Cleaners?

rogueangel

rogueangel

Member
my tank is now well over a month long and brown algea is starting to show up on my tank glass and on my rocks. I have 3 hermit crabs in the tank and one sucker snail thing (periwinkle or whatever u want to call it) I just added them friday so will they be enough to stop the spread of the algea or do i need something else? And what do I need to clean the tank? its acrylic. I also still have my striped damsel and am going tuesday for my clarkiis. Hence the wondering if I need more?
 
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thomas712

Guest
What you are describing is the dead remains of diatoms, perfectly normal for a new tank, when the silicates are exhausted they will go away.
Giving us a size tank will enable us to give you some suggestions on how large a cleanup crew to suggest. Also if you have a sand bed how deep is it?
Thomas
 
forcrz6

forcrz6

Member
From Experiance and reading I know that you would want if you want them 1 snail per 1 to 2 gallon of water. If I remember right. But they are not Nessary.
 
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thomas712

Guest
I'm of the opinion that 1 snail per gallon is crazy, I've helped to many folks who's snails were dieing because of starvation, because they had too many. Same with hermits. If your tank is stable and ballanced you won't need large cleanup crews. In my 90 gallon I have about 20-25 snails, and maybe 20 hermits, from there I could bulk up or not and aside from some minor scraping myself things are good.
My preference would be to go with 1 snail per 2 or 3 gallons. See how that works for your tank, then add more if you feel its needed. Same with the hermits.
Balance your snails out, get some Astrea, cerith, and nassarius snails for instance, and if you have a large sand bed a fighting conch might also be good.
Thomas
 
jakebtc

jakebtc

Member
thats about where i stand also i have only 15 blue leg hermits couple of them are pretty big now and 10 snails and 2 sea cucumbers also have a horseshoe anyone else get into horseshoes they seem not too common?
 
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thomas712

Guest
The horseshoe crab tends to get large rather quickly and they usually starve to death in the end, so most don't use them.
 
jakebtc

jakebtc

Member
i think mine is somewhat hindered by the crushed coral and arg sand mix every morning the light comes on he dips back down i know some of my sandbed is a lil more coarse than he'd prefer but he seems to be doin well been a couple few months already 4 inch bed or so
 
rogueangel

rogueangel

Member
wow thanks for the response. I didn't realize I didn't put in the tank size.. sorry ya'll its a 12gal w/ 8ish lbs of lr and a black tahitian sand bed thats a little over an inch thick
 
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thomas712

Guest
12 gallon
4-6 snails
4-6 red leg hermits
1 emerald crab
maybe 2 pepermint shrimp if you like them
No cucumbers, conches, or large snails.
 
rogueangel

rogueangel

Member
just wondering could Cowries live in a 12gal? I just thought they might b cool. and will the snails clean the algea off the tank acyrlic? and are peppermint shrimp the kind that clean fish?
 
brandiemay

brandiemay

New Member
Money cowries can go in a small tank, 10 gal +, but Tiger cowries need a large tank, 100 gal or more.
How long are you keeping your lights on? I reduced my light cycle and quit using flake food and my brown went away.
 
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thomas712

Guest
Originally Posted by rogueangel
and Thomas you said that the diatoms will go away. Does that include whats on the glass and rocks?
Eventually yes, you can even wipe them off as you see fit.
 
rogueangel

rogueangel

Member
ok thanks ya'll. I'm off to the lfs now so I'll let ya'll know what I end up w/ soon. Thanks again. Ya'll are great...
 
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