Cycle almost done, cleanup advice?

[deadrose]

Time to start thinking on my cleanup crew, as my readings are almost zeroed and my tank is getting covered with diatoms or cyano, not sure which... orange and concentrated in the higher light areas. (it also seems to have gas or air bubbles forming on it at some spots)

I have a small number of stomatellas and micro stars that rode in with my macroalgae, although I lost a fair number of them at first. Considering how happily the macro is growing, I figure that by the time I decide on my crew and order it, I'll be copletely ready for it

Anyone have any recommendations on online sources? Particularly, does anyone have any experience with JustPhish.com? I like the size of their crews, but haven't been able to find much mention of them yet, either positive *or* negative. Otherwise I think I'd be best off with a build-your-own place.

Looking forward to having more critters to watch

Heidi, now completely free of Piratey additives

 

[G~]

i like etropicals.com. if you order over $60. the shipping is free.

G~

 

[mattseattle]

i didn't buy a clean up crew kit after my tank finished cycling. i just went to aquarium concepts and piece mealed mine. i bought a couple hermit crabs, a few variety of snails initially. i watched how my algae was (never did have much of a bloom though) and added snails/etc. when i needed them if i did. i did get a cleaner shrimp and a sally lightfoot crab as well just more for color and for fun. the sally lightfoot took care of the small hair algae problem i had on one live rock. right now my crew consists:

8 - 9 snail (couple varities)
3 hermit crabs
1 cleaner shrimp
1 sally lightfoot
1 conch (fun to watch and keeps the sand really really clean)

this is the kit for hte 20 - 55 gallon on etropicals.com
20 Scarlet Reef Hermit Crabs
20 Astraea Turbo Snails
20 Dwarf Blue Leg Hermit Crabs
1 Sally Lightfoot Crab or
Fighting Conch - Aquacultured
2 Brittle Sea Stars
1 Coral Banded Shrimp
3 Emerald Crabs

i definitely think that is overkill....at least for my tank it is. that is 40 hermit crabs! sheesh! i have 3 and they do the job well.

so guess my advice is....piece meal it from a local fish store you trust instead of spending the money on the kit. the above kit is listed at 89.95. i think i paid 1.00 - 2.00 per snail, 1.75 per hermit crab, 11.00 for my sally lightfoot, 15.00 or so for my cleaner shrimp.

matt[/u]

 

[deadrose]

This is the kit I was looking at on justphish:

8 scarlet hermits
10 turbo/astrea snails
10 blue leg hermits
2 peppermint shrimp
and my choice of a brittle star, serpent star, or emerald mithrax crab.

As you can see, they go for much less of the overkill routine. I wish I could change it to smaller snails and scrap the blueleg hermits for more snail diversity, but I can always do a build-my-own from them, or somewhere else, I just liked that they didn't swamp your tank in critters

Heidi

 

[mattseattle]

yeah that is not a bad sized kit. after seeing the ones on etropical.com i thought maybe my tank should have more of an algae problem i can not imagine having that size of a clean up crew in my 55 gallon. i think all i would see are hermit crabs everywhere and snails couldn't enjoy the rest of the tank and i'm sure with time they would die out if i didn't feed them supplements. my tank right now is pretty clean and i don't have near that number.