Is this a good cleanup crew??

[Beckmola24]

I never had much of a cleanup crew in my old 20g. The new 20g setup is finally finished cycling and yesterday I added some snails. I have 1 Astrea, 15 Nassarius, 5 Cerith, and 3 Stomatella snails. Any others I should add to have an effecient cleanup crew?? TIA!

 

[cheeks69]

How well are the current crew maintaining the tank ? I love fighting conchs they do a great job on the substrate.

 

[Beckmola24]

I was thinking about adding a Queen Conch... I really like conches too I think the fighting conches get too large for a 20g if I remember correctly. I'm not sure yet how they're cleaning since they've only been in there for a day I don't like hermits since IMO they eat Nassarius, but after my cycle I got a little bit of algae on the rocks, and I don't want it to get out of control. Any other thoughts??

 

[reedman]

Quen Conchs get bigger than the fighting conchs.

 

[jetaero]

Get more astreas, they like to graze on rocks...

 

[cheeks69]

Mexican turbos are voracious algea eaters only problem is they're bulldozers.
I would try one or two in there but would supplement if not enough algea.

 

[CarlaW]

How deep is your sand bed, Becky? I myself would add more nassarius beside the astreas. The nassarius do a good job of stirring your top layer, and they are a hoot to watch at feeding time.

 

[Beckmola24]

The only Turbos I've seen at my LFS are the size of a tennis ball I will try and see if I can locate a smaller one. I picked up a Queen Conch today... Seems I had the Fighting and Queen mixed up in my mind... I thought the one I bought was a fighting conch but it's a Queen.... I've had them before and like their cleaning abilities. What about sand sifter stars, nudibranchs, cucumbers and the like??? I saw some GORGEOUS nudibranchs today at my LFS but I don't know very much about them. Anyone have experience with them??

 

[CarlaW]

The only Turbos I've seen at my LFS are the size of a tennis ball I will try and see if I can locate a smaller one. I picked up a Queen Conch today... Seems I had the Fighting and Queen mixed up in my mind... I thought the one I bought was a fighting conch but it's a Queen.... I've had them before and like their cleaning abilities. What about sand sifter stars, nudibranchs, cucumbers and the like??? I saw some GORGEOUS nudibranchs today at my LFS but I don't know very much about them. Anyone have experience with them??

Last time I checked, Reeftopia still has those harlequin serpent stars. They are pretty cool looking. The only thing about serpents, in my experience, they only come out at nite.
Most of the nudibranchs that I know aboutare specific eaters, and once they run out of that food, they go away.

 

[jetaero]

Another bad thing about serpents is they'll eat your fish , atleast if the fish is small enough or slow moving. But there are nassarius snails as^ and they work great...

 

[Beckmola24]

I decided to go with a 2" sand bed for this tank since my 12 gallon is bb and I've decided my 90 will be also. How many Nassarius could I keep in my 20? I currently have 15. I have a brittle star that I've been trying to coax out of the rockwork in my 12g nano, but he doesn't EVER come out to be seen. Got the little guy when his whole body with arms was smaller than a dime and now he's probably got 2" arms! Doesn't seem like a very effecient cleaner though... What about Marble sea stars? I read somewhere that they eat detritus and they only grow to 3" or so.

 

[jetaero]

Marbles are about the same as serpents with different colors...You could put atleast 20 nassarius snails in there...Also sand-sifter stars can be really useful in picking that stuff up..And if your looking into fish there are quite a few gobies that'll get the sand sifting job done for you.

heres a link for sand-sifter gobies:
http://liveaquaria.com/product/scateg.cfm?pCatId=1851

-Josh