Underestimating the power of.........CUC?

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Underestimating the power of........the CLEANUP CREW! Wait don't close this thread just yet! Hear me out. Yes most of us know the importance of a cleanup crew in our reef tank but I think sometimes we underestimate the work that they actually do that a lot of times go unnoticed.

What is a cleanup crew or CUC? We have a very good article here but basically it's the tank janitors of your tank like snails, crabs, starfish etc. that consume the uneaten, decaying food as well as fish waste and things like that. They also keep the glass, rock and sand clean among other things.

So what do I mean about "underestimating the power of a cleanup crew?" I think sometimes we underestimate the GOOD that having them in the tank does! We also underestimate the BAD that happens when the cleanup crew start to deplete. The thing about a cleanup crew is that they do eventually start to die off and they need to be replenished. Just recently my sand started getting covered in some green/brown type of algae and even after stirring it's the type that resettles and comes back. I realized that I hadn't replenished my cleaners recently so I made an order and got the new crew in place. Two days later the sand is noticeably cleaner and I can see the hermit crabs and snails eating away on the sand and doing their job!

Today let's talk about the clean up crew a little!

1. How important do you think a good clean up crew is to a saltwater reef aquarium?

2. What are your favorite cleaners?

3. How often do you "replenish" the cleaning crew in your tank?

 

[Paul B]

I couldn't answer because I don't understand the question. Hermit crabs, which are the most common CUC live at least 12 years as this pair did. Shrimps live about half of that as I have kept them for 7 years. I am not sure about snails as they all look the same so I don't know how long they last.

Old tanks will have hundreds if not thousands of tiny brittle stars and huge bristle worms which work much faster than any CUC we can buy.

The vast majority of people don't even stay in the hobby that long so it's hard to answer.

 

[legrunt]

8 month old 16 gallon mixed reef. Had gotten away with having only 1 turbo snail and 1 sand star. But the snail just recently died and i noticed a ton of reddish algae start taking over the rock and back glass. So i got two more snails and after 4 days, all the algae is gone. So yeah, cuc very important!

 

[piranhaman00]

My nerite snails breed like crazy, I have babies everywhere, no need to replace.

 

[xxkenny90xx]

1. Very important, my tank is big enough that when something dies I usually can't find it and it's up to the cuc to clean up the mess

2. Brittle and serpent stars!

3. Every couple of years when I see that there arent many snails left. Actually I have an order arriving this afternoon!

 

[rwreef]

I normally start adding CUC when I see any build up or algea issues in my tank(s) However, I mostly run without CuC since my main display is well established I normally don't see a need for them. But I'm not counting all the tiny CuC that live in the tank bristleworms/stomella/sponges etc....

 

[andrewkw]

1. How important do you think a good clean up crew is to a saltwater reef aquarium?
Not very, at least not the ones you buy. The ones that just come with stuff ie stomatellas, bristlestars, bristleworms, ect will usually self regulate. My live rock is quite old but all of these guys and more are still around in stable numbers.

2. What are your favorite cleaners?
Any snail that doesn't need to be flipped back over. Or the freebies mentioned above.

3. How often do you "replenish" the cleaning crew in your tank?
Every few years I buy a few trochus or comparable snails. Full disclosure in my frag tank I do have a few more snails and even some hermits, but in a dialed in display tank I don't think cleanup crew is that important. While my tank is not 100% algae free by any means, things are mostly kept in check with my own weekly maintenance and rather small amount of clean up crew. Approximately 6-10 snails in 112 gallon tank + lots of smaller creatures.

There was a time when I added dozens of snails at a time. I actually vividly remember a store telling me there should be no reason I need so many snails or to replace them so often. This of course was when they only cost about $1 each so cost wasn't an issue just keep piling them in, but in many cases they were no doubt starving.

Now if you have a problem or a new tank then of course you may need more cleanup crew. If I got pink cotton candy algae I would be looking for mexican turbos ect. At this point in my main reefs life I just don't feel it needs a particularly large or even particular cleanup crew. As long as there are a few snails, tangs and misc creatures like bristleworms the tank is clean.

 

[samnaz]

When my severely neglected tank was taken over by bubble algae, it was so bad it even covered the sand bed. I thought it would be fun to give an emerald crab a go at it. The second he landed in the tank he started chowing down. He didn’t stop. I was actually quite surprised. Two months later I have almost NO bubble algae at all. All thanks to a single emerald in a 20 gallon tank.

The only member I’ve had to replace over the years is dwarf ceriths, my cup coral eats them sometimes. Oh, and nerites when they escape and die. My crabs, and other snails like cowries are still around 2-4 years later.

 

[tautog83]

i have about 70 trochus snails and like 4 bigger turbos in a red sea reefer 750 . i started off with 15 trochus snails and ive sold about 40 already. lights go off and my glass is covered , no algae so they do their job hermits are fun to watch but id never buy one again

 

[Gablami]

I think “clean up crew” is overrated, and in many cases is another way this hobby creates for us to spend our money.

We spend money to “replenish” our stocks of CUC when they die off (starve), just to have the new batch slowly starve off, adding more nutrients to the tank.

Sure, if you have a problem like bubble algae, get some emerald crabs; hair algae get some turbos or sea hare; aiptasia peppermints etc. But otherwise, I don’t think a tank needs to have the typical “cleanup crew” besides the ones that usually show up on their own (amphipods, bristleworms, etc).

 

[Greybeard]

The huge CUC packages that many vendors sell are a huge mistake. Don't do it.

Unless you've got a problem, adding animals intended to 'fix' the problem is useless at best, and can actually be harmful. 3 month old tank, starting 'the uglies'... a bit of diatom, maybe a cyano patch, the new aquarist sees the marketing on a huge CUC package, and adds 50 snails, 30 hermits, maybe and urchin, conch...

And, in time, they all starve.

IMHO, fish are far better at eating algae than inverts. Foxface, tangs, algae blennies, etc. Much more active algae eaters than any snail. I've got a Foxface, a Tomini tang, and a Scopus tang. Talk about algae eaters... they spend every minute of every day poking around for every scap of algae they can find. A quarter sheet of Nori lasts about 5 minutes in my tank (they get one every day).

I don't do hermits, at all. Never again. Picked one too many off of healthy corals. Crabs are opportunistic feeders, I don't want them in my reef. Other crabs? I like a sump monster. Don't have one at the moment, but I'm on the lookout for one. Big gorilla crab or some such, help keep deposits in the sump broken up. Emeralds are OK in the tank, porcelain crabs are cool, if you can keep them. Neat critters, but I don't keep many crabs. None, at the moment.

Snails? Yeah, I've got some snails. Mine is a bare bottom tank... I've got a few big Mexican Turbo snails... great for algae film on the glass and (plastic) substrate. Also have a few Trochus snails, a couple Ceriths. 140g display, nearly a year old, I've got maybe a dozen snails, and that's PLENTY.

 

[brandon429]

clean up crews have wrecked more reefs with invasion than I can count.


sounds mean I know, but they did.
here's the formula: start by hands off reefing and allowing the uglies phase per forum rules. add clean up crew at the start or during the outbreak, wait. tank is lost to cyano/ghax1000 posts and owner starts over or takes it down and repeats the initial set of action/inaction steps.


the clean up crew was the external source sure to fix things, that didnt.


thats not to say a clean up crew isn't part of a choice set that could easily be reversed for a different outcome, but they're still part. Its awesome to be invasion free without a cuc.

yes I have seen cuc's beat an invasion, but its not the majority of times. the majority of times is posting in the nuisance algae forum for help beyond cuc as we speak.

 

[Vette67]

I answered "When I see them declining". Over the years, I have lost countless snails and hermits. It always amuses me when people actually know exactly how many snails or hermits they have in their tank. In that time, I have cleaned my sand bed and accumulated empty shells, and I was collecting them in various containers. A few months back, I consolidated all of those containers into this single 2 liter PhosGuard container. I was surprised when I filled it exactly to the top. We all know the price of crabs and snails, so I would like to know how much money was in this jug! Or maybe I wouldn't....

 

[ZipAdeeZoa]

I put other because I have yet to need to replenish any CUC, the only residents of my nano are 1 blue legged hermit, 1 scarlet hermit, 1 pom pom crab and 1 blood shrimp (although the latter two are there for form not function). My frag qt tank has 2 trochus snails that have been going strong for a while now. I'm only about 1 year into this but I certainly hope I get to enjoy all my critters for a few years!

 

[josh515025]

I think a large crew is unnecessary unless your going after a specific problem. I had a couple of peppermints eradicate an aptasia outbreak in my 75 in a week, never came back. Unfortunately they were eaten by my fire shrimp which doesn’t really do anything.

 

[laverda]

I think they are very important. But I think the most critical are the pods, brittle stars, and bristle worms. I only occasionally add to my larger clean up crew as most live a long time. Except the stupid snails yah can not right themselves. Easy pray for my wrasse.

 

[Treefer32]

I answered I don't use a CUC. Before you judge me my 350 gallon display is finally completely void of algae! Other than grows on the glass! Which my blennies like to kiss constantly.

I have a few Neccarious snails and had 3 mexican turbo snails. But, other than that, it's just whatever has made it into the display in the last two years. I actually found a serpent star and I have also found several asterina starfish attaching to the glass now. Which, I'm o.k. with. I had a conch, but, my Dragon wrasse annihilates my cleanup crews. I have two pistol shrimp that are probably there but hiding under rocks. The Dragon Wrasse constantly digs in the sand looking for things, moving rocks around etc. I rarely have anything growing on my sand bed because he digs new holes all over my tank constantly. He's actually pulled out pieces of the egg crate I have under my rocks. Broken off little plastic pieces which I later find attached to my powerheads. I've had to add a canister filter just to keep the water column clean because he makes it so messy. Whenever I clean the 25 micron filters it's full of sand / debris.

He constantly flips my mexican turbo snails over, I gave up flipping them right side up because he attacks them non stop. Hasn't killed them just gets annoyed that they move and flips them over....

So, my clean up crew is just whatever hitchhikers make it in.

 

[dloucks]

I have had several medium sized tanks over the years, however I recently got back in the hobby with a 3 gallon pico. My cycle was cruising right along and I hadn't bothered with getting a clean-up crew since it was such a small tank and I figured I'd do most of the cleaning manually through high percentage water changes.

I had a couple decent size patches of GHA on rocks and decided on a whim to add 2 snails and 2 hermits. Saturday morning they were added to the tank, by Sunday night there wasn't a shred of GHA in the entire tank. I'm actually worried I may have to spot feed them now to keep them alive, or reduce to just a single snail and crab!

 

[stefanm]

I've got 99 problems but a cuc ain't 1! My tank is 2 years old, been through the worst time since February, then the brutal lockdown here and equipment failures, my snails just seem to keep on breeding with they're own population control, bristleworms and pods are also plentiful, I did have some crabs but removed all of them always killing snails.

Yesterday a group of snails were having an orgy.

 

[vabben]

My favorite CUC is my blue-eyed hermit crab. He comes running when he knows its feeding time. I replenish once I start to notice fewer shells on my rocks and glass. When I upgrade it'll be fun to see the number of shells my pistol shrimp and yellow watchman are hoarding under their rock.