Help Me Pick A Cleaning Crew

[KingSpade]

what should i get for a cleaning cre for my 125 reef? this will be set up on wednesday or thursday with all the water from my semi established 125 non drilled i will also be using all my live rock from that tank as well, i have about 180+ lbs. how soon do i need to get a cleaning crew and what should it consist of??

[KingSpade]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6789176#post6789176 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by KingSpade
what should i get for a cleaning cre for my 125 reef? this will be set up on wednesday or thursday with all the water from my semi established 125 non drilled i will also be using all my live rock from that tank as well, i have about 180+ lbs. how soon do i need to get a cleaning crew and what should it consist of?? oh yeah, i forgot to mention there will be 240lbs of carib sea arag-alive bahama oolite going in it that was not in my tank it will be brand new.

[minimalist]

Sand or no sand?

[minimalist]

50 Astrea snails
25 Cerith snails
50 Nassarius snails

20 scarlet reef hermits

Also, a couple conchs...

[roons]

id go a a little lower on the astrea and nassarius and get a couple fightiing conchs................i agree with the cerith and scarletts

[Craig Lambert]

Fighting conch....great guy to have in your tank. I also like Nassarius, Cerith, torchus, Mexican Turbo's (just a few) and then maybe a few nerite, and astrea (If they fall off the rocks they have a hard time righting themselves). That would do it for me....I don't like hermits as they are snail killing shell stealers.

[miztic]

I'd go lower on the nassarius, get more cerith and maybe 5-10 mexican turbos.

I only have 3 nassarius (bought them to see what they'd do) and I never see them eat/catch anything, they cruise around plenty when there's food around, but i've never seen one actually eat anything, I worry about them starving.

[KingSpade]

i will have 240 lbs of carib sea arag-alive bahama oolite sand in there. also what should i put in my fuge? i am going to have the same sand in there as in the tank and some LR rubble and cheato, should put any critters in there?

[Craig Lambert]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6789348#post6789348 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by KingSpade
i will have 240 lbs of carib sea arag-alive bahama oolite sand in there. also what should i put in my fuge? i am going to have the same sand in there as in the tank and some LR rubble and cheato, should put any critters in there?


Don't mean to burst you bubble but agra-alive is not real live sand. After you have completed cycling I would add a detrivoire kit from either:

http://inlandaquatics.com

or

http://ipsf.com

[roons]

inland is a little pricey but their detritivore kits are very nice ........you can also byo at etropicals on the cleaners, good price

[Anemonebuff]

I would avoid hermits. I would get 10 Mexican Turbos, 20 Astrea, 20 nassarius, and a few ceriths. After the tank stablizes I would add more snails as necessary. Many people flood the tank with snails and forget that they need enough algae to survive. Too many added at once will be counterproductive in the end. Later on I would add a fighting conch and whatever other snails you need to keep up.

[squirmy]

blue zoo has snail only crews...

[KingSpade]

hey ANEMONE how do you like your ASM G3? mine will be here tomorrow, do you happen to have any pictures of it in action??

[Anemonebuff]

Love it!

Here it is in the sump with the gate valve modification. I have changed the GVM around since and it works great. It really helps fine tune the skimmer.

http://img494.imageshack.us/img494/8281/picture1470nr.jpg

Here is a pic of the skimmer during it's first week in action. Broke in in just 3-4 days.

http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/1754/picture1354tz.jpg

[Anemonebuff]

Also Quincy my Chinese food container Kalk Dripper(patent pending). I move the gate vale to the to of the "U". Now it is easy to adjust. Before I had to reach into the water to adjust the level.

I found that the skimmer works best in at least 6"-6.5" of water(never went deeper). I tried it in 5"-5.5" and it suffered a little and so did I. It seemed to need more adjusting at lower depths.

[KingSpade]

i will have about 9" of water in my skimmer bay, do you think that will be too deep??

[Anemonebuff]

Not at all. However, I would not submerge the return on the GVM. It really effects the skimmer's performance when the water level fluctuates.

[KingSpade]

i didnt get the gate valve mod, what is its purpose?