Cleanup Crew Question

[jr1053]

Does an invertibrate "cleanup crew" consisting of largely hermit crabs, starfish, and shrimp add to a tanks bioload and effect the level of tank polutants and ammonia? At what rate can these be safely added to a tank?? Thanks for your input.
John

 

[who dey]

Originally Posted by jr1053
Does an invertibrate "cleanup crew" consisting of largely hermit crabs, starfish, and shrimp add to a tanks bioload and effect the level of tank polutants and ammonia? At what rate can these be safely added to a tank?? Thanks for your input.
John
crabs and shrimp and starfish should not add enough to your bioload to cause any negative effects unless your adding hundreds of them. how old is your tank, starfish need well established tanks to make sure there is sufficient algae growth to maintain a healthy diet

 

[viper_930]

Any animal that creates waste adds to the bioload. IMO the cleanup crew doesn't contribute a great deal of waste to the system and can be added to the tank as you wish. But I wouldn't add a big cleanup crew along with some fish at the same time.

 

[snipe]

I agree cleanup crews add waste to the tank but it is by no means the same amount as 1 or 2 fish will add. I added my whole cleanup crew right off the bat and no spike or anything. Though if your adding way to many cleanup critters to have a amonia spike then you will have die off because you have to many in there and there wont be enough food to go around.

 

[jr1053]

My tank is only about two months old now and has stabilized nicely after I lost my initial set of fish to what I now believe was an outbreak of Brooklynella. My 110 gallon FO tank now has a yellow Tang, Royal Gramma, and a Domino Damsel. All my readings are near perfect and I recently added a chiller because my tank temperture was spiking to 87-88 degrees. It is now a steady 80 degrees. Was hoping to start adding a cleaning crew of hermit crabs, couple of shrimps and one or two brittle stars. Don't care for snails much but given the feedback I may rethink my desire to try to maintain the starfish. Thanks for you help! :happyfish
John

 

[snipe]

If you get brittle stars dont get the green ones a big problem there. As for near perfect what dose that mean exactly?

 

[jr1053]

Sorry about the lack of details in my earlier posts...
SG 1.022
ammonia not detectable
nitrite not detectable
nitrate not detectable
Temp. 80
Those are all the parameters I've been checking. Thanks again,
John

 

[viper_930]

IMO your sg is a bit low, try to get it up to 1.025 slowly. You should also check pH, alk, and calcium, especially for the inverts.

 

[jr1053]

Yes I did read that inverts need salinity to be higher than most FO setups so I guess that I'll need to slowly adjust upwards before ordering my cleanup crew. Thanks,
John