Snails, crabs or both?

Which way to go? I'm leaning all snail but hear some crabs can get into small crevices. Then after reading a lot on the algae forum, I see that a emerald crab could be very beneficial to nuisance algae. I just dont want to purchase more snails than crabs only to have them killed for thier shell...that might not even be used! Also, if a snail dies and you cant find it, does it hurt your tank parameters? I would like to see some thoughts on this as well as other reefers experience and what works best for you.

Brian

 

Snails and Crabs for me...your clean up crew needs to be diverse...as for dead snail...it depends on how big the tank is and how big the snail is...and how big the clean-up crew is, u'd be surprised how fast a gang of hermits can devour a dead snail..

 

my hermits do a great job of cleaning, and i just added 2 emerald crabs but its too soon to tell how well theyre working

the down side is my hermits kill my large ceriths for fun. im not going to buy the large ceriths anymore, im just going to stick with a whole buttload of dwarf ones, which they dont seem to bother

if a snail dies, hermits will be all over it