled tank back in March and moving / upgrading in April mine is still maturing so I've added a small package of snails which totaled 25 in all. I now have more green algae on the rocks and back tank wall so will add more. This time I'll probably add 50 of the same type because I'm trying to get it cleaned up. However, I don't want too many in there because once they do take care of it then they don't have anything more to eat..

It is like a balancing act between adding enough to take care of the job in a timely manor and patience on the reefer because they don't like how it looks and want it fixed right away

 

[pdiehm]

I highly recommend astraea, trochus, and cerith snails. I do know ceriths usually bury themselves in the sand, so I'm not sure how they do in a BB. I do not like nerite snails at all. Are the captive raised/captive bred snails from algae barn not kept in a dedicated system? I would think you would be pretty safe with those.

While I'm not a huge fan of hermit crabs, I have found the scarlet reef hermits to be 100% invert and reef safe. I do also like emerald crabs for general algae control as well.

I personally would wait until you start to see at least some film algae before adding any cuc. If you plan to add copepods early on, I would recommend you feed them phyto for a few weeks while things mature and to help boost their population. My favorite source for pods and phyto is mikesphyto.com

I have found that Ceriths do well in a barebottom. The dwarf ceriths bury in the sand if my biocube is any indication.

The first thing I'll add is the pods, and dose phytoplankton for a bit. As I start getting diatoms, then I'll add say 10 ceriths, 10 nerites, and 10 trochus. Will go from there, though I would guess my shrimp would be next to add. I know that I do not want hermits however.