Clean up crew special report.

From the beginning of my project i didn't want to use snails or hermits as my primary deffence againts algaes and detritus because they die all the time and a constant amount of money is spent replensihing your stocks of cuc and your tank cleanliness varies a lot from month to month . And i think i've won my bet. My reseache led me to a few alternatives.

The Urchins are more resistant , they live longer and the list of algea they eat is far more impressive than most snails you'll ever buy. They don't climb out of the tank, they don't need help to turn themselve around and you don't need an army of them. I was so happy to see a bit of Ulva comming out of that rock. It means that i wont have to suppliment anymore. These little buggers will be able to find food by themselves, now and if Ulva was to grw to fast i just have to resart the GFO reactor to stop the Ulva, it helps to know what the algae consumes and what it needs.






Seastars; work either during the day or night or both and don't succomb easily to parameters. resistant and 2-3 is enough for my system.
A Echinaster seastar is very usefull and does very well indeed.Not too big And it work.



Serpent star



Sea cucumbers for the sand is great they multiply by themselve if their enough food and work the system effortly.



The babylonia snail or Butterscotch snail , or super tonga nassarius snail which is abosutly not related to , but anyway is actually very useful for detritus but don't over do it my 150 G only has 10 thats it.



The strawberry Conch is one of the best sand sifter around without being destructive to your sand microfauna unlike the sandsifting star it doesn't destroy the bacterial layers of your tank. Which you need to help with your filtration . only 3 in my 150 is enough. and the sand is clean. At 3 o'clock in the morning thats what they do, they vaccuum themselves up lol. A night tour once and a while don't hurt either to see whats going on in your tank.





When you have lots of herbivore don't forget to put a tablet at the bottom every 2 days, if they don't touch it , means they have enough to eat and you can skip a few days, but if they do rush on it keep them comming. The mistake people make is not feeding them because they say if i feed them they wont clean anymore. i find this a bit cruel and nonsense. They always clean at any rate. If your tank is clean and they still eat, they're starving.....One reason you may be always buying new cuc all the time, you buy too much and then they starve.

One little trick i do know if you clean your glass everyday, your CUC wont waste time cleaning it up when they could clean up your tank. And you don't need snails to do the glass really and reducing your lights to when your home only will give time to your clean up crew to catch up to the maintenance of your tank. Talking to a few different LFS they only have them 5-6 h a day, the rest is actinic only, so controling and managing your algae growth is also important it would seem.

In conclusion my tank is clean, the rocks, the glass no cyano issues, or any other algaes, i feed twice a day. i have a 75 Gallons refugium for my 150 gallons reef tank, i've turned OFF my GFO so my macroalgae collection has something to grow on and the nitrates and phospahes are nil. i dose both iron, and iodine for the algeas as they're the biggest users.





The best macroalgae for phosphate removal is Ulva , it explodes in your refugium and the bests reef safe nitrate exporters are cheato and Caulerpa Prolifera it doesn't take over with good trimming. Thats my observation and the end of my report.

 

Its worth mentioning that there are some drawbacks.
Urchins-Can become bulldozers and knock down loose frags and rocks.They will also consume coralline algae.(can be a good or bad thing depending on who u ask lol)
Sea cucumbers-Can be very effective but a dead/dieing cucumber will nuke your tank with toxins.
Sea stars-Can also knock things over and most serpent stars are predatory and can possibly kill and eat your fish.
I agree most people overdue the size of there cuc which ime is counterproductive.

 

I can see you see the glass half empty on all sides. Yes i know all these things, too. I did my research. But to stop from wasting my money by buying again and again a CUC every 2-3 months , ya i gave this a try. One reason urchins buldoze your tank is because he's starving by the way. You'd be opening boxes and drawers too if you were starving.....its the same. These thing eat a lot, and most people buy not one urchin, but most will buy 2-3 for a 50 G tank with just a bit of algae in it and wonder why the little guy is pushing everything to find food. I have to give big stretch of my Ulva to my urchins, and they stay put for the whole day munching on it and they don't really buldoze anything because they find food . I leave Veg pellets for them and they find them and stay on them hours, they don't move until they're full. They eat 24 h almost. The practicle thing is they don't die as easy, you only need so much. As for seastar you taking everything to the max are you. All you example are of starving creatures, any starving creature will attack another one if he has too. Same as the cucumbers. You seem to live in fear, better not have any creatures.

 

If more people were cautious(not fearfull) less animals would die.I see you like to attack people for there opinions/experience so I will ignore your future posts.Good luck.

 

I was cautious, i didn't buy 150 snails like some site suggested for my 150G.

i started with 2 urchins and waited, then added 3 conch, and 5 babylonian snails. and waited. Adding just a bit at a time and see the result. and i didn't listen to the fears of others, i red instead about each species, in different book cross references , videos. And i also though about what was in my tank to support my creature. Not for a simple clean up.

Your post was totally about negative feedback no encouragements , if i had been a newbee i would of been affraid.

 

Nope, do not bring the discussion down to personal insults.

Valid points where made and this thread has the potential for intelligent debate.


For those of your cuc that I have kept:

Love the tuxedo urchin, but they are bulldozers, they know not what they do since they are simple inverts neurological wise. I myself was never bothered by them eating coralline algae.

I am always hesitant to recommend star fish secondary to their poor survival rate. Mudd you have a ton of space and loads of algae and bio-film growth which works in your favor.

Serpent stars, great detritus eaters. Have the potential to become fish eaters (witnessed events) regardless of how much you feed.

I have had the Tiger Tail and loved them and never had an issue. They do need a large tank like yours though or they decimate the sand bed in short order.

I have had cuc for years without replacements. My last snails were over 3 years old when I gave them away.

 

Advanced aquarist just write up an article on the tuxedo urchin claiming they are one of te best overlooked critters for our tanks!! Thinking about getting one the article states they are small nd non bulldozers like most of their relatives.

 

My appologies....

Wow what kind of snails last 3 years, that i have to know?
Yes like i said i did research before buying , specially ; Cucumber, i was terrified because of the toxin, it never entered my 65 G.
Same with the starfish tried to choose wisely, brittle star fisrt, serpent star next. One reason i didn't want snails and bivalves is to have a starfish.


I love my fuge almost if not more than my Reef tank. And i'm exploring the relationship between the two. Right now the Ulva has migrated at the cellular level into the Reef via the 1/2" connection









I'm wondering if another algae will do the same, the Caulerpa could be next.

 

I have had Turbos and Astrea and Certh live for years. Hermit crabs are the enemy in my experience unless you get the type that stays relatively small. I moved a way from using crabs in my tanks years ago. With no hermits to eat everything and anything it's amazing to see all the mollusk that make it to reproductive age that you never knew you had because the hermits devoured them.

Limpets, Stomatella, and Bristle worms make up an essential part of the cuc as well. There is always the risk that a member of the cuc will become an opportunistic eater but you just have to deal with that as you see it.

 

ya i've isolate my hermiths because i like some of them into the fuge on the Angler side. And the smaller ones withe seahorses.Since i can't have snails there because they eat macroalgae i lost $196 worth of macro's to 4 trochus and then they died . so no snails in the fuge , hermiths and brittle star for clean up, i have a blenny for the microalgae. And the angler side well that remaind to be seen what i'm going to put there for cleaning up .