Couple Clean Up Crew Questions

[Lakota]

I am looking for some suggestions on what to get for my sand bed cleanup crew. I have a 55 gallon DT with about a 3 or 4" sand bed. It is set up peninsula style as a room divider, so my wife and I are very picky about not having anything on the glass. We have opted for hermits instead of snails for this reason. I currently have 5 blue legs hermits, and two emerald crabs. The crabs do an excellent job of eating algae and uneaten food scraps. I'm not sure the hermits are making much of an impact though.
I was looking at getting a pair of gobys to help stir the sand. Would Nassrius snails end up on the glass often? I was also looking at MiniStars, SandBed Clams, Mama Mia Worms, and BristleWorms from Indo-Pacific Sea Farms. Does anyone have experience with these?
Since everything is on the one wall of the tank I have been finding it very difficult to get the right flow to keep detritus from settling. My return is a mag 7 with about 18ft of head so I don't know exactly what my flow rate is, but I also have an 834gph pump in a closed loop which splits into 2 outputs that I can control individually with valves. Maybe I would be better off with power heads and a wider flow than the PVC closed loop.

Any advice is appreciated.
Thanks!

 

[returnofsid]

Welcome to Reef Frontiers!!

Nassarius snails will do an excellent job stirring the sand bed and No, they won't end up on the glass very often. You'll hardly ever see them, except when they come out to eat. The "cleaner" clams, are something I would not recommend. They'll quickly turn your sand bed into a barren, sterile environment...and then die.

 

[MrGone]

You could get quite a few more blue legged hermits! 5 of them in a 55g won't make that big of an impact. +1 to what returnofsid said, Nassarius snails like to stay hidden in the sand and only really come out when food hits the water, very rarely will they be on the glass. I think the only time I've really seen mine on the glass is when I first introduce them to the tank and maybe once in a blue moon they will venture up.

I can't imagine that MagDrive 7 is flowing much of anything against 18' head, I have a MD7 and a MD12 and the 7 loses quite a bit of flow even with 4-5' (compared to the MD12).

Sounds like a really cool system

 

[Lakota]

Thanks for the quick replys. I had my finger on the trigger ready to get those clams. Glad I asked first!
I just moved my sump from under the tank to my storage room and hooked up the mag 7 I got with a bunch of other stuff on craigs list yesterday. Maybe I should check my GPH

 

[Mopar Reefer]

Cerith snails are also a plus in a CUC. They are mostly night feeders and love detrius.

 

[nwinverts]

I can't imagine that MagDrive 7 is flowing much of anything against 18' head, I have a MD7 and a MD12 and the 7 loses quite a bit of flow even with 4-5' (compared to the MD12).

Sounds like a really cool system

I have to agree, I did a quick search for Mag 7 flow rates and the three brands I looked at had a max head cut off from 10.5 - 12.5 feet. Are you sure it's a mag 7 and/or you have 18' of head height.

 

[Lakota]

Hmm. It looks like a mag series but all I can make out on the label is "series 7"

I have about 4.5 feet of head heigth and the rest is just a vertical run.

I will check GPH tomorrow to know for sure

 

[arman]

You could also try some conches to keep the sand bed clean. They are good at stirring the sand, and they eat any algae that starts to grow on the sand.

 

[nwinverts]

I assume you mean the rest of the run is flat (horizontal)... Sounds like you 4.5 of Head height (vertical). This makes a lot more sense to me. While you will lose some head pressure on a long horizontal run, it is minimal compared to 18' straight up.

Bye the way, welcome to RF.

 

[Lakota]

Doh. Yes I meant horizontal.

Thanks, nice forum ya got here

 

[Chichas01]

why wouldn't you want snails on the glass? They help knock down the algae so you don't have to clean it as often. And they do the same thing on the rocks. I'd go for more snails than crabs if it were me. Ceriths are real nice. They move a little sand and will eat algae from the rocks, glass and around the sand line as well. Ceriths also tend to lay lots of eggs so they provide free food for your corals. Other snails will do this as well.

 

[Lakota]

Well I am only getting 195 GPH from the return, so I guess I need to upgrade my return pump. I just ordered 75 Nassarius snails. I read they recommend 2 per gallon but that sounded like a lot.

I had turbos in my tank about 12 years ago, and they did a great job, but for me I just think having snails on the glass detracts from the look of the tank. Especially when its a peninsula. Just my opinion.

 

[bigblue141]

Get a pump that will push about 600GPH with your head height.

You should get a lot more hermits than what you have. Hermits tend to snack on snails if they have a shell they want, so make sure there's lots of empties in your tank.

 

[Lakota]

Get a pump that will push about 600GPH with your head height.

You should get a lot more hermits than what you have. Hermits tend to snack on snails if they have a shell they want, so make sure there's lots of empties in your tank.

Thanks for the help. Any pump brands I should stay away from?

I put the snails in and they are awesome. Hilarious to watch em bust out Of the sand when the food hits the water. They are smaller then the hermits I have so I think I can take your advice and get a bunch more hermits without worrying about snail deaths. I have heard the red leg hermits are less aggressive. That true?

 

[badger126]

I had actually heard that the blue legs are the more desirable type in that they are less aggressive than the red legs. I could be wrong though

 

[Burke]

How about a tiger tail cucumber? Mine does a good job keeping my sand clean and he is cool to look at.

 

[bigblue141]

Cucumbers are risky to keep. They can poison your entire tank with out dying.

I was told to avoid Oydsea pumps as there is no place to really buy replacement parts for them. I was also told that Magdrives are not the best either. There are posts all over the internet about being weary of the Oydsea pumps. The MagDrive advice came from a local LFS owner, I don't know anything about them. He said the RIO's are smaller than the MagDrive, put out less heat and are a better pump for the $$$.

I currently have and really like the RIO HF 20 that I have in my tank now. I'm going to put in a CL with a HF 32. aquatech.com has the best prices I've seen on the internet for the RIO pumps. Website is a little cheesy (low tech) but they have really good prices.

 

[Burke]

Cucumbers are risky to keep. They can poison your entire tank with out dying.

I was told to avoid Oydsea pumps as there is no place to really buy replacement parts for them. I was also told that Magdrives are not the best either. There are posts all over the internet about being weary of the Oydsea pumps. The MagDrive advice came from a local LFS owner, I don't know anything about them. He said the RIO's are smaller than the MagDrive, put out less heat and are a better pump for the $$$.

I currently have and really like the RIO HF 20 that I have in my tank now. I'm going to put in a CL with a HF 32. aquatech.com has the best prices I've seen on the internet for the RIO pumps. Website is a little cheesy (low tech) but they have really good prices.

Tigar tails are not supposed to be toxic even if they die.

 

[bigblue141]

Sand stars are also cool for your sand bed. The get really big, but I've had mine for about 6 months and I don't think he's grown an inch.

 

[bigblue141]

Tigar tails are not supposed to be toxic even if they die.

Sorry, I was not aware of the tiger tails.

I was just going off of my friends' experiences and from what I've read on wetweb about cucumbers. All my friends that have had them lost their entire tanks, and wetweb doesn't talk very kindly of them unless you're a pro.