Too Many Clean Up Crew Members? Help!

BassSoLow · Apr 23, 2019

Okay, so Thursday last week I order a clean up crew package from liveaquaria. It comes with the following:
10 red hermits
15 blue hermits
15 Astraea Snails
10 Nassarius Snails
Here is my issue...over the weekend the LFS has a super sale. So I went and bought 5 red hermits, 5 blue hermits, and picked up a sea hare too. I requested my order be cancelled from liveaquaria and received confirmation that it was cancelled. However, this morning, I got notification from UPS that a package from liveaquaria will arrive before 10:30am. So, I have that whole clean up crew pack on it’s way still!
My tank is a 20 Nano Reef. Is it safe to put all those invertebrates in there or is it just too much? If so, I guess I can give them to the LFS or something. Any ideas are welcome. Thanks for the help!

Retro Reefer · Apr 23, 2019

How old is your tank? How much algae? Pictures? I’m all for a huge CUC but that may be a bit much in a 20 especially if it’s new or your not having issues with algae.. I have approximately 60 pieces in my CUC in my 40 breeder.

BassSoLow · Apr 23, 2019

Hey there. No pics right now. But, I have had a big green hair algae problem as of late. I was able to pick some of it clean, but it’s still blowing around on my rocks and comes back super fast on the sand. It’s been a real pain. The tank was established in November of 2018.

Retro Reefer · Apr 23, 2019

BassSoLow said:
Hey there. No pics right now. But, I have had a big green hair algae problem as of late. I was able to pick some of it clean, but it’s still blowing around on my rocks and comes back super fast on the sand. It’s been a real pain. The tank was established in November of 2018.

If your dealing with hair algae throw them all in

once your tank has matured and past the ugly stages you can pull some if needed and give them away, you will lose some of them over time which will diminish the population also.

norfolkgarden · Apr 23, 2019

Normal uglies tank phase. They will be fine for at least a week if it's as bad as you describe.

Lol, take pictures morning and evening for several weeks from same vantage point. The changes will probably be visible.
Should be a cool photo shoot. All you need is a cell phone.

You can probably return the extra to LFS (possibly for a small amount of store credit. Out of 5 local LFS, 2 accept fish for half credit, one accepts nothing back into the store, 2 will tolerate returns instead of letting it die but no credit)

20 gallon = 2 astrae (much prefer 2 trochus or 1 small turbo), 1 nassarius, 3 or 4 blue legs.

Someone once told me when I first started that the blue legs eat the red legs. Never bothered buying the red legs so can't say for sure.

In a 75 gallon, after 6 years we have 3 turbos, 4 trochus, maybe 6 remaining total dwarf zebra hermit crabs and blue legs and 1 scarlet hermit crab.
40ish nitrate (getting an algae scrubber next. I feed too much to too many fish)
No visible hair algae.