Adequate CUC?

aklaunay

New Member
Hey all,
Just wanted a little feedback about my cleanup crew. I have a 29 gal with maybe 20# LR and 30# of crushed coral substrate. Right now my cuc consists of 5 blue hermits, 5 red hermits, 5 astrea snails, 5 nassarius snails, 5 cerith snails and one turbo snail who disappeared behind the lr about a minute after I put him in and I haven't seen him since. Also a one-clawed emerald crab and a cleaner shrimp whose favorite place to clean is inside the anemone's mouth while I am trying to feed it.
Some of my rocks are starting to get pretty green and the algae is producing bubbles. I try and blow them off with the turkey baster everyday because I know what's coming, but they are getting ahead of me! My question is, do you think I have an adequate clean up crew or do I need to add more? I think another emerald crab probably wouldn't hurt, but I'm worried about increasing the bio-load any more. (I am adding iodine to try to get my "differently-abled" crab to molt!)
Any other suggestions? Thanks for your time!
 

flower

Well-Known Member

You need some green algae eaters like more emerald crabs or a lawnmower blenny. The hermits like brown algae, the snails are only good on sand and glass not much on the rock. It does look like you have some green cyano...increase your water flow and siphon it off. You need some power heads.
I like the way you set up your rocks.
 

louti

Member
More snails and blue legs would help. What are your nitrate and phosphate readings? Are you using tap water? Squirting it with the baster is probably just helping it spread.
 

aklaunay

New Member
Thanks for the responses. I will definitely stop blowing the bubbles around, siphon the blue-green and pick up a couple more critters and a power head. (Birthday is next week so I know what to ask for!) I haven't checked nitrate (lately) or phosphate (ever); I am just beginning to teach myself about water chemistry from library books and it gives me a headache. I buy ro/di at lfs.
 
J

jstdv8

Guest
I've had amazing results with my recent purchase of 4 turbo snails for my 90, they took out all of the hair alage on my back three walls and it was really thick. then they got on the rocks and started eating the green algae I have on the rocks. they don't get it all, but they made a serious dent, way better than I was expecting. I ordered a lawnmower the same day, but now hes gonna not have as much to eat :p
 

aklaunay

New Member
Quick update:
Still have lots of algae, but one new emerald crab and another turbo are doing a good job of making some clean spots :)
I also reduced my light cycle from 12 to 10 hours/day and it looks like algae growth has slowed down.
I had phosphates and nitrates checked: Phosphates were 0 (LFS guy said it was the lowest he'd ever seen) and nitrates were 1 (not sure 1 what, but he seemed to think that was pretty low but not perfect).
Thanks again for everyone's kind suggestions!
Amanda
 
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