wrassehole
wannabe reefmaster
if you are miliant about a 25% water change per month, shouldnt that beat the bio load of overloading with snails.
Clean-up Crew Bioload
- Thread starter Curtswearing
- Start date
Help Support Reef Aquarium & Tank Building Forum:
Kathy55g
New member
When I started my tank I had gravel and a sally lightfoot and no snails. Later I added a couple of cleaner shrimp. I had some hair algae, but not too bad and the green stuff never attempted to take the whole tank, just a rock or two.
A year into reefkeeping I got rid of the gravel, and coincidently I had an enormous bloom of red hair algae. It was everywhere. I put 2 large "turbos" or were they "trochus" snails in the tank, and they ate it all! Worried that they would starve, I gave them to a friend with an algae problem and a larger tank. The red stuff came back, so I bought another snail. One large snail in my 55 gallon is keeping the hair and other algaes at bay, the tank is clean looking without having to worry that the snail would starve,...seems balanced.
One disadvantage, I would think, of having 100 snails in the tank, is how do you keep track of them. They can hide so well, you might wonder if some have died...
Anyway, I just thought I would add my 2 cents on what is working for me: 1 large snail. I love him.
A year into reefkeeping I got rid of the gravel, and coincidently I had an enormous bloom of red hair algae. It was everywhere. I put 2 large "turbos" or were they "trochus" snails in the tank, and they ate it all! Worried that they would starve, I gave them to a friend with an algae problem and a larger tank. The red stuff came back, so I bought another snail. One large snail in my 55 gallon is keeping the hair and other algaes at bay, the tank is clean looking without having to worry that the snail would starve,...seems balanced.
One disadvantage, I would think, of having 100 snails in the tank, is how do you keep track of them. They can hide so well, you might wonder if some have died...
Anyway, I just thought I would add my 2 cents on what is working for me: 1 large snail. I love him.
Welcome to RF. About having at least 100 snails in a tank, at least you know that the crabs are gonna be well fed!!!. The shells that the dead ones leave seem to get sucked up by the Hermits. As they grow they need the larger shells. 
Curtswearing
Mantisfreak
Welcome to Reef Frontiers Kathy...it's always good to have another St. Louisan aboard.
I read on another board that clean-up crews don't add bioload. Hmmm. Well, they are alive so obviously that isn't true. The company I quoted from recommends 34 Mexican Turbos. Have you seen the size of a Mexican Turbo? In addition to this, they want me to add 2 fish at the same time. If my tank was newly cycled, doesn't it seem like this is a lot to add at one time?
I read on another board that clean-up crews don't add bioload. Hmmm. Well, they are alive so obviously that isn't true. The company I quoted from recommends 34 Mexican Turbos. Have you seen the size of a Mexican Turbo? In addition to this, they want me to add 2 fish at the same time. If my tank was newly cycled, doesn't it seem like this is a lot to add at one time?
Craig Manoukian
McKosker's Wrasse
- Joined
- Sep 21, 2003
- Messages
- 237
Remember the mantra, go slow and let it grow!
NaH2O
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jan 25, 2004
- Messages
- 8,568
OK - I know this is far from being an experiment, and far from making any conclusions from the test. BUT, I just had a shipment of 100 Astrea snails come in this morning, and I decided to simply test the shipment water (and no, I did not measure the amount of water with the snails). After floating the bag for 15 minutes, I added all water and stock to a container, in order to acclimate. I took a 1 ml sample of shipping water and used a Salifert test kit to test for Nitrites. (My ammonia test kit is very poor quality). The nitrites from the shipping bag were 0.3 ppm. All snails were moving around, and I didn't notice any that were dead. Not too many conclusions can be drawn from this test, but I did it....more out of curiosity than anything else.
Here is a photo of the container with snails and water, prior to acclimating to my water.
Here is a photo of the container with snails and water, prior to acclimating to my water.
Nikki, did you do any tests on your tank after you put the snails in?
Curtswearing
Mantisfreak
I know that she didn't but there wouldn't really be a purpose anyway. Her tank is huge, her sump is huge, and her fuge is huge. On top of that, she also got the baby golden astreas as opposed to the larger ones. She has tons of LR in the display tank and tons in the fuge. On her particular tank, there's no way that she would have gotten a reading without a scientific-grade test kit.
However, her tank has been running for months now. The initial cycle was completed LONG ago and her tank has been stable for quite some time. Obviously, ANY addition of bioload will even affect a tank as large as hers. (What we are really dealing with here is how long does it take for the bio-filter to make the water safer). I was thinking about the person who does their tests every day and once Nitrites hit zero, they immediately order one of these "clean-up crew packages". They may have some LR with intentions of adding more later when they can afford it. That worries me a little....especially because I think they are immediately going to get a fish too.
I can guarantee that 100 golden astreas had less affect on bioload in the quantity of water she has then the clean up crew package I listed above.
However, her tank has been running for months now. The initial cycle was completed LONG ago and her tank has been stable for quite some time. Obviously, ANY addition of bioload will even affect a tank as large as hers. (What we are really dealing with here is how long does it take for the bio-filter to make the water safer). I was thinking about the person who does their tests every day and once Nitrites hit zero, they immediately order one of these "clean-up crew packages". They may have some LR with intentions of adding more later when they can afford it. That worries me a little....especially because I think they are immediately going to get a fish too.
I can guarantee that 100 golden astreas had less affect on bioload in the quantity of water she has then the clean up crew package I listed above.
