Queston about clean up crews

Pth03001 · Mar 28, 2017

Good afternoon everyone. This is my first post on R2R as well as my first post on any forum... ever. I was wondering something about clean up crews. What is the rule when it comes to cleaning the substrate of a tank when a cleaner crew is in place. I am not wanting to come off as a slacker but I wanted to know if cleaning the substrate would be detrimental to the crew due to the fact you would be eliminating their food source. On the other hand does cleaning the substrate assist in the general upkeep of the tank and not eliminate enough detritus to negatively effect the life forms which survive along the bottom of the tank?

Thank you for taking a look and I'm curious what everyone's experiences are

saltyfilmfolks · Mar 28, 2017

Welcome to REEF2REEF!

Good question.
A few of us here prefer to stock a CUC according to what's going on in the tank as supposed to a set rule of X per gallon.
I.e. If you feeding a lot of meaty foods or if your having hair algaes etc.

https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/choosing-cleanup-crew-critters.107/

And for me I'm of the opinion if you have shallow sand you should clean it and scape to insure that you can. Just by nature of gravity food and poo land on the sand.

If you choosing CUC or livestock that depend on deeper sand or the food found in the sand you may need to consider that in your basic husbandry and cleaning.

Pth03001 · Apr 4, 2017

saltyfilmfolks said:
Welcome to REEF2REEF!

Good question.
A few of us here prefer to stock a CUC according to what's going on in the tank as supposed to a set rule of X per gallon.
I.e. If you feeding a lot of meaty foods or if your having hair algaes etc.

https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/choosing-cleanup-crew-critters.107/

And for me I'm of the opinion if you have shallow sand you should clean it and scape to insure that you can. Just by nature of gravity food and poo land on the sand.

If you choosing CUC or livestock that depend on deeper sand or the food found in the sand you may need to consider that in your basic husbandry and cleaning.