Clean Up Crew

jackalexander · Mar 11, 2021

Currently have 6 hermits and 1 mexican turbo snail in my 32g and they are definitely not able to keep up! I was thinking:
5 Astraea Turbos
5 Super Tongan Nassarius
5 red dwarf hermits
5 blue dwarf hermits
Is this too much? Too little? Good mix? any suggestions help!

Jekyl · Mar 11, 2021

I always recommend the same thing to everyone. Go to reefcleaners.org and get a package for roughly half your tank size. Good diversity and prices.

JosephM · Mar 11, 2021

I personally don’t like hermits in my tank because they’ll mess with corals and I have too many corals lol. I have a 29gal and have 13 astrea snails and 3 pretty big turbos. They keep my rocks clean and I scrape my glass when I remember. I had a sea hare for about 6 weeks that took down the bulk of my algae that I had when I let the tank go but my crew is maintaining it now

jackalexander · Mar 11, 2021

JosephM said:
I personally don’t like hermits in my tank because they’ll mess with corals and I have too many corals lol. I have a 29gal and have 13 astrea snails and 3 pretty big turbos. They keep my rocks clean and I scrape my glass when I remember. I had a sea hare for about 6 weeks that took down the bulk of my algae that I had when I let the tank go but my crew is maintaining it now

sounds good! My hermits are constantly climbing up my corals like trees... I chose to incorporate astraeas because I heard they do really well on rocks and it looks like they do! thank you

jackalexander · Mar 11, 2021

Jekyl said:
I always recommend the same thing to everyone. Go to reefcleaners.org and get a package for roughly half your tank size. Good diversity and prices.

Will do for sure, definitely cheap. Do you quarantine your inverts? and if so, how long?

JosephM · Mar 11, 2021

jackalexander said:
sounds good! My hermits are constantly climbing up my corals like trees... I chose to incorporate astraeas because I heard they do really well on rocks and it looks like they do! thank you

And they’re cheap

cheapest snail I can get locally at $1 a piece lol

Jekyl · Mar 11, 2021

jackalexander said:
Will do for sure, definitely cheap. Do you quarantine your inverts? and if so, how long?

I'm the wrong guy to ask that. I don't quarantine anything with my tank.

GillMeister · Mar 11, 2021

Do you have lot of rock in your tank? Do you have high nutrient levels? If you have high nitrate and phosphate you'll have a hard time staying ahead of algae no matter what you have for CUC. If you have a fair amount of rock as well your crew has a lot more surface to clean. Having said that, you have a good start but I'm a fan of keeping it simple and would keep adding blue-leg hermits. For massive amounts of GHA nothing beats a Mexican turbo snail.

jackalexander · Mar 11, 2021

JosephM said:
And they’re cheap cheapest snail I can get locally at $1 a piece lol

That sounds like chump change!! I’ve been throwing around $3 per snail/hermit...

Jekyl · Mar 11, 2021

jackalexander said:
That sounds like chump change!! I’ve been throwing around $3 per snail/hermit...

That's why I always go to reefcleaners. No where near as expensive as my LFS

JosephM · Mar 11, 2021

jackalexander said:
That sounds like chump change!! I’ve been throwing around $3 per snail/hermit...

Exactlty!! I can get 10 astrea snails or two trochus... no brainer for me lol

jackalexander · Mar 11, 2021

GillMeister said:
Do you have lot of rock in your tank? Do you have high nutrient levels? If you have high nitrate and phosphate you'll have a hard time staying ahead of algae no matter what you have for CUC. If you have a fair amount of rock as well your crew has a lot more surface to clean. Having said that, you have a good start but I'm a fan of keeping it simple and would keep adding blue-leg hermits. For massive amounts of GHA nothing beats a Mexican turbo snail.

I kid you not, my mexican turbo mowed through an entire bush of GHA last week.. I just want a solid crew because I’m getting a couple more fish pretty soon.

jackalexander · Mar 11, 2021

JosephM said:
Exactlty!! I can get 10 astrea snails or two trochus... no brainer for me lol

it’s ridiculous...

vetteguy53081 · Mar 11, 2021

-Turbo for algae
-trochus for algae/hair algae/cyano
- Margarita for cyano
- cerith for cyano

Zoa_Fanatic · Mar 11, 2021

Making an assumption but are you running a biocube? If so we have the same tank. That is WAY too many hermits. I have 5 in mine total. 3xblue legs, 1 zebra hermit (I found him half dead in a used tank I bought), and 1 massive scarlet hermit. I might have 50 snails in there though. My nassarius breed like rabbits, I put 5 in prolly have 15 now. I have 10 (at least) astrea snails and arpund 20-25 dwarf cerith snails. Oh and a sand sifting conch. And a turbo snail of some type I’ve never seen who frequently buries himself.

i woildnt get another hermit of any type. I personally love cerith snails. They’re the best snail honestly as they’ll eat anything algea related. And they burrow so they clean your sand. If I were you I’d do the nassarius you thought about, a few astrea, and a whole lot of cerith snails. Nothing beats ceriths. They reproduce in my tank, eat red slime, maul gha, and burrow so the hermits rarely can bother them.

Zoa_Fanatic · Mar 11, 2021

vetteguy53081 said:
-Turbo for algae
-trochus for algae/hair algae/cyano
- Margarita for cyano
- cerith for cyano

Margaritas don’t live long enough for me where they’re cold water snails. Always wanted to see a cold water reef cause I love those guys though.

vetteguy53081 · Mar 11, 2021

Zoa_Fanatic said:
Margaritas don’t live long enough for me where they’re cold water snails. Always wanted to see a cold water reef cause I love those guys though.

I have 7 for almost 11 months in 78deg temp- doing great

Zoa_Fanatic · Mar 11, 2021

vetteguy53081 said:
I have 7 for almost 11 months in 78deg temp- doing great

Wow! I’ve never been able to get them to live longer than 5-6 months for me. Did you get small ones by any chance? I got some on a trip with my wife for 1$/snail they said were small margaritas that have lasted me a whole

vetteguy53081 · Mar 11, 2021

Zoa_Fanatic said:
Wow! I’ve never been able to get them to live longer than 5-6 months for me. Did you get small ones by any chance? I got some on a trip with my wife for 1$/snail they said were small margaritas that have lasted me a whole

Yes, about diameter of a dime

jackalexander · Mar 12, 2021

Zoa_Fanatic said:
Making an assumption but are you running a biocube? If so we have the same tank. That is WAY too many hermits. I have 5 in mine total. 3xblue legs, 1 zebra hermit (I found him half dead in a used tank I bought), and 1 massive scarlet hermit. I might have 50 snails in there though. My nassarius breed like rabbits, I put 5 in prolly have 15 now. I have 10 (at least) astrea snails and arpund 20-25 dwarf cerith snails. Oh and a sand sifting conch. And a turbo snail of some type I’ve never seen who frequently buries himself.

i woildnt get another hermit of any type. I personally love cerith snails. They’re the best snail honestly as they’ll eat anything algea related. And they burrow so they clean your sand. If I were you I’d do the nassarius you thought about, a few astrea, and a whole lot of cerith snails. Nothing beats ceriths. They reproduce in my tank, eat red slime, maul gha, and burrow so the hermits rarely can bother them.

Yeah I really want more snails instead of hermits, I just didn’t realize you can find good ones for cheap.