Advice On Clean Up Crew Please

[bitfishy]

Hello everyone, what a great forum this is, I've lost at least an hour reading through peoples posts!

However I wondered if anyone can give me a rough indication of how many snails, crabs etc are needed for a 50gal tank - or is it a kinda 'see how it goes' type of thing. I set up the tank three weeks ago and put 20kg live rock in 10 days ago. I'm aiming for a very friendly reef tank. I'm not using a filter, because I read about this Berlin method and I liked the idea. I have some algae - hair algae I think - and the glass is going a bit green, so I need some cleaners pretty quickly. There's no livestock in there yet. Hermit crabs look fun and Turbo snails are on my list, but any advice gratefully received.

Also, I started the tank with seawater, coz the nice book said it was the ideal option (and I live by the coast). But since then every time I mention it to people in the know they look at me a bit alarmed and start oofing and ooching. Is there anyone out there who uses seawater succesfully, or should I just thank my lucky stars I got away with it this time and try and get my head round RO and trace elements and stuff (I'm confused enough,BTW!).

While I'm on a roll (!) I read in the books that alot of 'reef friendly' fish 'occasionally eat small tubeworms. Could anyone tell me how big a small tubeworm is? Its just I've got at least 10 tubeworms on my live rock and having spent 10 days staring at 'em I'd be kind of upset if they got scoffed in a couple of weeks time!

Thanks

 

[SkiFletch]

Wow, just one hour? I've spent days reading B)

The general rule of thumb is 1 cleaner per gallon. I reccomend a crew composed mainly of a variety of snails, cerith, nassarius, trochus, margarita, turbo, or astrea with maybe a shrimp if you like, and just a few redleg hermits. Blueleg and Zebra hermits are far too aggressive for my tastes as they WILL kill your snails, even if you proide shells for them. If you want a "centerpeice hermit" consider an electric blueleg or a haloween hermit crab. They're significantly larger than their cousins and will not pose a threat to most smaller snails. Also remember with Turbos that they can be bulldozers and knock frags off of rocks if not porperly secured

You can use natural seawater for the tank. There is one problem with doing so. Unless you live in some remote corner of the globe, or perhaps on an oceangoing vessel, the water is likely polluted. Near-shore seawater is often too toxic for many of the organisms we keep in our tiny ecosystems. Remember, our tanks are very small, and pollution can become magnified in these tiny environments.

What kind of fish are you referring to?

 

[bitfishy]

Wow, just one hour? I've spent days reading B)

The general rule of thumb is 1 cleaner per gallon. I reccomend a crew composed mainly of a variety of snails, cerith, nassarius, trochus, margarita, turbo, or astrea with maybe a shrimp if you like, and just a few redleg hermits. Blueleg and Zebra hermits are far too aggressive for my tastes as they WILL kill your snails, even if you proide shells for them. If you want a "centerpeice hermit" consider an electric blueleg or a haloween hermit crab. They're significantly larger than their cousins and will not pose a threat to most smaller snails. Also remember with Turbos that they can be bulldozers and knock frags off of rocks if not porperly secured

You can use natural seawater for the tank. There is one problem with doing so. Unless you live in some remote corner of the globe, or perhaps on an oceangoing vessel, the water is likely polluted. Near-shore seawater is often too toxic for many of the organisms we keep in our tiny ecosystems. Remember, our tanks are very small, and pollution can become magnified in these tiny environments.

What kind of fish are you referring to?

Hi - thanks for all that, I had no idea I'd need so many!! Will take your advice on the snails and hermits. Similarly, while we live in an unindustrialised bit of coast there is bound to be some nasties in the water, such a shame - it would have made life soooooo much easier!!

With regards the fish, I've re-checked the book and can't find what I read, maybe it was a different book... maybe I just imagined it I'm pretty confused right now!

Anyway, thanks again - you've been a great help
all the best