How to tell if snails are eating enough?

[FishyFish]

I have a new 30 gallon tank which finished cycling three weeks ago. It's home to 2 clownfish as well as 5 nassarius and 5 trochus snails. The snails were added a week ago today and so far everyone seems very happy and my tank is practically spotless. Is my spotless tank a good indicator that they are NOT getting enough to eat?? I haven't been feeding them anything other than the leftover food that the clowns don't eat.

I was also hoping to add a pincushion urchin and a pompom crab at some point, would this be too much clean up crew for a 30 gallon? Thanks!

 

[biophilia]

5 nassarius and 5 trouchus seems fine for where you're at currently and depending on how high your bioload gets as you eventually add more livestock you'll probably want to add a few more trochus or other algae grazers. I have 3 trochus in my 10 gallon and could probably get away with adding two more.

If you are needing to clean film algae off of your tank glass once or twice per week the snails are getting enough. If you're not, you could always add more livestock and/or feed more. If you're concerned about the nassarius, you could always just squirt a little food at them with a turkey baster when the emerge from the sand, but they're generally pretty hardy and can go quite a while without food.

The urchin and crab would definitely not be overkill for that sized tank IMO.

 

[FishyFish]

Thanks a bunch! There's so much conflicting information about cleanup size it had me pretty worried. I'm pretty sure the nassarius are getting enough because my bratty clownfish don't eat any food that isn't floating in the corner so a lot sinks down to the sand. I was more worried about the trochus since I don't see a lot of algae in the tank.

Maybe I should increase my bioload just to be safe. Thanks for giving me a great excuse to get more fish!