Cleaning Crew

[Newhobby]

I have started a 29 gal with crush coral for substarte. I want to know, how many crab and snail to I need for a clean up crew? I have 1 coral banded shrimp, 2 clowns, 1 domino damsel and 10 lbs of live rock. I plan on adding 20 lbs of rock.

 

[dgodwin]

Some online stores such as liveaquaria.com and garf.org among others have reef janitor or clean up crew packages. Take a look at what they offer, and go from there. I've heard about 1 snail per gallon of water, and 1 hermit for every 2 gallons of water.

 

[toodles]

Snails....I prefer about one per 2 gallons. Get too many and they can end up starving in your tank. Also make sure to have different kinds of snails. Turbos are great for eating hair algae but are large and clumsy (they will knock over rocks that are rather unstable so make sure your rockwork is sturdy), astreas are not as big, don't really go after hair algae but will eat diatoms, keyhole limpets will eat detrius and will multiply in your tank, but I have read that they might go after clams. (I don't know how true that is as I have never experienced that myself though).
Hermit crabs.....I love them. Really, I do. But.....I have heard and read that they can be predators of not only snails (for their shells) but also some corals too and they have been known by some to attack clams.....sooooo......having said that, I wouldn't get more than 3 or 4 total for your tank. This is just from personal experience, but I have found the blue-legged hermits to be more hardy and not as inclined to dine on anything they shouldn't! Just make sure you have plenty of empty shells for the crabs to move into as they need it.

 

[dgodwin]

I have astrea, turbos, and Nassarius snails. I also have 2 queen conch. By far, I have the most astrea, and they seem to do a good job. I have blue leg, red leg, and scarlet reef hermit crabs. The scarlet reefs are supposed to be the safest, but they all seem to do a good job.

I've only had 1 hermit do any damage in my tank, as it took a astrea shell for it's home. I have no idea if the snail was dead all ready (I suspect so) but it is not uncommon for hermits to kill snails for their shell when they grow out of theirs. I also have a couple emerald crabs. I've seen them eating at the hair algae as well. Good luck!

 

[NTidd]

Some hermits are not reef safe, in a 29g I have about 8 scarlet dwarfs, 4 blue, and 4 zebras. They haven't hurt anything in my tank, I have 4 turbo snails, a couple anemones - one with a tomotoe clown, a feather duster, and some mushrooms. These again are dwarf hermits though.