Might be a good time to talk cleanup crew. I get all (well, most) of my crew from ReefTopia out of the Florida Keys - I like the better than reef cleaners and the like with always higher quality product and I like some of the species and variety out of the Keys better.
Asteas - I love them, but they cannot always right themselves in the sand. These are good algae eaters and I like to have them in my tank. They will grow from dime sized to smaller-than-a-quarter in a year or two. I have a couple that are slightly larger than one inch and you can see a difference in growth pattern on their shell from the wild and captivity. These do die regularly with plenty of algae around - throw their shells behind the rocks for other creatures to use. I order these 100 at a time.
Ceriths - Absolute bad ***** for algae. They can right themselves in sand and get into small places. I keep about 100 of these in most of my tanks. They are amazing at their jobs. Perhaps my favorite snail. I order these 100 at a time too.
Pincushions - Great for turf algae and to eat coralline (totally a plus for me). I have glass tanks, so no issue, but I have heard that they can scratch acrylic. They will not usually eat hair unless you have a bunch of them and the other "easy" algae is gone, but they will destroy it in time. I helped a friend with a 180g that he did dry rock and it was covered in hair and between 2 dozen pincushions and siphoning the longer algae, he was algae free in about 5 months - after this, he had to give most of them away, but he was happy to do so. These stupid things can pick up and carry around small frag plugs, so secure them down. The pincushions will also eat the short turf algae that can cover rocks. These can all die if you add an algaecide... they seem to die from the poison that the algae takes up (my own words and ideas, I have no real idea why they die). I keep 3 or 4 in the this tank at all times, but sometimes more if the algae wants to ramp up - I move them back and forth from the frag tank or fuge.
Peppermints - There are more than half a dozen kinds of peppermints, but the ones from the Keys have always destroyed aiptasia for me. The ones from other parts of the gulf do not always. L. Wurdmanni are the ones from the keys. I usually have to raise them in a fuge until they molt a few times and get the deep red color - at this size, they are hardy and easy. They need to be fed or they can eat coral - they are not coral eaters by nature, but they are not going to be happy about starving to death and they cannot live on fish poo. You or I would also likely try and eat coral under the same circumstances. They only seem to live about three years, so they need replacement. If you get lucky, you can sometimes see some females with eggs and tiny babies, but I have never seen any of them live. They will not always go after the huge aiptaisa that can eat them, so you sometimes have to knock these back with kalk, but they otherwise do a good job. One reason that I order from ReefTopia is that the collect from the Keys only.
Cucumbers - I love them in my sand and they are wonderful cleaners. They will divide if the ecosystem will allow it and they also seem to change sizes from small to large. Sometimes I do not see them for months and then one day, they are out doing their thing.
Fighting conchs - Good sand stirrers and cleaners. I do not see these much either, but they are hardy and appear to do very well. They do not grow much for me.
Emerald Crabs - The ones that I get from ReefTopia are awesome algae eaters. They eat bubble algae too with a gusto. Like the peppermints, they will need fed when the algae is gone or else they will eat coral and try and catch fish. They do not do either when food is present. They will not be happy to live on poop either. The red ones act the same, just with a different costume.
Blue Leg Hermits - I like to keep a handful of them around. They will eat some algae and they are also good cleaners of many items and also will break down poo. I leave the dead astrea snails in the tank and the blue legs are less likely to assasinate a snail for their shell when they can find their own just laying around. They nearly always end up in an Astrea shell. I also like Halloween Hermits from Hawaii, but they are really expensive. I really like the larger scarlet hermits too.
Nerites - Great glass cleaners and will also do a good job on the pumps and other things on the glass. They are small and hardy and they leave eggs everywhere. They seem to like being up near the top of the rim cleaning that area. I get these 20, or so, at a time.
Fish - Yeah, right!? I have had a few rabbitfish that are good at cleaning up, but otherwise, fish are a joke to me. Magnificent Rabbits have been good for me when they get the idea that they are not going to get much else food - so you have to feed them at first to get them going and then cut them back later sometimes to nearly nothing.
Mexican Turbos - I do not seem to have enough algae for these, but they eat a lot too. These will also eat some hair algae when the other stuff is all gone, but they do not seem to prefer it. They are also clumsy and brutal/relentless movers of anything in their way unless your stuff is secured down well. I have mostly stopped using them since I seem to get the colder water ones and they are short lived. The ones from the Gulf do better at 78 degrees than the ones from Baja or the Gulf of California. (FYI - lots of snails offered in the hobby are colder water creatures, so read up well... if the info says 65 to 78 degrees, then they will suffer at 78 degrees for long periods of time).
I have a sally lightfoot that is probably six or seven years old. I have no idea how it is still alive, but I see it from time to time. It is probably 5 inches across now and has never bothered anything. I have no idea what it does and I do not usually see it, but it is in there. It was a free gift once when ordering. I would probably not order another one, but I don't have any issue with it.
I "borrowed" some Harlequin Shrimp when I had thousands upon thousands of Asternia starfish that I need to whittle down. The Asternia starfish were good algae/film eaters for me and harmed nothing, but at some point, you just cannot have countless numbers on everything. The Harlequin shrimp pair did their job over about two years and then I caught them and gave them away to somebody else - they were going to starve if I did not. They were not seen much and nothing seemed to bother them.
I like me some cleaner shrimp, but they are not part of any kind of clean up crew that I have seen. These are decorations for me.
Most of these things can tolerate some elevated levels of N and P, but the urchins, cucumbers, conchs, shrimp and others will do better with more seawater levels. The shrimp need iodine/iodate/iodide to molt and can die without supplements (water changes work). The snails need balanced levels of carbonate, calcium and magnesium to make their shells. ...so basically real reef tank water will do.
