Finalizing my CUC

looking for some input on making my CUC very well rounded and more importantly, sufficient in making sure the tank is clean.

so far so good with my current setup:

3 large Mexican Turbo Snails
2 Nassarius snails
1 fire shrimp
9 blue leg hermit crabs

i am topped out at bioload (1 small stirped damsel, 2 oscellaris clowns, 1 dottyback and 1 yellow tang), so i got extra live rock. about 30lbs in my 25G.

i'm going to be adding corals too.

i am trying to figure out not only how many more, but what types of inverts to add to the tank to get a fully, well-rounded CUC.

equipment on the tank: i have a good skimmer, a fluval 205 and an ac70 fuge with chaeto.

any input is very appreciated.

thanks!

 

oh and just to add, all the fish are relatively small, four of the fish are 1" or less in size. tang is 1.5" long.

 

The tang will have to go soon. If your starting coral buy glue, the Mexican turbo snails will knock the coral down.
Email Reefcleaners for a CUC. They will get you taken care of.

 

thanks! their site gave me some good templates to gauge myself against.

how many snails are too many? and what type? I'm assuming I'd need all different types and sizes to get different size waste and debris?

 

Email Reefcleaners
ReefCleaners.org | Clean Up Crews and Macro Algae
They will get you settled.

 

You are very overstocked.

Very. That tang needs to go ASAP.

Beyond that, as a reference, I have about 200 snails, about 6 different species (mostly dwarf ceriths) in my 55g tank.

 

generally speaking, what is 'overstocked'? does it mean that the tank cannot filter out the waste and stuff from the fish? does the fish not have enough physical room to breathe? sorry, i tend to need people to talk down to me lol

 

oh, and thank you for the input! lol sorry i forgot to add that!

 

Overstocked refers to a general conditions that most experienced reefers try to avoid for a litany of reasons. While you might get away with it for a while, overstocking will eventually have you scrambling and back-peddling.

A yellow tang needs a MUCH larger tank in the opinion of nearly everyone on this forum.

We are not "talking down" on you, we are all just strongly guided by certain principles and overstocking is certainly not one of them.

I would not use any Mexican Turbo snails in a small tank like yours. They tend to become bulldozers - especially in a smaller tank.

Reefcleaner's is great, I swear by John and his A+ cust. service.

SO to sum it up, John Maloney is your man and he will tell you what to get to keep you tank spotless.

But in all seriousness, you should take the tang back to whoever sold it to you and shame them into swindling you for their benefit.

There are no tangs that should be kept even short term in a 25 gallon tank, no matter their size.



I would strongly recommend dwarf ceriths. They are super cheap, and they do an amazing job.

I have about 500 of them in my 120 DT and they keep the sand WHITE. I have no sand sifting gobies or starfish as they are too rough on the sandbed IMO.

 

first of i want people to talk down to me, so dont be offended! usually on forums it's hard to get people to give you a straight answer because they don't read the whole post.

thanks for answering some questions, though! i appreciate your feedback.

i sent an email to the reefcleaners guys. hopefully i'll hear back soon.