Clean-up crew question for a 55 gal.

[Damsel13]

I have a well established tank. About 50-60 lbs. of live rock and I was wondering how many snails is a good number?

Right now I have two giant turbos, 4 cerith, 4 bumble bee, a couple or 4 medium turban?? type snails and a bunch of stomato er "fingernail" snails.
Is this a good amount? Oh and 2 scarlet crabs.

 

[Reeferdude]

It depends on the amount of clean up to do. If the crew you've got now is keeping up then you're OK. Don't just depend on a clean up crew to solve problems with algae growth however. Good water quality and a clean running system should keep your clean up needs to a bare minimum...

 

[Damsel13]

I have three bubbles of bubble algae but they are small and I am deciding extraction procedures.This is the only nuisance algae have had in 12 months. They (the three pinhead bubbles) are bothering me. Came in on a piece of LR about a month ago. "sigh"

 

[Krish]

Be careful with the bubble algae Debbie. I thought I only had one and I removed it without popping it and still ended up with almost a tank full! They can be hidden in crevices very easily and go un-noticed. They say some crabs (I believe emerald crabs) will eat them but it might be a hit or miss situation. As for a general cleanup crew, your tank will only support so many which all depends on the available food supply. If you add more than there is food, they will just die which will be an indication of how much your tank can support

 

[Damsel13]

Oh no, I knew this was bad news. I am thinking about taking the rocks out but one is a really nice piece of LR that I would hate to lose. I am going to start a new thread about cooking LR because I don't understand what that means. One piece of LR that has one bubble thingie I would love to just remove. The other two are really nice pieces I would like to keep.

Nice to hear from you Krish. You still tankless?

 

[Krish]

Yup! Still tankless, but just came from snorkeling around a nice reef! What more could you ask for

 

[spongebob lover]

doodette i had a little bit of green bubble a few years back and my emerald crab at that time did his thing .
i have never had a problem with crabs and they did take care of my grape caulerpa, algae and green bubble algae ( i used to call him mr. crabs )

 

[kevin1000]

Clean up crews need to be customized to your particular tank .. what works for another aquarist may not apply to your tank.

In general ... start with a small "diversified" clean up crew and then be patient and slowly expand based on the progress (or lack of progress) you see. Just don't expect instant results.

Also understand that different snails do different things ... a bumble bee snail is a great meat eater but will stick to live rock .. a nassarius snail is a great meat eater but prefers the substrate ... some algae eating snails prefer the rocks some prefer the tank walls.

With patience and a bit of luck you will dial in the configuration that works for your tank.

 

[Mrktplayer]

my emerald crabs haven't touched my bubble algae :-( It's been a miss for me but they're cool to look at

 

[blind1993]

Clean up crews need to be customized to your particular tank .. what works for another aquarist may not apply to your tank.

In general ... start with a small "diversified" clean up crew and then be patient and slowly expand based on the progress (or lack of progress) you see. Just don't expect instant results.

Also understand that different snails do different things ... a bumble bee snail is a great meat eater but will stick to live rock .. a nassarius snail is a great meat eater but prefers the substrate ... some algae eating snails prefer the rocks some prefer the tank walls.

With patience and a bit of luck you will dial in the configuration that works for your tank.

srry to hijack ur thread but i have a question about snails. which ones love eating alage and stick to the tank walls.

 

[theJ]

none of them are really going to eat your 'big' algaes, like grape c or bubble algae (that I know of, someone correct me if so. no seriously, let me know.). The algae they eat has to be small enough to be ingested through their mouths, which are really small, even on large snails. The algae your snails will take care of are going to be the kind that populates the glass, the kind that forms a film on the rock or sand, etc. We have 7 nassarius now, 10 ceriths, 3 trocus, 2 tiger turbos, 2 bumblebees, 10+ stomatillla (hitchhikers who started breeding on their own!), and a few different unidentified species. the nassarius tend the sand, bumblebees stick to the rocks, and the other snails do both rock and glass.

 

[Mrktplayer]

(hitchhikers who started breeding on their own!), QUOTE]


I'm a new reefer so I was wondering how would you know if they are breeding? I ask because as of last night, I noticed tons of black dots all over my rocks. They are the size of a small pencil dot, and there's about 2 per square inch of my rocks. There are tons of these little black things. I can't tell if they're moving or not. They're not eggs of some sort are they?

 

[blind1993]

are magrita snails good for brown alage on the glass.

 

[theJ]

blind:
margarita snails eat coraline as well as brown on the glass, so that option is up to you. oh yea i forgot we have 1 margarita also!

mrktplayer:
thats interesting, do you have any pics? the only reason I know ours are breeding, I have seen them spawning in the tank (looks like they are smoking), and we had one 6 months ago, now we have lots

 

[blind1993]

ok thz for the info

but do u know a snail that eats brown alage only and on the glass

 

[theJ]

your brown algae might be diatoms from being a new tank setup, something you will just have to wait out and keep up on good tank husbandry. Good algae eaters for glass would be turbos or trocus snails. these guys are clumsy though, and will cruise your live rock knocking stuff over like unsecured frag plugs and such No snail will graze -only- the glass, keep that in mind.

 

[blind1993]

well i have a 55g that is 6 months mature and i just need a couple of snails. i was thinking that the blk magrita snails would be good for eating the brown alage and 1 or2 red leg or blue leg hermits.

 

[blind1993]

oh yea do cleaner shrimp eat brown alage.

 

[theJ]

the algae on your glass comes from something in the water causing excess nitrates. If you can get rid of the nitrites you will have less algae on the glass.

example: if you feed a lot, there might be a bunch of food left on the bottom of the sand. You can use nassarius snails to clean up the sand bed so you have less nitrates fueling your glass algae.

example: if you have low flow in the tank you might have detritus built up on the rocks, rotting away into a nitrate fueled algae fest greening/browning up your glass. you can use cerith or turbo snails to clean the rocks up for you AND they will eat up whats left on the glass

cleaner shrimps will also help by removing excess food before it rots and causes nitrates to rise and resulting in an algae bloom, but someone correct me if I am wrong here, in that I have never seen an algae eating shrimp.

What do you have currently for a cleanup crew?

 

[Mrktplayer]

blind:
mrktplayer:
thats interesting, do you have any pics? the only reason I know ours are breeding, I have seen them spawning in the tank (looks like they are smoking), and we had one 6 months ago, now we have lots

I forgot to take pictures before I left for work. I'll take them when I get back. They're half the size of a sesame seed and its all over. I also noticed dozens of new tegula that spawned on its own. I wonder if that has to do with it.

damsel13, sorry to hijack the thread. I figure it's somewhat related to the topic