When to add a clean up crew

Alvin Alejandro · Mar 9, 2016

So my tank is finally cycled and yesterday I added my first fish. My question is when should I add a clean up crew? There's no Alger growing yet and I started out with dry rock and dry sand. My royal gramma is really eating much right now he really spends most of his time hiding. I'm wondering if I should add a clean up crew now or wait... I don't want all the uneaten fish food to accumulate and then have a bad Alger outbreak but I also don't want the CUC to starve and die. Thanks in advance.

Lonny · Mar 9, 2016

Imo, you got plenty of time. After my tank cycled I waited till diatoms started building up and I had three fish in there as well. I have a 130gl tank and I put about 10 hermits and 12 snails to start. You can always add more later if needed. Diatoms will die of on there own anyway and I to didn't want anyone to starve. I feed my fish twice a day and still don't have nitrates that show up on a test yet, phosphate is at 0.025 so if you monitor those you'll be ahead of an algae bloom and can take action if needed. Hope this helps

CodyRVA · Mar 9, 2016

As long as you're feeding the system, there will be something for your clean up crew to eat. I would start small, get a variety of cleaners and add more as needed. Agreed with @Lonny, when you see extensive diatom growth, stock up on cleaners during or slightly into the process.

Alvin Alejandro · Mar 9, 2016

Lonny said:
Imo, you got plenty of time. After my tank cycled I waited till diatoms started building up and I had three fish in there as well. I have a 130gl tank and I put about 10 hermits and 12 snails to start. You can always add more later if needed. Diatoms will die of on there own anyway and I to didn't want anyone to starve. I feed my fish twice a day and still don't have nitrates that show up on a test yet, phosphate is at 0.025 so if you monitor those you'll be ahead of an algae bloom and can take action if needed. Hope this helps

Awesome thanks for the response I have a Hanna checker but I still haven't tested for phosphates I do know my nitrates are at 10 ppm though I was running my protein skimmer at the time now that I added the fish I've turned it on idk if that matters. I'm kinda wanting to stay away from snails and thinking about getting a blue tuxedo sea urchin and a fighting conch for the sand and some hermits maybe. Idk if that would work but thats kinda what I wanted to do.

CodyRVA · Mar 9, 2016

Alvin Alejandro said:
Awesome thanks for the response I have a Hanna checker but I still haven't tested for phosphates I do know my nitrates are at 10 ppm though I was running my protein skimmer at the time now that I added the fish I've turned it on idk if that matters. I'm kinda wanting to stay away from snails and thinking about getting a blue tuxedo sea urchin and a fighting conch for the sand and some hermits maybe. Idk if that would work but thats kinda what I wanted to do.

What size is your tank? Snails really are your best friend. To my knowledge urchins eat coralline algae so you may want to hold off until you build up a lot of it so it can quickly recover. Fighting conchs have limitations on tank size, i have a florida fighting conch and its about 5-6 inches, needs A LOT of sand. Hermits are decent, you get more bang for your buck out of snails though, IMO. Nassarius snails are also great sand bed cleaners; or a sand sifting star, but may be a bit early for that.

Alvin Alejandro · Mar 9, 2016

CodyRVA said:
What size is your tank? Snails really are your best friend. To my knowledge urchins eat coralline algae so you may want to hold off until you build up a lot of it so it can quickly recover. Fighting conchs have limitations on tank size, i have a florida fighting conch and its about 5-6 inches, needs A LOT of sand. Hermits are decent, you get more bang for your buck out of snails though, IMO. Nassarius snails are also great sand bed cleaners; or a sand sifting star, but may be a bit early for that.

I have a 40g I guess I can always start out with some snails they wouldn't hurt anything I've had them before when I had a 75g.

Lonny · Mar 9, 2016

Alvin Alejandro said:
I have a 40g I guess I can always start out with some snails they wouldn't hurt anything I've had them before when I had a 75g.

What happened to the 75?

Alvin Alejandro · Mar 9, 2016

I had to move so I broke it down and sold everything.

Lonny · Mar 9, 2016

Had to do that with my fowlr. Sucks but glad your back into it.

Alvin Alejandro · Mar 9, 2016

Lonny said:
Had to do that with my fowlr. Sucks but glad your back into it.

Yeah as soon as I broke it down I already had this tank in mind I bought everything fir it and had it sitting in my garage for a while year waiting for the right time to set it up