Suggest a cleanup crew from Reef Cleaners.

kaceyo · Aug 3, 2018

I'm about to order about 25 to 30 lbs of live rock from Tampa Bay Saltwater for my 50g and could use some advise on which critters and how many of each to get to help keep things in shape. They have a number of critters from tiny "snails" at a few cents each+/- on up (but no astrea snails for some reason) to asst hermits etc. It's mainly the various types of snails I need help with.
I plan on having a 1" to 1.5" sand bed and ordering a few serpent stars, hermits and maybe small shrimp and cucumber also.
If you can help sort out which ones will be the most useful and which not so much I'd really appreciate it.
Thanks,

Kacey

Crabs McJones · Aug 3, 2018

Best bet i've found when ordering from John at ReefCleaners is to go a size above your tank and order one of his cleaner "packs". now whether you want hermits or not is up to you, i opt to have them.
https://www.reefcleaners.org/cleaner-packages-with-free-shipping

mta_morrow · Aug 3, 2018

I have always purchased my base rock and cuc from John @reefcleaners.

I personally do the packs with crabs.

I buy 1/2 the tank size on my 1st buy. Then once the ugliness really kicks in I order another pack at 1/2 to 3/4 size of my tank.

Then every so often I just order a small pack to replace die off along with maybe a pincushion urchin or conch or emerald crab.

richiero · Aug 3, 2018

Imo I think a lot of these cuc are over kill and they end up dying from starvation ... I build my own cuc and that has worked well for me.

Barry_Cuda · Aug 3, 2018

mta_morrow said:
I have always purchased my base rock and cuc from John @reefcleaners.

I personally do the packs with crabs.

I buy 1/2 the tank size on my 1st buy. Then once the ugliness really kicks in I order another pack at 1/2 to 3/4 size of my tank.

Then every so often I just order a small pack to replace die off along with maybe a pincushion urchin or conch or emerald crab.

Aren't those CUCs pretty big for the tank size? That seems like a LOT of snails. But others here have a lot more experience than I do, so I also question my judgment.

mta_morrow · Aug 3, 2018

Barry_Cuda said:
Aren't those CUCs pretty big for the tank size? That seems like a LOT of snails. But others here have a lot more experience than I do, so I also question my judgment.

I think you misunderstood me. My tank as an example is 5’x2’x22” tall, 108 gallons. The first cuc I purchased was the 50 gallon size. Then a couple months later I bought another 50 size crew.

There is typically not enough food to support a large cuc in the early stages of a tank.

That’s why I add and maintain over time.

tiggs · Aug 3, 2018

I've ordered from John many times and my typical strategy is to pick up a quick crew that's made for approx half my tank size, then supplement that with a couple of choice additions from the LFS. This way, I get the bulk of my crew (the smaller stuff) for a great price, but can add a Turbo, Astrea, etc to round things out.

Barry_Cuda · Aug 3, 2018

Right - what I'm saying is that the CUC size for a given tank just seems large to me, regardless of whether they are added as two half-size batches with some separation. I don't know, it just seems like a lot of snails to me.

mta_morrow · Aug 3, 2018

Barry_Cuda said:
Right - what I'm saying is that the CUC size for a given tank just seems large to me, regardless of whether they are added as two half-size batches with some separation. I don't know, it just seems like a lot of snails to me.

They are sized appropriately IMO.

and I add extras and replacements as well from my LFS

kaceyo · Aug 3, 2018

The size of the pkgs vs tank size is one of the things I'm questioning. According to BRS the recommended size of most cuc pkgs is about 10 times overkill. If I remember right they suggest 1 ea snail and hermit crab per 10 gals rather than 1/gal. But is that just for tanks using dry rock only? As stated I'm adding 25 to 30 lbs Florida aquacultured live rock and that should make a difference. Also I'm not familiar with many of the oddball snails they sell so don't know if any are of questionable value in a reef tank.

ZoWhat · Aug 3, 2018

Just to be a monkey in the wrench....

I dont use any CUC..... I dose via the vodka/vinegar method to control oraganics and algae.

Took me 15+ years of cleaning out dead snail shells to realize so much more can be accomplished by carbon dosing, super fueling good bacteria

.

OMGitsManBearPig · Aug 3, 2018

I was tempted to try no clean up crew, but ultimately decided to go with 1-2 snails of each type per 10 gallons.
It seemed like a good compromise

richiero · Aug 3, 2018

I fallowed the Brs advice and it’s been working for me

Uhohhotdog · Aug 3, 2018

skimjim said:
Just to be a monkey in the wrench....

I dont use any CUC..... I dose via the vodka/vinegar method to control oraganics and algae.

Took me 15+ years of cleaning out dead snail shells to realize so much more can be accomplished by carbon dosing, super fueling good bacteria

.

I really like invertebrates though

starypotter · Aug 8, 2018

I just got a CUC from John last weekend and this weekend up upgrading tanks. I got a 72 gallon package and dumped it into my 29 which is full of new tank algae problems. I like snails and hermits so I don’t mind over feeding to keep them because I think they’re fun to watch.
Well in two days I was looking at my tank and I couldn’t believe my eyes. My glass was perfectly clean and I didn’t even know it was that dirty!
With that said a lot of the snails in the CUC packages are tiny, like really tiny so while the numbers look absurd one LFS snail is like three or four times the snails I got from reefcleaners so it’s almost like it evens out IMO. I think it’s great they have a better chance of getting in the rocks and I’ve never seen small snails like that at LFS. I’m quite upset with myself that I didn’t splurge on express shipping to get some of those items... oh well guess I’m going to have to place another order.