Which CUC to get?

[reelss]

Hi folks,

I am currently cycling my 120 gallon tank, but want to look ahead and think about CUC. Personally, I don't like the look of snails and crabs in a tank, but I understand they can help fight off algae.

I want to keep the numbers to a minimum and would like to avoid any crabs.

So far, I am thinking of getting the following:
Nassarius Snails
Nerite Snails (do these require flipping upright? if so, would like to avoid them)
Dwarf cerith

Any others?
How many should i get of each?

 

[Big G]

+1 on the crabs. Darn Hermit Crabs are killers.
Check out Ninja Star snails. So cool looking and relentless cleaners. KP Aquatics usually have them.
Nerites leave snail eggs often on your glass, equipment. The only time I see them upside down is when they are dead. Good cleaners.
In a new tank, there usually not a lot of algae for them to feed upon. If you go to Reef Cleaners.org they have a calculator to help you decide how many of each snail. So adjust the amounts based on not only your tank size but your tank needs.
Are you QT ing your snails? Highly suggest you consider. Just dealt with another reefer who's tank got velvet by adding snail without qt this week.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/how-to-quarantine-coral-and-inverts.288859/#post-3515086

 

[Mark Derail]

Some snails like the Nassarius just do sand, so if not bare bottom, you won't see them much.
The Nerite will eat algae on the glass in concentric waves (left right advance left right). The get stuck & die, bungee jump from the tank top to the bottom and cannot flip. Plus are easy prey to the hermit crabs. I constantly buy some.

For the crabs - maybe not going with hermits but with emerald crabs - again these like sand tanks not bare bottom.
Cleaner shrimps like the skunk does a good job with detritus, but not algae.

How many? I like 10 total per 50g of DT size (hermits + snails). I once bumped that up to 20 in my 50g DT, and within a week at least 3 hermit crabs got eaten by larger ones, and lost a few snails quickly.

BTW - hermit crabs are cool looking and play peek-a-boo with you, and like banging against the glass to get your attention. What's not to love?
Other than eating each other and snails?

 

[Mark Derail]

+1 on the crabs. Darn Hermit Crabs are killers.

Are you QT ing your snails? Highly suggest you consider. Just dealt with another reefer who's tank got velvet by adding snail without qt this week.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/how-to-quarantine-coral-and-inverts.288859/#post-3515086

Good point on QT - never did that on snails. If you QT them for 1 month, what do you feed them? Nori broken up into flakes and left floating?

 

[Potatohead]

I really like scarlet hermits, but they do kill some snails. They are fun to watch though.

If it was my tank I would get twenty each of nassarius (assuming you have sand), cerith, and trochus.

 

[Mikedawg]

Once your tank has matured and has some algae I would consider a conch or two. They also eat cyano and detritus and keep the sandbed stirred up.

Plus, who can resist such an adorable face, lol.

 

[Mombo]

I would heavily suggest checking out trochus snails. They eat a lot of different types of algae and they eat a lot of it too. The purple banded ones look nice as well. They do the work of multiple snails imo so you could have less overall.

I have dwarf ceriths and normal ceriths and the dwarfs don’t seem to be that great for me.

My new 120 has trochus, nassarius, and normal ceriths. I’ll prob add a few more trochus over time but for now they are doing well.

My tank is going through the uglies right now with dry rock so I have diatoms like crazy. Whenever I see a trochus get on a particular brown rock the next morning it is pure white again. Amazing.

 

[Mombo]

What is the smallest(adult) type of conch that is normally available?

 

[Big G]

Good point on QT - never did that on snails. If you QT them for 1 month, what do you feed them? Nori broken up into flakes and left floating?

I usually wrap a rock with a strip of nori. Use a rubber band to hold the nori to the rock. Tie a length of fishing line onto the rubber band so I can lower it into the tank and pull it out when done. Just be careful the rubber band doesn't slip off and drop the rock - yikes

Qt for snails and inverts is 76 days to starve out possible ich encysts on their shells.

 

[reelss]

Yes, I do have about an inch of Aragonite as substrate.

Based on what I have heard, here's what I am thinking:

From ReefCleaners:
1 x Chaeto (for refugium)
10 x Dwarf Cerith
10 x Florida Cerith
10 x Nassarius Vibex

Additionally, since they don't carry the following, I will order these from some place else:
20 x Trochus Snails
10 x Nassarius Snails (assuming these are different from the vibex from reefcleaners)

 

[Big G]

What is the smallest(adult) type of conch that is normally available?

KP Aquatics has them at about 2"
https://www.kpaquatics.com/product/fighting-conch/

 

[Mombo]

Dont think youll need two types of Nassarius snail if they are different they just eat the left over food or dead stuff.

20 trochus might be a a lot for a 120g. I have 10 normal size ceriths and 1 trochus does more work then all of them daily. 10 dwarfs are probably not needed unless you want some mini snails in your tank.

 

[reelss]

Dont think youll need two types of Nassarius snail if they are different they just eat the left over food or dead stuff.

20 trochus might be a a lot for a 120g. I have 10 normal size ceriths and 1 trochus does more work then all of them daily. 10 dwarfs are probably not needed unless you want some mini snails in your tank.

How many of each type do you have in your tank?

 

[Bigtex817]

I second the conch snails those guys are cool and funny when they try to flip themselves back up right.

 

[Mombo]

I’m planning on doing 10 of each in my 120. I started with 3 trochus and 10 ceriths and 3 nassarius. Just added 3 more trochus. I’ll add more nassarius and trochus as the tank gets older.

Then maybe a conch if needed . They look fun just don’t want to starve it to death if I don’t have enough growing.

 

[40B Knasty]

Build up to your CUC. You don't want die off causing more nutrients in your tank.
2-5 trochus, 8-12 astrea, 10 bumble bee smalls, and a fighting conch when diatoms start after a month or 2. Turbos can be good, but they knock a lot over and one type is temperature sensitive and will most likely not enjoy a life in a tank over 75F.
A few cleaner or fire shrimp.