Clean up crew in coral only tank?

[razorskiss]

Apologies if this has been covered but I couldn't find any specific recommendations. I'm currently cycling a 25 gallon cube that I intent to be all-invert, meaning all coral and maybe 1 or 2 non-carnivorous shrimp. What kind of clean up crew is warranted for a tank like this where there won't be any fish food going in, maybe just experimenting with feeding the corals a tiny bit of zooplankton from time to time. My guess is that a few algae eating snails + a bit of elbow grease will be plenty?

 

[KrisReef]

If you have sand in the tank it helps to have something (snails or a starfish) to move the substrate around looking for detritus.

If you don’t have sand, an army of snails and hermit crabs are good to have early to attack “the uglies” before they totally overwhelme the live rock.

That with water changes (to remove nitrate and phosphate) and elbows are the tried and true method of cycling before coral.

Hth

 

[razorskiss]

If you have sand in the tank it helps to have something (snails or a starfish) to move the substrate around looking for detritus.

If you don’t have sand, an army of snails and hermit crabs are good to have early to attack “the uglies” before they totally overwhelme the live rock.

That with water changes (to remove nitrate and phosphate) and elbows are the tried and true method of cycling before coral.

Hth

Thanks! What are rule of thumb numbers for these? Coming from the freshwater world the posts and packs I've seen on this seem super high (ie. 10-20 snails + 10 hermit crabs), is that just because algae growth is much faster under intense reef lighting?