Sk8r
06/15/2012, 10:52 AM
A Cleanup Crew [CUC] is the next step after cycling. There's a lot of myth, a lot of angst about hair algae and 'getting something to eat it.' ***eddaboutit...re the 'eating' thing.
Your CUC will eat algae. So will copepods and many desirable creatures in your tank.
But they won't strip your tank of algae. They can't. Not remotely. Algae grows because your rock and sand have some phosphate (algae fuel) and they're starting to release that phosphate into the water. If you didn't use ro/di water in setup, you may really have a lot of phosphate. If you didn't wash your sand, yep, even more. So---how to get rid of the phosphate? Not a CUC. Either a refugium (an algae-farm) or a phosphate reactor (about 50.00 and highly effective, over about 3-4 months: do NOT expect instant results. Also DO NOT OVERDO: you need some algae for health and food for some species. Blennies need it; copepods need it; and your snails need it.)
SO---if they're not there to eat up all the algae, what ARE they there for?
One real reason, besides being cute: they poo. They poo gentle, usually non-high-protein veggie-based stuff into your baby sandbed, which right now has never handled high-volume fish poo. Over about a month (time for you to safely quarantine your first fish) they will slowly bring that baby, weakling sandbed up to strength enough to handle a fish's greater, more protein-based output. And believe me---fish can poo. A lot.
Once your tank matures and you have waste floating around, your CUC is still important: it re-poos the poo in micro-size that can slip down through the sand to get to the bacteria, who process it into nitrogen gas, which floats up as occasional bubble: that's why reefs don't use filters---their sandbeds break it all down. Fish-onlies may need a little more cleanup, and may need filters, because they're a bit more bare-bones and their sandbeds usually can't keep up. Not saying they couldn't with backup sandbeds, but they often don't.
What should be in your CUC? In the first month, I recommend cerith snails and strombus grazer snails; and scarlet hermits, which are wellbehaved. Don't get margaritas (coldwater, and soon die: they shouldn't even be sold) and don't get astraeas---they can't go on sand, fall over, starve, and crabs eat them, of course, after they're dead. Also you need bristleworms. If you also have other creatures from your live rock, generally, good: the more the merrier. Most worms are good; most volunteer crabs aren't. Shrimp---don't get shrimp right off. They have nothing to eat yet, anyway. [Coral bandeds can nip fish, or even kill them. ] Avoid nassarius and conches for the first 3 months. After your tank matures a bit, you can add 2 nassarius or 1 conch per 50 gallons of tank: you'll rarely see them, since they live under the sand and keep it clean for you---but they'll starve in a new tank.
Do not clean your sandbed: let the nassarius and conches do that---they don't disturb it as they work very small areas at a time---24/7/365.
Give your initial inverts a month in your newly-cycled tank and spend your spare time quarantining a fish and getting your water chemistry balanced: that's quite enough for a novice to do all at once. And that water chemistry is EVERYTHING.
I have good params for an lps reef in my sig line. Even if you're fish-only or softie coral, match those via water changes, (stony reefs ultimately need alk-cal-mg additives) and test for alkalinity obsessively. A log book is a good thing: don't trust your memory. If you've got a good CUC before you start bringing fish into the picture, you'll have less nitrate problems---if you have a sump and skimmer and fuge, probably NO nitrate problems. And if you are a fish-only, and your fish will eat a CUC, consider a refugium with CUC AND rock and sandbed: it'll make your life easier, giving you the advantage of an additional sandbed and rock to process waste, and a CUC your fish can't get at: if you have herbivores, you can also grow weed that your fish can't get at until you give it to them.
HTH you understand how CUC and sandbeds work.
Your CUC will eat algae. So will copepods and many desirable creatures in your tank.
But they won't strip your tank of algae. They can't. Not remotely. Algae grows because your rock and sand have some phosphate (algae fuel) and they're starting to release that phosphate into the water. If you didn't use ro/di water in setup, you may really have a lot of phosphate. If you didn't wash your sand, yep, even more. So---how to get rid of the phosphate? Not a CUC. Either a refugium (an algae-farm) or a phosphate reactor (about 50.00 and highly effective, over about 3-4 months: do NOT expect instant results. Also DO NOT OVERDO: you need some algae for health and food for some species. Blennies need it; copepods need it; and your snails need it.)
SO---if they're not there to eat up all the algae, what ARE they there for?
One real reason, besides being cute: they poo. They poo gentle, usually non-high-protein veggie-based stuff into your baby sandbed, which right now has never handled high-volume fish poo. Over about a month (time for you to safely quarantine your first fish) they will slowly bring that baby, weakling sandbed up to strength enough to handle a fish's greater, more protein-based output. And believe me---fish can poo. A lot.
Once your tank matures and you have waste floating around, your CUC is still important: it re-poos the poo in micro-size that can slip down through the sand to get to the bacteria, who process it into nitrogen gas, which floats up as occasional bubble: that's why reefs don't use filters---their sandbeds break it all down. Fish-onlies may need a little more cleanup, and may need filters, because they're a bit more bare-bones and their sandbeds usually can't keep up. Not saying they couldn't with backup sandbeds, but they often don't.
What should be in your CUC? In the first month, I recommend cerith snails and strombus grazer snails; and scarlet hermits, which are wellbehaved. Don't get margaritas (coldwater, and soon die: they shouldn't even be sold) and don't get astraeas---they can't go on sand, fall over, starve, and crabs eat them, of course, after they're dead. Also you need bristleworms. If you also have other creatures from your live rock, generally, good: the more the merrier. Most worms are good; most volunteer crabs aren't. Shrimp---don't get shrimp right off. They have nothing to eat yet, anyway. [Coral bandeds can nip fish, or even kill them. ] Avoid nassarius and conches for the first 3 months. After your tank matures a bit, you can add 2 nassarius or 1 conch per 50 gallons of tank: you'll rarely see them, since they live under the sand and keep it clean for you---but they'll starve in a new tank.
Do not clean your sandbed: let the nassarius and conches do that---they don't disturb it as they work very small areas at a time---24/7/365.
Give your initial inverts a month in your newly-cycled tank and spend your spare time quarantining a fish and getting your water chemistry balanced: that's quite enough for a novice to do all at once. And that water chemistry is EVERYTHING.
I have good params for an lps reef in my sig line. Even if you're fish-only or softie coral, match those via water changes, (stony reefs ultimately need alk-cal-mg additives) and test for alkalinity obsessively. A log book is a good thing: don't trust your memory. If you've got a good CUC before you start bringing fish into the picture, you'll have less nitrate problems---if you have a sump and skimmer and fuge, probably NO nitrate problems. And if you are a fish-only, and your fish will eat a CUC, consider a refugium with CUC AND rock and sandbed: it'll make your life easier, giving you the advantage of an additional sandbed and rock to process waste, and a CUC your fish can't get at: if you have herbivores, you can also grow weed that your fish can't get at until you give it to them.
HTH you understand how CUC and sandbeds work.