Keeping tank clean with a trigger
 

Well, i purchased yet another tank..77 gallon..and it came with a picasso trigger.
Apparently he likes the taste of inverts.
Any suggestions on how to keep my tank clean?
Would blue legged hermits be safe?
I will be testing that theory with a few and see how they last.
However, i am just wondering if anyone has any suggestions as to how to deal with this?
any help would be greatly appreciated
thanks
Neal

You could go with an urchin of some sort. Pretty much any crab, snail or shrimp you add to the tank becomes dinner.

Actually, I have crabs that are years old living with my Black Blotch (Picasso relative). The crabs are large rejects from the reef tank, they stay hidden during the day and come out at night. I also have a choc star, and a rock boring urchin in there.

Could be my particular individual, but thought I'd offer that up.

re triggers
 

Are urchins safe? I figured they would be lunch as well.
Has anyone had a trigger eat a urchin? I have a few urchins that I could throw into the tank...
They do a pretty good job of cleaning..that would be a good start

When I had triggers,I had the same problem.Might try very large snails,they seemed to outlast the smaller ones with triggers.My triggers pulled apart any urchins I tried.

I tried some blue-leggeed hermits with my triggers...they lasted 1 day.

Even the long spine black urchins?

Inverts = Trigger snacks, even long spined Urchins.

My experience is similar to EmilyB. I have blue leg hermits with my Picasso, they hide during the day and have for the most part survived. Triggy will occasionally find a snack but I have only lost a couple crabs in the last 6 months. I used to have a large clown trigger though that inverts would never have survived, didn't even try.

IMO, ….
….get the tank drilled if it’s not already.
-Run a sump with a skimmer over-rated for a 77g. Say a Euroreef CS6-1 or CS6-2 ,or an ASM G-2.
-Go with about 100lbs of Live Rock.
-Crabs, crabs, crabs….of the hitchhiker variety. Check with your LFS when they get LR shipments in. Usually some show their beady little eyes on arrival of the LR and can be had then. Crabs hide during the day and come out at night. Triggers hide during the night and come out by day. Perfect.
(Not sure about Blue-legged hermits. The ones I have in my Reeftank are always cruisin’ around by day….so maybe they can sense danger when it’s present, and hide by day if a Trigger is around. Don’t know).
-Good water circulation to help keep crud suspended in the water column.
-Water changes. At least 10% weekly.
-Understock for a lower bio-load.

Some other things to consider….
-Go Bare Bottom. Personally, I don’t like it but it certainly does allow for the option of vacuuming crud out.
-Utilize a de-nitrator such as Kent’s Nitrate Sponge.
-Run a refugium.

Maybe more ideas than what you’re looking for but it’d all help, IMO.

HTH and cheers:smile:,