sand cleaner

[booya]

My sand is a little dirty what should i add to clean it up?

 

[oregonbud]

What type of clean up crew do you already have? Or do you not have one?
What is the tank going to be? FOWLR? Reef?

 

[booya]

I have 20-30 herm crabs (blue&red) 10 turbos 2 emerald crabs (i think they are alive I never see them)
I would like to turn it into a reef but I don't have anything in it right now. Just LR LS and the cleanup crew. I wanted to make sure that every thing was OK before adding fish.

 

[oregonbud]

The turbos won't touch your sand at all - for good sand cleaners check out nassarius snails and cerith snails - conches are also good sand cleaners.

 

[elan]

i agree with oregon, my chonchs do a great job... just dont get too many of them.

 

[booya]

Are they OK in a Reef?
What kind is best?

 

[gypsie32]

I have a 90gal reef, and am looking to buy a clean-up crew after my cycle, is there a ratio as to how many snails and crabs you should have per gallon? All the cleaning packages you see on the websites seem like over kill to me! Thanks

 

[sheracr123]

All are ok in reef. I would get some of all of them. Diversity is a good thing!!! Just be careful on how many conch. I think the formula is 1 per 2 sq ft.
HTH
Mendee

 

[booya]

Can you buy these worms?

 

[booya]

I appreciate that and wish that I could do that but NC is a little was away from Idaho. I wish I could find someone close that keep a SW tank but no luck. Most of the tanks here in town are kept by one LFS. I know the guy but he only uses CC.
Thank you anyway I appreciate the offer and wish I could take you up on it.
Thanks Jake

 

[scottnj]

Booya, I will send you an e-mail tonight.
On other notes though, the fighting conch is great for keeping the sand clean. The only thing to watch out for is make sure you have empty snails in the tank for the hermit crabs to migrate into. I have a pretty large hermit crab in a fighting conch shell right now :-(
-Scott

 

[booya]

Kipass4130 do you think that it would be OK to add this at once?
I think that it is a good sand cleaning crew along with some other things.
1 Fighting Conch
1 Serpent Star
10 Cerith Snails
1 cleaner shrimp
2 Aquacultured Percula Clown
2 Ricordea
Is this to much at once?

 

[scottnj]

okay, I can't e-mail you lol, but if you want some info, drop me a note at NJScott908@aol.com

 

[fsubowman]

Try adding a sand sifting star. They go through the sand like vaccums and they are inexpensive at the LFS.

 

[booya]

Kipass4130 how many at a time should i add? Half - All I am hopeing to get some fish in my tank so I do not have to watch herm. crabs every day when I get home.

 

[booya]

I started with about 40 herm (20 blue 20 red) when I order them. I was going to ask my LFS if they wanted some because they pay more than I did for theirs. I went to school one day and most of my reds were gone, my blues had killed them. I have one that is a killer he doesn't look like the rest but he was in with the blues. He has gray legs with a line down them I don't know what he is.
They reason I say that I was going to order 10 snails is because they do not offer any individual snails on this web site.
As for pods I have MILLIONS. they are every were.
I will only get 1 FC.
What about the fish do you think that i could add all this at one time because I would like to get it off of this website because my LFS is overpriced and most of there stuff is not very healthy.
Thanks
Jake

 

[scottnj]

been there and done that on buying 20 red and 20 blues and had the whole West Side Story thing played out in my tank, so not fun to watch.
Again, make sure you have empty shells for those blues or they will eventually go after the snails and FC.
I hear you on wanting to make the order with SWF.com make sense and wanting to get fish as well, but would advise against it. Anytime I have tried to add multiple fish at once it has ended bad. :-(
Other might disagree with me though.
-Scott

 

[booya]

I am going to order 2 percs. Thats all for fish.
Here is what I was thinking
1 Fighting Conch
1 Serpent Star
10 Cerith Snails
1 cleaner shrimp
2 Aquacultured Percula Clown
2 Ricordea
Only 2 fish and some inverts that is why I was thinking it would be OK, what do you think?
I ordered 100 shells from SWF.com and that helped with the death rate but a cuple are getting so big i need bigger shells. I don't know what to do.

 

[booya]

Does anyone think this is to much to add at once?