Hermit Crab & Snails

[petzerman]

How many hermit crab and snails should a little over 30 gal tank have?

I have a tek ligh t5 lighting system and 20 lbs of live rock 5 fishes, coral and 2 anemones. I already have 14 snails, 2 turbo snails, and 8 hermit crabs. Do I need more?

[sir_dudeguy]

what fish do you have? 5 fish seems like quite a few in that small of a tank, unless they're small ones like gobies and whatnot...

Anyways, it just depends...are the ones you got now gettin the job done for you? If there's still lots of algae and the params are all good, then maybe adding a few more would be a good idea.

Also, its good to have a nice mixture of snails.... Personally, i like cerith snails the best. They seem to get the most waste and diatom/film algae. Plus they get the sand. Then i like astreas and turbos for the glass/rockwork, and having a few nassarius snails is a good idea for the sand (they eat anything dead/left over food, etc in the sand).

As for hermits, i personally am not a big fan. They never really seem to do anything beside kill off cerith snails and astrea snails for their shells. I've heard that putting lots of extra shells in the tank for them to dig through is a good idea, but they still seem to prefer killing eachother and snails for new shells...must be like their "prize trophy" or something i guess... I wouldnt add any more.

[reefnetworth]

turbo snails and hermits are clumsy, sometimes knocking over and/or breaking corals. all i keep are Astrea snails, i have very little alga of any kind, and only have one snail per every 6.25 gallons of water.
they just graze the rock constantly and keep it clean, i dont see alga on any rock, yet they have survived in this tank for over 3.5 yrs.
FWIW, they have never broken one coral in a sps dominated bare bottom set-up...

[petzerman]

i have 2 clowns and 3 damsals a fire shrimp and peppermint shrimp. umm i have like 14 Astrea snails. and 2 turbo snails. so yeaa i still have algae on the glass and on the sand. should i just get cerith snails?

[reefnetworth]

leave the poo eatin and sand sifting up to the cerriths and nassarius, and let the Astrea eat the alga! :lol: if its over one 16th of an inch in length, they ususally will not eat it.
test your water for P04 and N03 levels, and keep your light cycle around 8-9 hrs. daily and keep grazers. all 4 play a roll in alga control. if those 4 cant be acheived, you will always have alga.

EDIT, sorry i forgot something important. :rolleyes:

[petzerman]

but the astreas just stay on the glass and dont each the algae on the sand. will the cerriths eat that?

[sir_dudeguy]

astreas cant really go on sand. They're a rock dwelling snail, therefore only going on rock and glass. so yes, get the ceriths, because the astreas cant really get the stuff there. Ceriths will get any detritus or algae in the sand

[petzerman]

coooolieesss thanks! :)

[reefnetworth]

no problem, you dont know, so you ask. that, plus trial and error is how we all learn. there are no stupid questions on RC! :D