Clean-up Crew Bioload

[Curtswearing]

I was looking at some of the online clean-up crews and/or detrivore kits. The quantities of crabs and snails that they want you to add at one time seems outrageous to me. However, maybe I'm being too cautious.

For instance, one company recommends the following for a 75g reef;

25 Scarlett Hermit crabs
34 Mexican Turbos
50 Dwarf Red Tip Hermits
18 Trochus Snails
2 Court Jester or Black Sailfin Blennies

I will agree that most of the above are small. However, don't you think the bioload would be affected by adding them all at once?

 

[Craig Manoukian]

Bioload will be affected some, but I have a similar number of clean up crew members, but no noticable effect on my bioload.

Adding that crew too early with out sufficient algea and detritous to forage can lead to malnutrition/starvation. I added mine slowly as needed and not all at once.

 

[CarlaW]

when I lit up my 300, I threw in 150 (ea.) crabs and snails. There was a ton of hair algae. This was about 4 weeks in to the whole mess. They did a heckuva job. As far as bioload goes, I believe there had to be an effect, it was just real hard to notice cuz I was in the middle of a cycle. My skimmer did pick up tho .
Some companies will also note on their suggestions, as to the amount of algae that you have.
HTH

 

[NaH2O]

I'll start off by saying first, I've never been a fan of these cleaner packages. IMO, they have way too many crabs and not enough of diversity of snails. One thing I thought of with a new tank, especially if it was cycled with uncured live rock, the load would never be as high as all the nasty die off present in that rock. If there is enough bacteria to process all of that, then there would surely be enough to process the snail waste. Also, it's important to remove all of the waste, or else you will be fueling the algae problem you are trying to get rid of. I'm not sure what the bioload would equate to in a system that has already been established, depending on the system, perhaps as much as a medium sized fish.

 

[CarlaW]

I have to agree with Nikki, in that the packages don't offer as diversity. I mixed and matched my crew. It may have cost a little more doing that, but you end up getting what you want instead of what they want you to have! Nikki, what did you do for cleanup?

 

[NaH2O]

I don't remember the exact numbers, but I did a mix of Trochus, Astrea, Nerite, Cerith, 3 scarlet hermits, and 2 fighting Conchs.

 

[CarlaW]

How are the conchs getting along. This may sound like a dumb question but, I thought they liked to have a sand bed .

 

[Craig Manoukian]

Conches, Nassaurius, Cerith, Astrea, Bumble Bee, Scarlet Hermits, and Cleaner Shrimp are my maintenance crew.

 

[reiple]

No Cowrie craig?
Mine is almost 3 years old. cute guy.

 

[NaH2O]

They do prefer a substrate, but they are doing great. They often park themselves against the LR, and I find them in the little rubble pile under my rock. They for sure are eating on the BB, sides of the tank, and they stretch their trunks up onto the LR. It's a good thing they have such a large brain .

 

[Craig Manoukian]

No cowries at my LFS here in Reno!

 

[cheeks69]

Fighting conchs are the best I have 3 of them and my SB is super clean I agree with ya Curt that package you mention especially the Mexican Turbos are way too many I have 5 of them and I think it's alot since their voracious algea eaters and have you seen the size of their poop It puts my fish to shame :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[CarlaW]

Has anyone ever bothered to take any water tests after they add thier critters? I haven't, that's why I ask. Maybe someone that is starting up could be our guinea pig, so to speak. Take a test before and a test maybe one day after the addition.

 

[Craig Manoukian]

Good idea charlie!

 

[NaH2O]

I think the issue with bioload has more to do with size of the system per number of snails. A 100 snails dumped into a 300 gallon system won't have the same effect on load as 100 snails dumped into a 10 gallon system. We should, perhaps, look more to what is proper for what size of system/type of system.

 

[CarlaW]

Yeah, I thought about that after I posted. But I still think that somebody that is starting up could put the "proper" number of cleanup critters in whatever size tank they have and do some tests. Wouldn't that work?

 

[NaH2O]

It might. For instance, if I put 100 snails in my tank right now, I could measure for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate, but the bacteria may reduce those prior to the samples, so they wouldn't show up. (throwing out some thoughts) it might be a better experiment if one put a certain number of snails in a gallon of ASW or tank water and measured the nitrogen products, but there are so many variables in a tank, with skimmers, live rock, etc....hmmmm....i'll have to think about this one....

 

[CarlaW]

What say if you got enuf people to respond, and get some test results from them, regardless of the variables, you should be able to come up with somewhat of an average for the size tank you are dealing with. Granted it wouldn't be very scientific, but maybe you could get some kind of a number.

 

[Craig Manoukian]

I add less of the particular critter my tank appears to support and then adjust gradually upward in numbers as needed.

 

[reiple]

excellent idea charlie. Never did but i guess i should have.