CUC - Plan and QT help

[fatoldsun]

I am ready to add a CUC to my new tank - in my existing 55, I have 1 snail (not sure what he is, but he's large-ish and growing fast b/c he has no competition - except the vermitids all over) and maybe 2 hemits if I can find them - they have red legs but I doubt they're scarlets. I also have a brittle star to move over. The NEW tank (which is just cycled) is a 90g with a 40g sump (and refugium) and I have a 3-4" sand bed. Any suggestions on what I should look to add?
Also, I have a yellow Tang and a somewhat large maroon clown so the tang may want some algae but the tanks in a "glass" room - a tank within a tank so to speak - I get a LOT of natural daylight so while I intend to add a reactor with GFO from the group buy I expect that I will still have a rather substantial algae problem. As for a stocking plan, I hope to head in the reef direction but I need to see how the tank does temp-wise this summer (because of all the glass) so for now it will be FOWLR with a hope to move towards reef - not sure if that will change anyone's recommendation.

Oh, and also, how does one go about QT'ing a CUC? or does anyone bother with that? I think the better safe than sorry approach is 30 days anything wet - thoughts on this? I hope that's enough info for you guys to make recommendations, and I'm open to any/all.

Thanks as always!
-Dave

[NewOne81]

Not sure i've heard of anyone qting a clean up crew before but anythings possible i guess

[fatoldsun]

hey, I'm not looking to be a pioneer in making life gharder - just that I've read many people on here say to QT anything wet - well, they're wet so I thought it was worth asking - I'll chalk that up as 1 for no QT of a CUC
Thanks

[sporto0]

get your crew in the DT right away, you won't need to QT them. i suggest about 80 nassarius snails, 10-20 turbos, 10-20 margaritas or astreas (less hardy shippers) 10-20 ceriths & a combination of 75-100 hermits, i would go with the common blue, red or zebra hermits as they do not get huge & become bull dozers like scarlets etc. & it's a good idea to have empty shells ready for your hermits to use or they will kill your snails for their shells. also beware of most carnivores (fish) you place in your tank, they will devour the cuc. & if your ultimate goal is to reef, do not keep too many fish in there as it will cause a nutrient, nitrate & phosphate problem for you in the future & that equals GREEN HAIR ALGAE or worse. good luck & good reefing!

[fatoldsun]

Originally Posted by sporto0

get your crew in the DT right away, you won't need to QT them. i suggest about 80 nassarius snails, 10-20 turbos, 10-20 margaritas or astreas (less hardy shippers) 10-20 ceriths & a combination of 75-100 hermits, i would go with the common blue, red or zebra hermits as they do not get huge & become bull dozers like scarlets etc. & it's a good idea to have empty shells ready for your hermits to use or they will kill your snails for their shells. also beware of most carnivores (fish) you place in your tank, they will devour the cuc. & if your ultimate goal is to reef, do not keep too many fish in there as it will cause a nutrient, nitrate & phosphate problem for you in the future & that equals GREEN HAIR ALGAE or worse. good luck & good reefing!

great list Thank you! off to the LFS tomorrow - unless I do an online order - just thought shipping would be a mess if I'm not home when it arrives

[disc1]

Originally Posted by sporto0

get your crew in the DT right away, you won't need to QT them. i suggest about 80 nassarius snails, 10-20 turbos, 10-20 margaritas or astreas (less hardy shippers) 10-20 ceriths & a combination of 75-100 hermits, i would go with the common blue, red or zebra hermits as they do not get huge & become bull dozers like scarlets etc. & it's a good idea to have empty shells ready for your hermits to use or they will kill your snails for their shells. also beware of most carnivores (fish) you place in your tank, they will devour the cuc. & if your ultimate goal is to reef, do not keep too many fish in there as it will cause a nutrient, nitrate & phosphate problem for you in the future & that equals GREEN HAIR ALGAE or worse. good luck & good reefing!

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyy too much imho. A lot of money to starve some critters imho. 100 hermits? I want to see a pic of a tank with that many. How are they not just completely covering everything? And five turbos will eat themselves out of house and home in a 90.

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[cloak]

In a 90 gallon, I would probably start with 15 snails or so and maybe 3 scarlet hermits. See how they do for awhile and adjust accordingly. (astrea, trochus, turbo, nassarius, cerith, nerite) A good mix.

[briankmarsh1980]

I QT all inverts for 30 days before they go into my DT

[sporto0]

Originally Posted by disc1

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyy too much imho. A lot of money to starve some critters imho. 100 hermits? I want to see a pic of a tank with that many. How are they not just completely covering everything? And five turbos will eat themselves out of house and home in a 90.

Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk

1 hermit crab per gallon provided they are not 2 or 3 inches long is a reccommended number, you can get 100 tiny blue legs for $25, i have at least that many in my 90g & they are most certainly not covering everything in the tank but they do work the rock & sand bed quite nicely. there is no magic answer, no right or wrong way, everyone has their own thought or experience on the subject, but it is certainly not way too much, just my opinion of course.

[briankmarsh1980]

here are some recommended CUC packages from www.ccritters.com


Products belonging to this package Quantity
Scarlet Hermit Crab: 6
Blueleg Hermit Crab: 25
Nasssarius Snail: 10
Brittle Starfish: 2
cerith snail: 10
Emerald Crab: 2
Turbo/Astrea Snail: 15
Clean up crew for 20-55 Gallon reef tank
Item #Cuc 20-55
Price $52.00
----------------------------------------------

Products belonging to this package Quantity
Scarlet Hermit Crab: 8
Blueleg Hermit Crab: 50
Nasssarius Snail: 10
Emerald Crab: 3
porcline crab: 2
cerith snails: 10
Turbo/Astrea Snail: 20
Clean up crew for 30-90 Gallon reef tank.
Item #CuC 30-90
Price $62.00

--------------------------------------------------



Products belonging to this package Quantity
Scarlet Hermit Crab: 10
Blueleg Hermit Crab: 75
Turbo/Astrea Snail: 25
porcline crab: 2
Emerald Crab: 2
sea cucumber: 2
Brittle star 2
Clean up crew for 55-100 Gallon reef tank
Item #CUC 55-100
Price $75.00


Now i don't have a CUC that large.
but lots of people do

[jamest0o0]

80 nessarius? that is way too much for a CuC,

[disc1]

Originally Posted by sporto0

1 hermit crab per gallon provided they are not 2 or 3 inches long is a reccommended number, you can get 100 tiny blue legs for $25, i have at least that many in my 90g & they are most certainly not covering everything in the tank but they do work the rock & sand bed quite nicely. there is no magic answer, no right or wrong way, everyone has their own thought or experience on the subject, but it is certainly not way too much, just my opinion of course.

I've always wondered where 1 per gallon came from. A hundred hermits is a LOT of hermits. Maybe if that's all you have for a clean-up crew I could see it. I had twenty in my 75 and took half back the next day because the tank looked like it was just crawling with them. There is currently exactly one hermit left in there. Once the start-up period is over I have no more use for them.

I think these numbers should come with sizes. If you get 10 little dime-sized Turbo's they might last for a good long while. But if you get the big bulldozer half-your fist sized guys, they'll starve out in a big hurry. Same thing with the nassarius. In my 75 there are about 6 or 8 big ones, and another dozen or so smaller ones. They keep things pretty stirred up, but 80 of them in there would look like the tank at the LFS that they sell them out of. And nassarius per gallon is false logic anyway. They are sand dwellers, so it should be based on your footprint. A 90 and a 75 with the same footprint and sandbed would need the same number of nassarius snails. Also depends a LOT on how much sand you have in there.

[fatoldsun]

Originally Posted by briankmarsh1980

I QT all inverts for 30 days before they go into my DT

Is it worth the risk so that the DT doesn't get completely out of control if I have to wait 30 days? Also, how do you sustain a CUC in a QT? My QT will be in my basement and there's not really any natural light there - not enough for algae growth (which is the exact opposite problem where my DT is)

[briankmarsh1980]

I have a 10 g set up all the time with LS,LR some macro algae and the light that comes with the tank when purchased. I mainly use it to house choco stars for my harliquin shrimp, but when I decide to beef up my CUC I put them in this tank I feed them pellets, the light will grow algae for snails.

if you are not planning on QTing everything all the time then no it's not worth it.

[fatoldsun]

I plan to QT everything (except maybe a clam if I ever get one b/c my QT won't sustain one) but I have to move everything out of the 55 I have running and I wasn't crazy about letting the 90 get out of control while I wait 30 days. Just wondering what the majority of folks do.

[cloak]

I wouldn't worry about QT your CUC. Not that it's bad, it's just one of those steps that can be bypassed IMO. I can't remember the last time I saw a thread where something drastic happened because they didn't QT their snails. Unless your purchasing your inhabitants through the mail, just spend some extra time watching and studying the behavior of an invertebrate before you purchase it. Take advantage of this at your LFS.

[cloak]

double post. Woops...

[mtnbiker44]

Do you still need to acclimate a CUC as well as fish or just throw them in?

[fatoldsun]

Originally Posted by mtnbiker44

Do you still need to acclimate a CUC as well as fish or just throw them in?

I did - not sure what would have happened if I didn't but I read enough that suggested that it was necessary that I went through the process - everything did fine - well except the peppermint shrimp I got - never saw him again after he darted behind the rocks, but for all I know he's in there and coming out at night

[Angel*Fish]

Originally Posted by sporto0

get your crew in the DT right away, you won't need to QT them. i suggest about 80 nassarius snails, 10-20 turbos, 10-20 margaritas or astreas (less hardy shippers) 10-20 ceriths & a combination of 75-100 hermits, i would go with the common blue, red or zebra hermits as they do not get huge & become bull dozers like scarlets etc. & it's a good idea to have empty shells ready for your hermits to use or they will kill your snails for their shells. also beware of most carnivores (fish) you place in your tank, they will devour the cuc. & if your ultimate goal is to reef, do not keep too many fish in there as it will cause a nutrient, nitrate & phosphate problem for you in the future & that equals GREEN HAIR ALGAE or worse. good luck & good reefing!

Holy cow - do you have stock in snails and hermits or something? That list is way beyond reasonable and I sincerely hope the OP or anyone did not go out and buy all that. Big waste of money.

It saddens me to see that a lot of new hobbyists are young and just starting out or still in school and people send them out to spend their precious funds on this sort of expensive wild goose chase.

[Angel*Fish]

Originally Posted by briankmarsh1980

here are some recommended CUC packages from www.ccritters.com


Products belonging to this package Quantity
Scarlet Hermit Crab: 6
Blueleg Hermit Crab: 25
Nasssarius Snail: 10
Brittle Starfish: 2
cerith snail: 10
Emerald Crab: 2
Turbo/Astrea Snail: 15
Clean up crew for 20-55 Gallon reef tank
Item #Cuc 20-55
Price $52.00
----------------------------------------------

Products belonging to this package Quantity
Scarlet Hermit Crab: 8
Blueleg Hermit Crab: 50
Nasssarius Snail: 10
Emerald Crab: 3
porcline crab: 2
cerith snails: 10
Turbo/Astrea Snail: 20
Clean up crew for 30-90 Gallon reef tank.
Item #CuC 30-90
Price $62.00

--------------------------------------------------



Products belonging to this package Quantity
Scarlet Hermit Crab: 10
Blueleg Hermit Crab: 75
Turbo/Astrea Snail: 25
porcline crab: 2
Emerald Crab: 2
sea cucumber: 2
Brittle star 2
Clean up crew for 55-100 Gallon reef tank
Item #CUC 55-100
Price $75.00


Now i don't have a CUC that large.
but lots of people do

And why do you think that is? The need for a giant clean up crew is a big myth. I wonder how it got started. People, please stop getting your advice at the point of purchase!

[jeff@zina.com]

Reefcleaners.org. Email John and he'll set you up with exactly what you need. Inexpensively.

Jeff

[Crawdawg]

I'm trying to imagine 80 nassarius rumbling out of the sand at feeding time. It would be like the zombie apocolypse. I was given a biocube 14 that had 5 in it, and they would emerge and streak up the glass every time i introduced any food...it's been reduced to 2, and I keep 5 in a 65 breeder, with 10 dwarf zebra hermits, and those 10 seem to be everywhere.

[Baldguy]

I got a CUC from one of the online venders but for a tank 1/3 the size of mine. I think even that was over kill. I've got snails all over the place. I had algae and diatoms when I ordered them, come to find out both algae and diatoms are common in a new tank and would have gone away without any help. I'm wondering what will keep all those snails alive now.

[fatoldsun]

Originally Posted by Crawdawg

I'm trying to imagine 80 nassarius rumbling out of the sand at feeding time. It would be like the zombie apocolypse.

Now that's funny....