cleaner package to add?

[college kid]

Hi everyone, I'm thinking of finally adding a cleaner package and was wondering if I've gone over board or not enough. I have a 55gal FOWLER right now. I only have 4 fish. 40 lbs of live rock. I was thinking of adding; 1 queen conch, 10 blueleg hermits, 10 scarlet hermits, 3 emeralds, a bag of copepods, 1 cleaner shrimp, 1 porcalen crab, 10 turbos, 10 nass. snails, and 1 sally lightfoot. The tank has been cycling for about a year now. What does everyone think?

 

[zeroc]

depends on what you're using for light. if you don't have useable light for algae to grow you don't really need much of a clean up crew.

 

[zeroc]

Forgot to ask, what kind of fish do you have? and planned future additions. Also are you running a protein skimmer?

 

[college kid]

I am running a protien skimmer, I have orbit PC lights 260watts, and my fish are a koran angel, foxface rabbit, lawnmower blenny, and a watchman goby. I was also wondering what would be the best way to feed them, and if I did decide to get all them, how is the best way to feed them?

 

[zeroc]

lots of light for a fish only but anyways. Do you have a lot of algae growth or a little? Pretty much the hermits will live off what they scavenge for as long as you have enough algae. Someone else will have to come in on the conch, i don't know what they eat. Emeralds may fight with each other but they'll snag food out of the water column when you feed and scavenge as well. Porcalen is a filter feed and snags bits in the water column, i'd go with Astra snails of mexican turbos, turbos tend to knock stuff over so if you're going to add some soft corals they might be issues, i love nasarias snails, they're awesome to watch come out of the sand like night of the living dead when you put food in. They'll eat algae and whatever food ends up on the bottom. Don't know how all these crabs with fair together but sally lightfood will snag food out of the water column, so will the cleaner shrimp. My cleaner will eat pretty much anything it can grab. I loves mysis the most. It will grab and hold onto as much as it can get at feeding and hide it in the rock work to eat later. But if you don't have much algae growth i'd cut back and half the amount of hermits and snails. Pretty much depends on how much cleaning you need done.

 

[college kid]

well thank you, I got the light because I might get corals in the future, as for alge, I have more of a problem with the brown stuff. Nothing else is really bad. I like the looks of all the invertabrits is the main reason I want to get them.

 

[donald]

read more on sally lightfoot crabs, acording to Dr. Ronald L. Shimek, author of MARINE INVERTIBRATES, a pocketexpert guide, " A better name for it (sallylightfoot) might be the jekyll and hyde crab." the reason given for the change from mild to wild is perseved to be because of sexual maturity. " The crab lunges at and often catches fishes." These are two quotes, but they are enough to scare me away from this crab! Especialy if you are going to go full reef in the future. This book has tons of information on everything from corals to sea squirts and everything in between. Bottom line, be carefull and research untill you are bule in the face. I'm sure someone in here has had one for years and never had a problem, but I would not risk it.

 

[nycbob]

unless u plan to add more live rocks, that many inverts is way too many. i would add more lr, like 80ibs total to ur tank. than maybe 1 invert per every 3 gallon. conch u need only 1 per 10 gallon.

 

[college kid]

well thank you everyone! I have done a bunch of research and got a lot of mixed reviews. Most did say that if I feed enough that stuff reached the bottom, I wouldn't have a problem. As for the Sally I've never heard that, I might rethink that one. I don't know why but I have a fetish with invertabrits. I think they are so cool. By having that many inverts would my bioload be too high? I'm also planning to get more live rock, hopefully sooner than later.