Clean up crew for 5ft tank

[Kial]

Looking to add some more clean up crew today as my current ones do absolutely nothing

Currently have:
4x nassarius
1x stromb
4x trochus
2x blue leg hermits

Constantly have fish poo etc in the sand and also have some GHA starting. I am only 4 months in though so I was expecting that to come at some point.

What would you recommend to buy to add to my current clean up crew?

 

[BryznNguyen]

I woud look into some conchs I bought one for my 20g and love what it does for my sandbed

 

[Kial]

I woud look into some conchs I bought one for my 20g and love what it does for my sandbed

I think a stromb is a conch right?

 

[DavidinGA]

Save your money and don't buy any. Waste of money imo

 

[Chrisv.]

If you have detritus accumulating on the sand bed, it may be worth it to increase your flow so that this can be filtered out. This size of tank could easily support dozens of herbivorous snails. I've been less jazzed about hermits in my reef recently.

If you already have algae I would add two Mexican turbo snails, a dozen astrea snails, a dozen trochus snails, and a serpent starfish (to help with any uneaten food, etc). I'd then wait for a month or so and potentially add another dozen of each of the above snails.

 

[Chrisv.]

Save your money and don't buy any. Waste of money imo

What do you find more useful?

 

[DavidinGA]

What do you find more useful?

I've been reefing 20+ years and have never used a cuc.

High flow and good mechanical filtration.

AND a good ats.

 

[Chrisv.]

I've been reefing 20+ years and have never used a cuc.

High flow and good mechanical filtration.

AND a good ats.

Interesting. I totally agree that high flow makes a HUGE difference. I've been doing this for a while too, and in my tanks I've seen CUC make a huge difference. I was particularly impressed the last time I added a turbo snail. I had avoided them for decades, but but that guy cleaned an obvious patch of rock work every night.

I guess there is more than one way to skin a cat!

But yes, high flow is a huge factor in my current and past tanks.

 

[ZombieEngineer]

I have found a variation on about half of what reefcleaners recommends works really good.

Per 50 gallons
5 trochus
2-3 mexican turbos or 5 more trochus
15 cerith
15 blue leg or 5 larger like zebra
10 nassarius
1 emerald
1 tuxedo urchin
1 tiger conch

 

[Kial]

I'm really finding flow difficult right now if I'm honest. Being a 5ft shallow tank, seems I get either way to much (corals getting blasted around) or too little flow.

 

[Chrisv.]

I'm really finding flow difficult right now if I'm honest. Being a 5ft shallow tank, seems I get either way to much (corals getting blasted around) or too little flow.

What kinds of coral do you keep/want to keep?

I would put a pair of mp40s on that tank as a starting point.

 

[Tcook]

I like the nassarius just to turn over the sand. You could easily add 5-10 more. I also recommend a fighting conch.

 

[Kial]

What kinds of coral do you keep/want to keep?

I would put a pair of mp40s on that tank as a starting point.

Well I did have 2x hammers and a goni (unfortunately these died) I reckon it was down to flow.

I have 2x slw-30 on the tank which are similar to the nero 5s. Have them turned down quite low. Could do with getting a couple more on the back of the tank

 

[Kial]

I like the nassarius just to turn over the sand. You could easily add 5-10 more. I also recommend a fighting conch.

Yeah I don't see mine do much apart from pop up when I put food in the tank. I have a stromb in the tank which I believe is the same as a conch.

Did good at the start but now spends 90% of its time under the sand

 

[ZombieEngineer]

I'm really finding flow difficult right now if I'm honest. Being a 5ft shallow tank, seems I get either way to much (corals getting blasted around) or too little flow.

This kind of tank is where a gyre really shines. If this were me, I would probably go 1 gyre and 1 random style pump deflecting off the front glass (nero, mp40, WAV, etc) on each end.

 

[Kial]

This kind of tank is where a gyre really shines. If this were me, I would probably go 1 gyre and 1 random style pump deflecting off the front glass (nero, mp40, WAV, etc) on each end.

Should of got a gyre from the start I think.

I spent about 300+ on wavemakers at the start, they were too big. Then another 300+ on my current ones

 

[BryznNguyen]

stromb

I believe so I just searched it up looked like one, I have a strawberry conch