clean up crew for new tank

[matts125]

Well its been about 5 years since ive purchased a cleanup crew for a reef tank.
I am setting up a 150+ gallon mixed reef with DSB and am looking for recommendations on critters to buy.. also where to buy.... I don't want to spend $300 plus just on a cleanup crew unless its completely necessary..

thanks in advance!
Matt

 

[mfinn]

Barrier usually has pretty good prices on bulk snails and hermits.

 

[BARRON]

I like to get them at reefs2go when their deals stack up, a lot of times hermits and snails will be BOGO and then they will do a 50% off on clean up crews so you get avert thing 50-75% off.

 

[rainydave]

Reefcleaners.org has been great for me. John will work with you to create a custom crew if wanted.

 

[BARRON]

Just an FYI if you are going to be ordering soon I would go with reef cleaners right now because I just received my order from reefs to go and a lot of stuff is still on backorder because they are really backed up from the holidays.

 

[N1Husker]

I use the same as rainydave, reefcleaners.org. Great guy and quick service. If anything arrives dead, you just email him and he refunds the money immediately.

 

[spieszak]

reefcleaners has always been good to me too..though, i try to get make up crews locally.
if you decide to do reefcleaners, head over to rc and check their sponsor forum as i bleieve they have a current discount code...

 

[N1Husker]

I have gotten reef cleaners at Barrier, OBD, Dennys and Sierra Pets in Renton. I tried reefcleaners.org once and I was impressed with his service. I did have a few critters, 3 or 4 that arrived dead and he refunded the money, right away. I don't need any right now. When you say rc, who do you mean, Red C or Reef Central or someone else?

 

[spieszak]

reef central. the code may be expired now, but they were doing a discount in January.
Buying online is awesome, but if we don't keep our local stores going, where you gonna get a replacement power head in a crunch? I'm not preaching, just noting what I think its important.

 

[N1Husker]

I know buying local is important, I use to have my own business and had to deal with online dealers. I didn't mind the mechanics buying online, they were trying to save a buck, but what use to frost my butt was that when it broke, they use to bring it to me to warranty the item. I would handle little things but not major warranty repairs. I had all purchases on computer and I would look it up and if there was no record, I wouldn't warranty it. On the fish side, if a local shop have what I need and I am going that way and the price is right, I have no problem buying from them. However, my nearest LFS is 25 miles away and making that 50 mile round trip I can't afford to spend that much extra money to buy local. I am retired and money is tight so I have to buy where it is the least expensive.

 

[spieszak]

again, I wasn't preaching and didn't mean to in anyway single you out or anything. I'm lucky to have quite a few local stores, and they for the most part, are all people that care about the hobby. The LFS (in general) gets a bad name sometimes, and the prevalence of 'they are just trying to sell you something posts'... well, I just don't want to see mine go away...

 

[N1Husker]

again, I wasn't preaching and didn't mean to in anyway single you out or anything. I'm lucky to have quite a few local stores, and they for the most part, are all people that care about the hobby. The LFS (in general) gets a bad name sometimes, and the prevalence of 'they are just trying to sell you something posts'... well, I just don't want to see mine go away...

I didn't take it that way at all, I know you were just speaking in general. I do frequent the LFS whenever I can get over that way. In fact, except for my clean up crew, all of my fish and coral are from local sources. Sometimes I just go in and look and next thing I know I am walking out with plastic bags in my hands with critters in them, lol. I certainly didn't take anything personally, I was just conveying my personal reasons. Sorry I didn't come back sooner, but today was water change day, and now I am pooped. I fully agree that we should support our local fish stores as much as we can. Nothing was taken personally. Many LFS's do get a bad name, but I think that we are very fortunate to have quite a few that do care and I really enjoy shopping at them.