Picking a Clean up crew.

[moneymm]

I have a 45 gallon tank w 40 lbs of live rock and 2-3 inches of live sand.

A bunch of algae already on many of the rocks and even on sand bed.

Which should I get? And how many?

Do I need to acclimate them? Or just drop them on in?

I have heard .01 per day with salinity increase for fish, how is that possible with snails if they are being put right in the dt?

Do I put them on the sand or just put them on top of the water or on the rocks?

[pREEFERED]

i havent chosen a CUC either but check out reefcleaners.org... i have heard nothing but good things, and their options eliminate all the guess work.

[Sapelo]

Reef cleaners is awesome. If you email them with your specs they will even design a custom CUC for you. I could not recommend them more highly.

[Miz40B]

Your better off (as will be the critters) if you pick out your own CUC. RC makes these crazy packages where half die off within the first 6 months. Why? Because there's way more then what is actually needed and they wind up starving to death. NO new tank needs 20-50 snails no matter what kind they are. It is not a good deal!
In my 20wk old 40B I have 5 tiny Nassarius, 1 Scarlet Hermit, 5 Nerite Snails and one recently purchased Strawberry Conch. The Conch I must supplement feed, but love how he gently keeps my SB stirred up.
There is no guess work when choosing a CUC if you do your research.

[Pigpen17]

Originally Posted by Miz40B

Your better off (as will be the critters) if you pick out your own CUC. RC makes these crazy packages where half die off within the first 6 months. Why? Because there's way more then what is actually needed and they wind up starving to death. NO new tank needs 20-50 snails no matter what kind they are. It is not a good deal!
In my 20wk old 40B I have 5 tiny Nassarius, 1 Scarlet Hermit, 5 Nerite Snails and one recently purchased Strawberry Conch. The Conch I must supplement feed, but love how he gently keeps my SB stirred up.
There is no guess work when choosing a CUC if you do your research.

Yeah. That's a great starting CUC. I have about 60 snails right now. Most of them are Dwarf Ceriths, but I started with 5 Hermits, 5 Astraea and an Emerald crab. If I could do it again I would have added 5 Nassarius as well. Start small and add.

[formsix]

I also agree with starting small and adding more as you go. Get a handful of snails -- maybe 3-5 nassarius snails (they'll hide in the sand bed and rise like zombies when they smell decaying food) and 3-5 troches snails (these you'll see out and about) to start.

Some places keep their invert tanks at a higher salinity than their fish tanks, so check that out. Definitely acclimate these guys slowly. Float the bag for 15 minutes, and then drip acclimate for 30 - 90 minutes depending on how far off the salinity is. If you don't have a drip, then start with really small scoops of water -- a teaspoon or two at a time -- and just keep adding more every 5 minutes.

Then I usually just put them on the sand bed and they go where they please. In my experience, nassarius will head into the sand within minutes, and trochus will head for the rocks.

[formsix]

Oh yeah, and I would recommend against astreas. They flip over, can't right themselves, and die. I started with a bunch of them, and no matter how vigilant I was about trying to "save" them, they just kept dying. The trochus have been much better -- haven't lost a single one that way.

[moneymm]

thanks for all help, ReefCleaners recommended this

40 Dwarf Ceriths
13 Nassarius
18 Florida Ceriths
16 Nerites


Im thinking to do this but in stages, so maybe 10 dwarf ceriths, 4 nassairus, 4 florida ceriths and 4 nerites.

[cloak]

That's still way to many snails IMO. Don't forget, you can keep the glass & the sand clean all by yourself. For a 45 gallon tank, 5-7 turbo or trochus snails and maybe a couple scarlet hermit crabs would be a good start. See how they do for awhile and then adjust the population accordingly. Hopefully if things go right though, you won't have to add any more janitors down the road. GL.

[Cole.97]

I agree that that's way too many snails, especially to start. I have had my 72g reef up for 2 years and I only have 12 snails (4 turbo, 5 trochus, 3 astraea) and 3 scarlet hermit crabs. I do not have algae eating fish either.

[moneymm]

Thanks.

[moneymm]

how much does salinity matter in acclimating snails? is it the same .01 per day? i dont plan on QT for them, and if the salinity is .04 off from my DT, how do i acclimate them?

[JeffyT]

I highly suggest you submit a ticket to the Reef Cleaners.

http://www.reefcleaners.org/

You put in your tank specs and stock and they will give you a suggestion for what kind of CUC you would need.

Obviously you don't have to follow exactly what they say because you need to take into account how long you have your lights on for, how much you are feeding or if you are overfeeding? Etc.

Good luck!

[moneymm]

I already got them they are sitting in the bag for now before I figure out how in gonna acclimate them.

[moneymm]

I guess I will get them in a bucket / check the salinity and go from there. I have a ten gallon qt ready for fish, but I could always change the salinity in that to match the snail water if the td water is way off... Good idea?

[Golden Age]

I have a 75 gallon and my only CUC is 2 nassarius snails, 3 trochus snails, 1 mexican turbo snail, 1 zebra turbo snail, 5 blue leg hermits, 1 peppermint shrimp, 1 cleaner shrimp, 1 emerald crab and 1 sand sifting conch.

My tank is spotless.

I don't understand why they say you need so much CUC. Probably from someone trying to sell you a CUC.

[Pigpen17]

Originally Posted by moneymm

I guess I will get them in a bucket / check the salinity and go from there. I have a ten gallon qt ready for fish, but I could always change the salinity in that to match the snail water if the td water is way off... Good idea?

How did it go ? Sorry no one responded in time. I just put a bit of tank water in a small container to give them a quick rinse and put them right in the tank.

Some people QT them to be sure they don't bring something in your tank, but they would have to be In QT without fish for 72 days. I don't bother as that is a lot of time for a tiny chance.

[moneymm]

I did a drip acclimation for about 90 min. All are alive and cleaning! Only thing I'm not happy about is I think I got way too many. I went into the LFS thinking I was gonna get a total of 8-10. I ending up getting 20 crew members. 16 are from 3 different kinds of snails and 4 hermit crabs. He has been doing this for years and said I should get 1 per gallon snails and 1 per 2 gallon of crabs. 60 total atleast he said . So I had to talk him down to 20. Now 3 are right of the front display glass. I'd rather clean the glass myself .

[Pigpen17]

There is one truth of the CUC that you can always rely on. It will work itself out. If you have too many, you won't for long. If you don't have enough, you will know soon.

[Mark9]

Originally Posted by moneymm

I did a drip acclimation for about 90 min. All are alive and cleaning! Only thing I'm not happy about is I think I got way too many. I went into the LFS thinking I was gonna get a total of 8-10. I ending up getting 20 crew members. 16 are from 3 different kinds of snails and 4 hermit crabs. He has been doing this for years and said I should get 1 per gallon snails and 1 per 2 gallon of crabs. 60 total at least he said . So I had to talk him down to 20. Now 3 are right of the front display glass. I'd rather clean the glass myself .

I have a 65 gallon tank, my cleanup crew consists of 5 trochus snails, about 8 nassarius snails and 1 fighting conch.
Reefcleaners,org is not all it's cracked up to be.

[Zer0.]

I like reef cleaners, that said i started out with just 5 nassarius 2 turbo and 3 astrea and a serpent star in my 180 from a LFS. I then later got the 40 gallon package with hermits from reef cleaners, the package recommended for roughly 1/4 my tank size. I also added in 1 fighting conch as well as a pair of skunk cleaners and a pair of blood red fire shrimp.

I feel this is a good mix for a 180. Point being if you do order from reef cleaners, I would only order the package rated for 1/3 or so your actual tank size. Also the regular ceriths dont seem to make the trip well. The dwarf ceriths nassarius and nerites are all doing well though, although they are much smaller than the same snails at the LFS are.

Hope this helps,
-Matt

[PD Monkey]

The prices seem very reasonable. For my 110 gallon, the package includes 200 animals ($100). At the LFS, this would cost 3x as much.

Maybe order for a smaller tank (ie 110 gallon tank, order for a 50 gallon)

[tg1966]

Don't buy from Reefcleaners. Worst company I have ever dealt with. Nothing but problems and excuses. Stay as far away from them as you can. Glad some of you got lucky on your orders. If you want to gamble go buy a scratch off. Better use of your money.

[Pigpen17]

Originally Posted by tg1966

Don't buy from Reefcleaners. Worst company I have ever dealt with. Nothing but problems and excuses. Stay as far away from them as you can. Glad some of you got lucky on your orders. If you want to gamble go buy a scratch off. Better use of your money.

Could not disagree more. I Get everything I order on time and perfectly. I am very happy with all my animals. In fact, they are my go to source for inverts .

[JammyBirch]

Man everyone has had such a good experience with RC...wish I would have. My order was half dead already, and had a bunch of hermit crabs in it, the problem was I ordered snails only.

I agree with everyone that starting small is better, the Nass snails are great as well as the dwarf ceriths for diatom and algae...all of my regular ceriths are now dead, killed by the crabs...they are supposed to be great too... Good luck, I would go to the LFS, and build my own...