cleanup crew doing to good of a job! :)

[doox00]

I got a small cleanup crew in my tank last week, 18 snails and 12 crabs. I have a 90g with 30g sump, 120ish lbs of live rock, was already cured, tank has been up for a little over 2 weeks, ammonia and nitrite have been 0 since setup, nitrate at 2-5 the whole time.

I had diatoms for half a week, that went away, had some green algae forming, but the snails I have, 18 astrea I think they are maybe.. plus 6 turbo snails that were hitchhikers on the rock have pretty much taken care of all that. No fish in the tank yet, have 2 little true perc clowns in qt though I just got this week.

Problem is I ordered 18 more snails and 12 more crabs.. I am afraid they will starve.. what can I put in the tank to make sure that does not happen? It will be a few weeks I imagine before any fish will be in the tank.

thanks

[Sk8r]

A little formula 1 flake food (don't overfeed! and don't go on using it indefinitely) is a good backup for when the algae levels have been depleted. The problem is, if you overdo it, you will cause another algae bloom, and the critters will have algae again---it can be a circular problem: try to balance it. I like to have a cleaning crew in my sps reef constantly, because I have a few fish, and you don't know when something could die, a shrimp could molt, whatever, and the cleaning crew is part of the biological action that breaks down the detritus. Some people want to get rid of them rather than feed them: I just keep them fed and standing by in case. This paid off, as I just had a little blush of red algae and the crew went right to work.

[MarkD40]

I put a few shrimp pellets into my tank once per week. They hold together long enough for the crabs to find them and then consume them and they don't get blown around by my pumps. I drop them in the front so I can see if they have ben eaten and remove them if not, but that has not happened yet.

[doox00]

I will pick some pellets up today for em to munch on. Afraid the flake will just end up in the overflow and skimmed out.. speaking of which, when it comes time to feed the fish flakes and what not, do you turn the pumps off during that time? seems most of hte food would be gone from the overflow.

[cw150]

2 weeks old means you have plenty more algae phases to live through and enjoy. Don't worry about it that much.