Cleaner Crew Help

[Ash]

Okay so while I understand the needs of my tank/fish/coral/inverts etc. I just can't get a good grasp on what to do with my cleaner crew. I would like to see what suggestions you guys might have for my tank set up? I will give you a brief description of my tank below:

Tank Size: 30gal

currently houses:

-30lbs LR
-x? of Blue/Red legged hermit crabs (I wanna say I had 6-7 but I lost 3, not sure why but my guess would be the starfish)
-x6 nassarius snails
-x1 turbo snail
-x2 starfish (one unknown and would be my only suspect in the hermit crab case but other than that he has not to harmed anything else in the tank I know he is a liability, and one I believe to be a species of Asternia - a reef safe species as it has not messed with my coral for the 4 months I have had it. I know some are reef safe and others are coral tissue eaters)
-x1 Kenya Tree
-x1 Blastowells
-x1 Bulb tip anemone
-x1 Mushroom with 2 other random polyps
-x? random feather duster worms I recently found on my LR???
-x? random snails that one day appeared on the sides of my tank and are super small???
-x1 Chalk Bass
-x1 6 line Wrasse
-x1 Pinkbar goby that always hides in the LR

Hitchhikers
Original Cleaner Crew I bought

Basically I would like to hear some suggestions on cleaner crew? The green is what I originally bought for my crew and I feel I have inadequately stocked my cleaner crew and would like to add on to it (should have done this a long time ago, I know). I would like to add more but I read that I cant add anything with anything else in short because it's either not reef safe, not hermit safe, not snail safe, not this safe not that safe and I probably shouldn't have half of what I do together so its confusing for me as I feel like I can't buy anything b/c it wont get along with something else. I researched on the interwebs and in a few books I own on saltwater reefs/inverts and would now like to ask for some clarity and or suggestions on what I can have or what I should get??

 

[FLESHY]

Hmm.

Well the tiny snails are most likely turbo babies in my mind. Turbos do this.

I like hermits...I only use dwarf blue legs though.

If I had a 30g, I would prolly make a cuc that looked something like this.

10 blue leg hermits
5 astrea snails
3 turbo snails

You dont need much if the water quality is good.

Starfish always seem to be a hassle to me, and relying on them as part of a CUC is always sort of hit or miss.

What compatibility issues are you having?

Run some potential purchases by us...and maybe we can troubleshoot with you to let you know what will work and what wont work.

 

[Ash]

well I don't really depend on the starfish for my crew he just appeared in the tank one day after I bought my coral, so I guess he came along for the ride (same with the other one) so they just kinda hangout. I figure until they mess with something they shouldn't I'd hold on to them. I don't currently have compatibility issues but I wasn't sure if just the snails/hermit crabs were good enough. I am down for more turbo snails, I like mine. I always like crabs (any but emerald) and shrimp (really I like them all) but they seem to have the most comparability issues as in no snails, starfish, coral and possible harm to fish is what I read off each one I looked at. I also know one species of shrimp peppermint maybe? I don't have enough food to keep it from starving. I like variety I guess so I was trying to look at other stuff. There were some snails I liked that had cool designs on their shell's (don't remember the name) but what I read said they were aggressive and may kill my smaller snails. I also thought about other species of hermits like "halloween" "zebra" and "scarlet" as common names but they seem to have aggression issues too. Obviously I dont want buy it if I cant keep it or it kills everything. I can stick to what I got if it works the best.

I guess if hermit crabs/turbo's work fine I ll just stick with it. The astera snails are ok with my other snails? If that's the case I can pick some of them up too. I keep up on my water changes and my water quality is fine as long as I do so, however when I got my last group of coral, one of the rocks a piece of coral came on brought two types of green algae and its growing over my LR and everywhere (kinda mossy looking one type), which is ok but it would be fine by me to have some of it munched down on or something to maintain it better than currently.

 

[Wiggles92]

Hmm.

Well the tiny snails are most likely turbo babies in my mind. Turbos do this.

I like hermits...I only use dwarf blue legs though.

If I had a 30g, I would prolly make a cuc that looked something like this.

10 blue leg hermits
5 astrea snails
3 turbo snails

You dont need much if the water quality is good.

Starfish always seem to be a hassle to me, and relying on them as part of a CUC is always sort of hit or miss.

What compatibility issues are you having?

Run some potential purchases by us...and maybe we can troubleshoot with you to let you know what will work and what wont work.

I agree with FLESHY on this one for the CUC stocking and the starfish.

As for the starfish, I have found serpent sea stars to be great members of the CUC while common sea stars and brittle sea stars haven't worked out in my limited experience. The serpent star that my dad used to have was always on the hunt for leftover pieces of food and detritus plus it helped to keep the sand bed well-sifted; it never bothered any of its tankmates including snails. It was pretty hardy in my opinion considering the fact that it survived the transfer from the wild to my dad's originally quite sub-par saltwater aquarium that has finally been pretty well remedied over the past few months. The common sea stars that we had were absolutely terrible. While they did clean up a bit of the leftover food and detritus plus sift the sand, they also tried to eat almost any living thing that they could be it a snail or anemone or even a fish. As for the brittle sea star, it did its job for a few days before falling apart and dieing; I'm wondering if it was sick or something when we received it from LiveAquaria.com...

Please post some pictures of the sea stars so that we can ID them for you.

 

[Otherone]

My LR came in with some Green Hair algae and 1 Scarlet reef Hermit devoured it in a week. Having some red algae growth now and margerita snails are tearin' that up @ 77 degrees with zero warm water deaths. Also got a Torchus Snail that made his way into the baffles were he's chompin' leftovers.

When I saw the Scarlet tearin' up the Green my first thought was to go get more and was warned not to. I was told that if there isn't enuff food for Hermits they'll eat each other. My take on this is - Target the specific issues that need addressed don't just buy more to aviod problems that don't exsist.

 

[Ash]

^well I do have a crap ton of "green" growth (just green algae looking stuff, hair algae looking stuff and mossy looking stuff) and nothing is keeping up with it I don't want to get into a situation either where there is not enough food for it if something wiped it clean.

As for the starfish, he was a hitchhiker I didn't buy him for my crew he just kinda added himself in. I have had him for 5 months now and I still have all my snails which are pretty small (except the turbo snail he's big). I ll post another pic, I posted up in here before for an ID but no one knew, I think its a FL native.

Also... I found a new hitchhiker, looks like a slug, not sure if that is good or bad (couldn't get a good pic).

Anyways with the algae issue and with my current stock what exactly would you recommend that wouldn't possibly starve out if it ate all the green stuff? I don't want to understock or over stock and to be honest I dont even know if my current cuc is properly stocked? Which is why I ask for help. I appreciate each input you all have given. The algae is not some crazy problem, its a small tank and there is a good portion of it but not enough I don't think to sustain something long term. So in this case I am guessing maybe what fleshy suggested is my best route??


The pics of the rock is just to give you an idea.... there is more on other rocks.

The first one you can see the slug I just found.

The last one is the starfish... that was from 5 months ago, ll try to get a better/newer pic next time I see him, he got a little bigger.

 

[Pomatomus]

I'm surprised nobody has recommended and urchin yet! They are really good at eating algae if you get the right kind. The wrong kind can eat your corals or coralline algae. Diadema is the best, but gets large. You would need to find someone to take it when it gets big. Tuxedo urchins are pretty good.

As for snails, I was lucky in my own tank and got a colony of stomatella snails by accident. They reproduce from time to time, which feeds the fish and corals as well. I have never needed to add a snail.

Asterina stars are good too, but they don't do too much because of their small size.

I would totally get a shrimp too though. Either a few peppermint or a skunk cleaner.

And if you have live sand as opposed to large gravel, get a diamond goby to clean the sand. You will never need to vacuum again!

 

[FLESHY]

Blue legs arent big enough to tip anything over, and they are really good about being non predators. Most ever other hermit you get will target snails etc if there is not enough food.

You definitely can feed peps, they will eat fish poop, parasites, other detritus, and fish food. They will also eat aptasia.

However, in addition to all this they are known to target other anemones as well, and I have also had them eat LPS corals.

Turbo's are big, but other than that compatible with everything and astreas stay small, are awesome algae eaters, and compatible with everything that wont eat them. (Nothing "reef safe" should be eating snails.)

Hope this helps!

 

[Ash]

I think I am going to pick up astrea snails and give them a try along with another turbo. I do want to add more hermits so I ll prob do that as well but not sure what else if anything else yet.

I like the shrimp but I don't want him to eat my bulb tip or risk it. I am not sure if I am going to get anything else yet.


I do appreciate the comments it does help a lot!! Thank you

 

[BradT85]

I think peppermint shrimp would be good in there if you can get them food. I have 3 peppermints in my tank and they come out and grab food at feeding time and dont mess with any of my zoas, LPS or 4 RBTAs. Just make sure you get peppermint shrimp and not camel shrimp which look very similar.

Your star looks like some kind of Fromia star and they are generally reef safe. I know I would pick one up if I could ever find one locally.