The Low Down On Clean-Up Crews

[Krish]

So what do you guys make of clean-up crews? Do you feel they are actually benefical to your tank in the way most people intend them to be used...That is, little tank janitors? I had a few blue legged hermit crabs when first getting into the hobby and a few snails, but eventually just got rid of them all. Only kept a coral bandit shrimp and not to do any house cleaning, but rather just to have something cool looking walking around in my tank. A lot of people at the first sight of algae, diatoms etc rush out to get a clean -up crew, but do they really help??

Thoughts?

 

[iroll253]

What can a few little crabs and snails do that our hands cant is more my question.

 

[iroll253]

and whats the point of them cleaning the little bits on our walls and rocks when im going to scrape the tank and use a powerhead on the rocks anyways. I guess they are just preference.

 

[Krish]

LOL!! My thoughts are they are just poop machines...Waste in and waste out. I feel they help people feel a bit better about their tanks. "Out of sight, out of mind" so by them eating up some of the algae growing in the tank, although a problem may still exist (nutrient rich tank) they feel better looking in their tank and not seeing alage here and there.

I don't know...I'm my own tank janitor. eace:

 

[mojoreef]

Nah I dont think you can look at them like that. Their are two things one kind of looks at with a clean up crew. First one is that no matter how much you scrape and clean your going to get some stuff that needs clean up in places that are really hard to get to, so you have to look at it like this. If you have a tank with coral in it, its going to be impossible to clean the rock around, under or near it (well with out making a mess and knocking some over. A clean up crew will do exactly as you mentioned, eat the algae and poop out 90% of what they take in. What this will do for ya is to take a solid that is growing on the rocks and stuff and put it into the water column where you have your filtration system set up to deal with it. Second is that they do make it so you dont have to be in their all the time dealing with the glass and so on, and the more you keep your hands out of the tank the better.

One last one that alot of folks dont take into account is that they mate, alot!! so it puts a micro sized eggs and gammets into the water column that are good for a variety of fish and the perfect size for most corals to slime net capture, so a free source of microscopic food.

Mojo

 

[trido]

I have to agree with Mojo on this one. IMO cleaner crews are absolutely necessary, especially when your just getting a tank started. When tanks are young they tend to grow more algea than when they are stabile and mature. My 65 for instance, had only one small fish and 100% new water ( far from a nutrient rich tank) and the slime/fuzz algea was taking off. Every time a snail would get up on a table rock I could see their trails plowed through the fuzz. They have done their job and kept if from turning into a sea of hair algea.
I think that tanks tend to go through stages in their life and at times bigger cleaner crews are required than others. At one point in my 120's life I only had 8 astrea's and two turbo snails with no algea for them to eat.. All the rest of the snails starved to death from lack of food.

Its up to the reef keeper to keep a close eye on the health of the tank and adjust the cleaner crew accordingly.

 

[iroll253]

You make a good point Duane of needing more and less through the systems stages. At this point though I am extremely happy with with the 50 or so fuzzy chitons in my tank. Those things eat EVERYTHING lol. Imo though the more I watched my hermit crabs the more I realized they were a waste of bio load, fighting for shells, killing snails ect.. So I donated them. As far as places where detritus gets trapped I've been lucky enough to pretty much eliminate them with some good glue holding down my corals and a koralia 1400 to blow off the rocks. Of course its not as easy for people with larger tanks, sand, canopy's ect..

 

[NC2WA]

+1 on CUC/ Mojo's reply.

I added 40 turbo and 40 astrea snails last week and already my tank is clean..I have a good layer of algae on my back wall and now the entire tank is clean...there is NO way I was going to scrap or use a powerhead to clean the inside of my walls...I am very pleased with the CUC which has half a chance now that my PT trigger is in another tank.

 

[Krish]

I look at some tangs as members of the "clean up crew" as well. Any hair algae they will mow down. Mojo made a great point and those that followed. I was one who'd rather get my hands dirty and manually do the work myself rather than have a bunch of snails and hermits in the tank. Copepods I loved but noticed the population died off a bit when I got rid of my sand bed. Nevertheless, I was pretty successful without using a clean up crew. I didn't mind doing the work myself. I guess any reason to tinker with the tank was a good enough reason for me.


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[mercenary-grunt]

i personaly just like the look of having them. it helps me see a whole eco system. being a diver i like to see the whole thing. plus i really like crabs and the sort. i always pick up a hitch hiker when i dive.

 

[Krish]

i personaly just like the look of having them. it helps me see a whole eco system. being a diver i like to see the whole thing. plus i really like crabs and the sort. i always pick up a hitch hiker when i dive.

So....You are the one responsible for depleting the ocean of it's CUC'? :nono:

 

[Krish]

So...What about selection then? What do you guys do when you buy say 50 of this type of snail and 50 of this type of crab to deal with a diatom bloom or algae outbreak when it finally stops growing? Do you guys go in and start picking out the snails and crabs or are they scavengers and will eat whatever they can find? I'd imagine having 50 snails that only eat algae and having all the algae disappear, they'd starve and die off. Sort of like some fish and stuff that will only eat aiptasia or mojanos. After they are all gone, these fish or whatever are usually removed out of the tank and transferred to another that will be able to provide food for them otherwise they starve and die. I've had a friend that if he couldn't supply enough copepods for his butterfly fish, they'd startve and die. Would never eat prepared foods. Is this the same of CUC's are are they just that...CUC's that eat whatever?

 

[justforfun]

gotta put one thing out in the air watch out where you get your cleanup crew.....a buddy got like 200 hermits & snails and they came in with marine velvet,,,,,so be careful where you get them
ps: he got them from ebay for like 15$.....to good of a deal oh yah took all his fish out...