Clean Up Crew
 

Whats your thoughts? I have never ran with one i had bought about 100 snails at one time and the next day had my tank crash so i have never bought more again. I have been getting a bit of cayno build up in a corner of the tank. Flow issues are out of the question have 4 mp40s on full and a 2000 gph return after return. Would i benefit from a clean up crew?

Personally I feel it wouldn't hurt, but after reading your post, I never heard of a clean up crew crashing a tank, unless maybe you had many of them die, polluting the tank.

I think clean up crews are worth it. I have lots of snails, a few crabs, and 7 sand sifting stars.

I had about 100 or so full grown snails, and now I must have hundreds of little babies that come out when the MH turn off, so they are breading. Which is good... I guess the only drawback is that I also get alot of little/empty snail shells, so they are dieing or being eaten. These shells clutter the sand, so once in awhile I use a fish net to scoop the sand and shift it to remove the larger particles and shells. Works well to clean things up.

Crash was completely unrelated ato flooded my tank and house. Should have probably noted that.

A cool, well not really. But I do recommend a crew... too bad you are not in Calgary, I could scoop some of the snail babies in the evenings and give you a few.

No if you have a bit of cyno it would likely be a flow, lighting or water quality issue. Don't worry about it simply siphon it out.

It is ok to have one or two hermit crabs in a tank. They look cool and are fun to watch but they are predators and eat all same good stuff your fish and coral eat.

A few snails are good but if you have too many which most reefers have, they starve to death and pollute the tank with a net negative rather than a net positive.

Typically though, a clean up crew (CUC) is simply a marketing way for a LFS to sell ya more stuff IMO,

Snails that come out after the lights are out are stomatella. Great beneficial snail for your tank when my lights go out can hardly see into my tank.

That makes good sense. I do have several stars, some I have had since the beginning. And because I don't stir my sand or clean it, they do a good job of doing that for me. I do like the sand sifting stars.

In my 90 I have 1 Black Brittle Starfish (3 years old), 3 Astraea snails (3 species, 1 is 4 years old), 1 Trochus snail, 1 Blue Tuxedo Urchin, 2 Fighting Conches, 1 Emerald Crab, and a Hector's Goby sifting the sand.

The Emerald crabs don't seem to live long...maybe 4 months? I have several tanks, and I move the critters around to keep them well fed.

Those little snails you're talking about aren't necessarily Stomatella, nor snail babies. They are probably Collonista snails which stay small.

For GlobalDesigns, I would like to see how many of those poor starfish are still alive in a year. :( Echinoderms in Aquaria by Ronald L. Shimek

Agreed.

Now that you mention it i have been noticing a few shells on the bottom of my tank before this cayno started. Maybe since i have little to no algae in the tank the starving snails that died caused my snails to die.