cleaners

[firefighter 69]

Porkie-Dragon Wrasse-Niger-Yellow Tang any suggestions for a clean up crew for these piglets. I might try a choc chip or try to find some tiger cowries. Any ideas? 2 week water changes become a pain

[prugs]

You are the cleanup crew.
Long stiff pvc or acrylic tubing hooked up to some hose going into a bucket works great for getting slime alage off the rocks.
Work on making your water changes easier. Changing water is part of the hobby experience.

[Dave Legacy]

A skimmer, refugium, and chemical filteration might spread out your water changes and enhance your water quality. Are you doing PWC every 2 weeks, or twice a week? If you're doing every 2 weeks you're doing pretty damn well.

[Monkeyfish]

Tiger cowries will help with the algae. Large hermits and serpent stars will help with the rest. I've found that the hermits and serpent stars only come out once the tank lights are off due to their natural inclination and "fear" of the predators. However, others have reported that their large hermits made a nice snack for the puffer. Depends on how well the fish are fed and the individual disposition of the animal.

[LRS078]

Another thing to consider when using inverts to be a cleanup crew in a FOWLR is that many predator tanks have nitrates that can spike (or just creep) up to levels that will kill an invert. This then causes the nitrates to skyrocket as one dead snail can really screw your tank if you don't know where it is.

Just keep a tally of what you have in the tank and take "role call" regularly. Big cowries are one of the few inverts that can tank a puffer but if you puffer is crafty he may still get them....they do have the best odds by far. Some puffers/triggers are more invert obsessed (or friendly) than others so YMMV.

Best thing to keep nuissance algae down is keeping your nitrates super low. I'm NOT a fan of sugar dosing but after reading (and swapping a few PM's) Anthony Calfo's "Remote Deep Sandbed" I'm a believer. They take about a month to kick in but are well worth it. You still do water changes but not to fight a constant battle with nitrates.

Hope this helps....