Help deciding on cleanup crew

[Aspiring Tank Guru]

I have a 55 gallon FOWLR with about 70 lbs of LR and 40 lbs of sand. I am trying to figure out what to go with for my cleanup crew and would like some input on my list. I do not have much experience with inverts. Is this list overkill?

I already have a pistol shrimp. As of right now I am planning on getting:
3 nassarius (the smaller kind)
2 super tongan nassarius
2 ceriths
3 trochus
3 astraea
1 scarlet hermit
1 peppermint shrimp
Possibly 1 banded coral shrimp

 

[Reef2zach]

Multiply all those numbers by 10 except for the shrimp.

 

[cloak]

I would probably go with 7-10 Trochus snails and maybe a few Scarlet hermit crabs. Use something like a Mag-Float to keep the glass clean and either stir up or vacuum your sand bed on a regular basis too. If everything goes right you really shouldn't need to add any more janitors to the tank later on. It's amazing what a little elbow grease can accomplish sometimes. GL.

 

[sbash]

That is a good start. If the tank is new, you run the risk of starving the cleanup crew if there is not enough for them to clean up. So start with what you have and add to it as needed. You may find, in your tank, a particular type of snail does not survive very well. No sense in buying 20 of them just for them to all die off. You may also find you do not like crabs, so there is no sense in buying 20 of them right off the hop...

Trochus are a really good, well rounded snail. They also easily right themselves, so you do not have to flip them over every couple days like those turbo snails... I also had trochuses reproduce steadily for about two years, so I did not need to buy new snails for a long time...

 

[CodyRVA]

+1 on trochus, mine breed like crazy, haven't bought snails in ages. I would avoid the banded shrimp, i've had several and every one has gotten huge and very aggressive towards fish and other inverts.