Reccomendations For A Invert Only Tank.

[severum boy]

Hi all,
I am completely new to marines, never had a tank, never really thought about them much.
I was in the local store, when some cracking snails caught my eye. Completely forgot their name, but it was something to do with orange spots. They are scavengers, and reminded me of freshwater apple snails.
Now, I have a spare 8gal tank, and id like to convert it over to a tank with a small filter to trap debris, but mainly filtered by live rock. Is there anything else I need (obviously a heater)?
Along with these snails, does anyone have any reccomendations for crabs, starfish, snails that would go together well?
Thanks for any guidence you can give me.

 

[SkiFletch]

Hey, at the risk of throwing him under the bus, Our good friend Donya keeps a lot of snail and invert only tanks and if he doesn't respond here, it might be worth a PM to him . I have only a few pieces of advice. Beware the aggression and opportunism of crabs and hermits, they're rarely compatible with snails. You'll need a powerhead in there for circulation to keep things working filtration wise. And you'll have to find some algaes that they'll eat longterm.

 

[severum boy]

Thanks for the advice SF, hopefully Donya will notice this soon!
Ive just found a small powerhead (originally on a filter) that should do the job, it would probably be a bit too static with just the filter.
If I kept the crabs well fed would this reduce their predation on the snails? And what about having a lot of different size empty shells for the hermits? Would that reduce the need to attack a snail?

 

[SkiFletch]

Thanks for the advice SF, hopefully Donya will notice this soon!
Ive just found a small powerhead (originally on a filter) that should do the job, it would probably be a bit too static with just the filter.
If I kept the crabs well fed would this reduce their predation on the snails? And what about having a lot of different size empty shells for the hermits? Would that reduce the need to attack a snail?

Heh, yeah everyone thinks that would be the case (I even did) but these animals are really instinctive and opportunistic and all the fattening you want and spare shells you can imagine and they'll still kill the snails... The crabs don't care about altruism

 

[severum boy]

Haha ive fallen into the trap then!
Are there any crabs that go well with snails? What about filter feeders or very small hermits?

 

[eschaton]

Okay, as to the list of what you can keep.

Crabs: Porcelain crabs are really your only totally reef safe option. That said, the only one I had climbed down into rockwork and was never seen again. They'll be sure not to screw with your corals or other inverts though. Don't do hermits. Even if they don't eat your snails, they pick over rockwork, and ultimately make it a lot more boring by killing things like featherdusters.

Shrimp: Sexies are your best bet. A trio of them would look nice in your tank. I've found sexy shrimp are bulletproof, provided you don't let the water get too warm.

Snails: What you mention worries me, as I don't think I've ever heard of an orange-spotted snail. This makes me think that it could be a coldwater species, or else something which normally gets really big and/or isn't reef safe. In a tank of that size, nassarius, nerites, cerith, and stomatela would be perfect, though a few astraea would be doable too.

Starfish: There's nothing you can fit in your tank that you can buy at the store. There are, however, cool LR hitchhikers which would work in that tank. For starfish, there are the tiny, algae-eating asterina, which top out at less than 1cm and reproduce great in tanks. There are also two different kinds of small brittle stars commonly found in tanks - a tiny white one which likes to live in the sand, and a larger black one which lives in holes in rockwork.

Depending upon your lights, I might add a few softies too. Some easy things like sand polyps, yellow polyps, and mushrooms which don't need a ton of light. They shouldn't overgrow a tank of that size.